Bimini to Chub Cay

 We were off the docks at 7:06am with a fairly long day ahead of us.  Fortunately the wind was barely blowing which was the forecast for the day.  Once you leave the harbor in Bimini you head northeast for around six and a half nautical miles until you pass North Rock where you turn to the southeast and enter the Great Bahama Bank, holding a heading that you maintain for 34 nautical miles until you reach Mackie Shoal where you turn further to the southeast.  When you’re crossing the Bank you are in water that is consistently around twelve feet deep but because it is so clear you have to adjust your brain to not be freaked out by the rocks and coral at the bottom that appear to be much closer than they actually are.

Your next course adjustment comes around 25 nautical miles later when you leave the Bank and enter the Northwest Channel.  At this point, which is the intersection of a few different routes, there used to be a light.  Now there is what appears to be a stick, poking up about fifteen feet from the water.  By the time you reach the stick you have been traveling quite a distance with no land in sight (and very few boats during our passage) and you feel compelled to take a picture of “the stick.”  We’ve been told that this is a common practice so, of course…

After the stick you leave the relatively shallow waters and are in depths of close to 3000 feet(!) at times before making your approach into Chub Cay.  Fortunately the seas remained very calm and the remainder of our trip was uneventful.  When we had called ahead to Chub Cay Marina they said no need for a reservation and to just hail as we got close (VHF 68).  A very friendly gentleman with a Bahamian accent answered our hail and directed us to our slip, accommodating our preference for a bow-in, starboard tie.  We’re good with whatever we’re assigned but always request this arrangement as we like to face the water rather than a dock from our slip.

It’s hard to know how to describe Chub Cay as it’s a resort and marina that has been in somewhat of a state of perpetually stalled-out development.  In the 1950′s to the 70′s it was home to the Crown Colony Club – yet another island destination for Hemingway to do some serious fishing.  In the early 1990′s Chub Cay was among the islands that the Bahamian government allowed investors to scoop up with the idea that it would become an exclusive resort.  It was badly hit by hurricane Andrew in 1992 and has suffered other setbacks over the years including going into receivership in 2009.  But a few years ago a Texas oil billionaire took it on and what has been developed, including the large clubhouse/inn/restaurant/pool is very nice.  The grounds are very well kept and the marina is one of the few in this part of the world with concrete floating docks (Bellingham) which are in excellent shape.  There are only a couple dozen boats here and we very much feel like we have the place to ourselves which we love.  We walked for miles on the beach without coming across anyone.  We’ve met some nice folks on the docks who are also waiting out the winds and there is a sense of community that starts to develop in places like this where we’re all in the same boat, so to speak.

While Chub Cay was intended as a one night stopover on our way to Nassau and beyond, the weather has other ideas.  Gusty winds between 20 and 30 miles per hour will keep us here for a while, potentially for at least a week.  While that would be disappointing as we’re eager to get to the Exumas, there is nothing for us to complain about.  We’re “stuck” on an island in the Bahamas.  Hard to cry over that.

Two mechanical issues made themselves known on the ride over.  During one of our routine engine room checks we discovered an almost indiscernible amount of diesel fuel forming around a fitting near the port engine fuel filter.  We went down to the engine room no more than every fifteen minutes after that and kept a very close eye on it.  Fortunately it did not get any worse and may have, in fact, been weeping fuel for a while.  We also saw that the temperature on our stabilizers had risen beyond their normal operating level.  As we were in calm seas we shut the system down and the temperatures dropped.  Once we were secure in our slip we reached out to mechanic extraordinaire, John Dudek.  We hate bothering anybody, particularly on a Sunday evening, but at this point we were still contemplating an early morning departure if the winds held off and did not want to venture any further without understanding and mitigating the leak.  John was instantly responsive and told us that the leaky fitting was part of a test port where a mechanical gauge is attached to measure fuel pressure.  He said that tightening it would most likely stop the leak, which we had suspected and hoped, but wanted to consult with a pro before putting a wrench on anything.  With his guidance we got just the slightest turn out of the fitting and it appears to have stopped the leak.  Victory!  We’ll now have to spend some time engaging Bill at New England Bow Thruster figuring out the stabilizers.  Wish us luck.