MacGregorSailors.com

Mark,
Was your name Fletcher or Bligh?

I would rather take a ferry than go on a crowded bareboat.

I am interested in doing the Bahamas crossing someday and am learning everything I can to have a safe crossing. Mind you I am not being critical or judgemental, but just trying to understand why it takes 12 hrs to cross the 47 miles to Bimini in good weather?
The local Mac dealer has done several crossings and has posted some of his adventures on his web page;

http://www.a1sailboats.com/adventur.htm

The one trip took him 6:45 and included some sailing during the trip.

Another group that crossed to West End (78 miles??) took 10 hours running with full ballast.

Did the 12 hour time include problems or breakdowns, maybe choppy seas?

Last year I went with a large group and the stream was flat as a pond. We went no faster than the slowest boat. It took 12 hrs. and I was exhausted from lack of sleep since I singlehand.

This last time I crossed during Mar 04 (from Homestead to Bimini--same route), seas were about 6 feet and strong winds out of the east. We were on 2 Xs and motored about 8 knots. Best I remembered we did the crossing in a little over 6 hours.

If I ever have an opportunity with the stream being flat again, I plan on trying for under 2 hours.

Mark wrote: I want to do this someday.

Come along with the Conch Cruisers in June. We have 21 boats so far and room for at least a few more. Already at least one Cruiser is coming from WI, another from SD.

We believe there's safety in numbers.

Greg wrote:Mind you I am not being critical or judgemental, but just trying to understand why it takes 12 hrs to cross the 47 miles to Bimini in good weather?

You're welcome to come along as well.

Actually I may have exagerrated; it was more like eleven hours. We were motoring at the speed of the slowest boat, which included a number of Mac Classics, a V22, Precision and a couple of Hunters; around 6 knots.

It may be 47 miles as the crow flies from the nearest point in Miami, but the Gulf Stream will be sweeping you north (i.e., away from Bimini) at 3-5 knots nearly the entire transit. So assuming you can find a place in Miami to leave your trailer, you can leave from there and buck the stream the entire way, or you can leave from farther south, use the Stream for an assist, but travel a greater distance. From Homestead, a favorite jumping off point, it's more like 65 miles.

If you have the HP as most of us with Xs and Ms do and you're not in a groupp with slower boats, you can run faster. 7-8 mph is my max for any reasonable distance and you could run that and cut several hours off the transit; that might be worth it. The Mac is not happy at 10 mph, so I never run that speed. Loaded down for 10 days of cruising including 25-30 gallons of fuel (just enough to make it over with some in reserve), you'll get maybe 12-14 mph at WOT. As far as I'm concerned, running 5-6 hours straight at WOT to shave an additional 2-3 hours is too hard on the equipment and not worth it.

We had one breakdown along the way; that boat then had to be towed which probably cost us 30 minutes to an hour.

I'm not going to comment on the times other people claim.

Chip...I jsut don't believe your not going to comment about someone's claim

Rich

Chip wrote:So assuming you can find a place in Miami to leave your trailer, you can leave from there and buck the stream the entire way, or you can leave from farther south, use the Stream for an assist, but travel a greater distance.

I think the hard part is finding a place to leave your rig in Miami (and see how much is left when you get back). As for bucking the stream, if you leave from farther south, you will be bucking it twice as bad on the way back. Current is a piece of cake to navigate with a GPS chartplotter. If you had to do it the old fashioned way, it would be a little bit harder.

Dimitri wrote:As for bucking the stream, if you leave from farther south, you will be bucking it twice as bad on the way back.

Yes and no. On the way back, we shot closer to due west. Then turned south when we were out of the Stream. Against a headwind and the Stream, it did take us 14-16 hours to make No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay. We spent the night there, and were still several hours north of Homestead. I guess you could say it took us two days to get back.

It makes more sense to do it that way rather than the reverse. On the way back, if you have trouble and the Stream takes you too far north, you've still got the whole east coast of FL and you should be able to hit it somewhere. On the way over, if you have a problem and get swept north of Bimini, it's not quite so easy to make an alternative landfall.

Navigation is not a problem, but you still have to plan for and contend with what the Stream does to your course.

RichandLori wrote:Chip...I jsut don't believe your not going to comment about someone's claim

That thought crossed my mind too ...

Chip wrote:Against a headwind and the Stream, it did take us 14-16 hours to make No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay.

I think when the time comes, I'll be riding with Billy...

Seriously though, you do have a good point about hitting the entire East Coast of Florida (golly ma, that looks like Jacksonville up ahead...guess we goofed), but my point is that you really don't have a good excuse to overshoot by that much. Just do the proper dead reckoning so that your heading adjusts for the current and gives you the right course. Yea, I know...shiite happens.

In general, I would more likely want to reduce distance and time with these sorts of adventures. Granted, additional speed may give you a better chance of equipment failure...which brings us back to the safety in numbers argument.

I was riding with Billy!!!
Since Chip doesn't want to comment on other people's "claims", I will.

March 2004 Two 26X's

We left Caesar's Creek (Biscayne Bay) at around 7 AM heading for Bimini. Sunny, southeast winds, 5-6 foot seas, rolling. We tied up at Weech's by 2 PM. Billy said a little over 6 hours. Seven is a little over six.
On the return trip, we left Bimini at around 2:30 AM.
Northeast winds, 4-5 foot seas, maybe more in the stream, following seas.
We entered Biscayne Bay through Stiltsville and tied up in Homestead before noon. It can be done.

I won't put Chip on the spot, so here is how it was measured. We had anchored off Elliott Key and exited through Ceasar's Creek at a little after 7 AM. From the buoy on the outside we ran 87 degrees true for 51 miles at 8 knots (GPS). Any faster and the boat would slam. Calculating a 3 knot Stream for over 6 hrs. will sweep you 20 miles N and put you at the entrance to N Bimini. By 2 PM we were tied up @ Weech's and on our way to immigration/customs. So actually crossing was a little over 6 hrs.

Since I was originally going to try a speed run I did not fill the ballast. Conditions did not permit. Discovered with an aft heavy attitude the boat did better in these conditions. The bow was angled-up to the approaching wave and did not dive into it. On the back side of the wave, the boat seemed to be sitting on its aft and sliding down. We had a dry ride.

Funny note. One of our group had forgotten his passport. Bahamas accepted his driver's license and his Sam's Club membership as proof of ID.

Our return was with following seas and screwed up winds out of the east. We motored & surfed back to Biscayne Bay also. Waves were challenging and we broached twice. But on the leg from Biscayne to Homestead we opened the 140 to 25 knots. (It only takes about 1 hr. that way.) We were ready to get home. Had fun.

(And Chip, you didn't even have to bet your lunch.)

Chip Hindes wrote:Come along with the Conch Cruisers in June. We have 21 boats so far and room for at least a few more. Already at least one Cruiser is coming from WI, another from SD.
We believe there's safety in numbers.

Tempting, tempting but I don't trust that trailer with 14' tires and the kind of load I would need to carry on the boat for that 1553.33 miles. I have to resolve that issue.

I'm going to keep it in mind.

Mark: Note Rich Eggers address.

As I said, it's easily possible to make it faster, just not always prudent, and sometimes unpleasent.

It's 1500 miles for me. The first time I made the trip to FL, it was with the original trailer and 14" stock tires, and I did have a tire "failure" about halfway down. Nothing catastrophic, just a big chunk of tread which disappeared somewhere along the way. The tire was fully functional and I only caught the problem during one of my hourly walk arounds. Changed to the spare and keept right on trucking. the one with the chunk out of it still holds air and is now my emergency spare.

I know several other 26X owenres who made the trip on the original tires without incident, but that was the trip which decided for me to add the axle.

I pulled my boat and trailer a total of 4000 miles this year. After the initital 1300 mile trip home with her, I replaced all the bearings and afterwards noticed the hubs and tires ran much cooler than on the trip home (proper adjustment and good grease). A lot of techs tend to overtighten wheel bearings.

I took 2 receivers of different heights when I picked her up, and found she seemed to track better with the trailer nose down a little, 15 1/4" to top of the trailer ball.