Boating to Bimini

One of my favorite things to do as a South Florida boat owner is travel to Bimini. With their crystal clear waters and fishing as the main attractions, this trip takes minimal preparation and travel time making it a very easy way to have a true Bahamas experience on your very own boat. Bimini is only about 50 miles due east from the Port of Miami. Having been there four times myself, I still feel the same excitement every time I make the trip; I thought I’d share a short account of my travel experiences to Bimini with you.

I decided to hire a professional captain for my fist trip to Bimini so I could learn the area and get acquainted with the usual procedures one should know when making a trip by sea to the Bahamas. This trip was very educational! I felt like I learned everything I needed to know about boating to Bimini in those two days. My last trip to Bimini was in April of this year. We decided to stock up on supplies and pack up everything we needed onboard the night before our trip so we could leave bright and early at sunrise the following day. Our boat for this trip was a Sea Ray 400 Sundancer powered by twin Caterpillar 3116 Diesels and a 350-gallon capacity.

My checklist for this trip included:
• passports,
• drinking water,
• food,
• cash,
• sheets & towels,
• ice,
• a full tank of fuel,
• a full tank of water,
• frozen bait,
• and a few fishing rods.

You could gather all these items within a few hours on the day of your trip, but in my experience, taking care of the checklist a day beforehand makes for a much smoother trip all around. We normally launch from the Miami Beach Marina around 6:00 a.m. and catch the beautiful sunrise as we head east toward the Bahamas. Cruising the Atlantic Ocean with the sunrise ahead and your favorite songs playing in the background can be a highly emotional and surreal experience for the whole crew. Within an hour the, the city view astern becomes distant and you start focusing on the destination. At a cruise speed of 20 knots, it usually takes us about 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to Bimini. Nowadays, navigation is incredibly easy due to modern day channel markers and state-of-the-art marine electronics. The inlet is well marked and all the markers have good visibility. We like to dock at the Hilton at Resorts World Bimini for at least one night, just to enjoy the resort and the air conditioning at night without running the generator. It is the newest resort on the island, with multiple restaurants and bars as well as a casino. Make sure you have a full tank of water with you as water at the marina and Resort is very expensive. We are usually finished checking in to the Marina by around 9:30 a.m., and then we move on to Big Game Club Marina, which is a little closer to the inlet where Customs is located. All you need to clear Customs is the registration for your boat, a current passport, and to fill out the required forms they provide you with.

There are a few entry fees in The Bahamas; these include a cruising permit, fishing permit, and departure tax (for up to three people). The fee for pleasure vessels up to 35’ in length is $150.00 and $300.00 for pleasure vessels over 35’ in length. Each additional person over three is charged a $25.00 departure tax. This fee entitles the vessel to a second re-entry within a 90-day period. Bahamas Customs and Immigration office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays during the winter months and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the summer months. Officers are also on-call during holidays and weekends.

Once you’ve cleared Customs you need to bring the passports for your entire crew to the immigration office to receive entry stamps. The Immigration office is a 10-minute walk from the Customs office at Big Game Club. Only the captain is permitted to leave the boat until your vessel has been cleared. Your friends and family can wait onboard the boat at the marina, where they have plenty of dock space. You are not charged any dockage fees while you wait to complete the clearance process.

At this point, you are free and clear to enjoy the beautiful Bahamian waters. Our first stop is always the wreck of the SS Sapona, a concrete-hulled cargo steamer that ran aground near Bimini during a hurricane in 1926. The wreck of the ship is easily visible above the water, and is both a navigational landmark for boaters and a popular dive site. All of us jump in the water with our snorkel gear and explores the beautiful wreck, diving and swimming through it.

Around lunchtime we move on to our next spot, Honeymoon Harbour, about 15 miles south of the Sapona wreck. Honeymoon Harbour has a great sandbar full of friendly stingrays and very calm waters. It’s the perfect place to have lunch and swim with stingrays afterwards. We often see our customers with their Cobia, Sailfish, or Sportsman boats over the weekend at this popular location. Honeymoon Harbour is also very close to the famous private island community of Cat Cay. Here you can see beautiful yachts and private airplanes passing by on their way to the island. If we are not fishing, we like to catch the sunset at Honeymoon Harbour and head back to the Marina around 9 p.m. It’s important to watch for shallow areas on your GPS on your way back to the inlet and slow down when entering the channel. We spend the next day fishing around the island in the morning and usually spend the night at Honeymoon Harbour.

The journey home is always a bittersweet one, but seeing the Miami lights from the water as the sunset disappears behind the cityscape is one-of-a-kind experience. On our last return trip from Bimini, one of my good friends proposed to her fiancé during one of these unforgettable moments. Once you return to your dock, all you have to do is to call the Florida Small Vessel Call Center (SVCC) at 1-800-432-1216 or 1-800-451-0393 to report your arrival to U.S. waters and receive your arrival number. You will need the arrival number when you report to the Port of within 24 hours to receive your arrival stamp to US.

Remember to log your fuel burn and check your engines after a long trip as part of your post-trip maintenance routine. And, get ready for the next trip, because Bimini can be addictive…

Safe Boating!

Marine Connection is your premier South Florida boat dealership carrying some of the worlds greatest boat brands, like Cobia, Pathfinder, Sailfish, Sportsman, Hurricane, and Rinker. With locations in West Palm Beach, Vero Beach and Miami, Marine Connection covers over 250 comprehensive miles of territory on Florida’s East Coast.

Ranked as the #1 Dealer in the World for Cobia and Sportsman Boats and the #1 Dealer in Florida for Hurricane Boats, for years, Marine Connection has been acknowledged for our successes as one of the Top 20 Dealers in the Nation by Boating Industry Magazine, the only Boat Dealer to make the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, voted Indian River County's Favorite Boat Dealer of 2015 by TCPalm’s Readers Choice Awards, and voted Vero Beach’s #1 Boat Dealer of 2015 by Hometown News' Readers Choice Awards.

For additional information about Marine Connection, including inquiries about buying, selling, or financing a boat, contact one of our South Florida locations at sales@marineconnection.com or give us a call at (877)497-2552.

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