PREPARING TO CROSS

Making a crossing is all about preparation. Try to get 90 percent of the work done before your boat hits the water so you can have a nice, relaxing day with little to worry about other than keeping your captain’s hat from flying off on the run.

To prepare for our crossing, we trailered our old boat to our driveway and worked through a daunting checklist to get it ready for some real offshore adventure. The prospect of breaking down was a genuine concern, and we needed to prepare to either tow someone else dozens of miles or get towed. That meant plenty of safety equipment.

When it comes to safety gear, the old saying “if you got one, you got none” applies. The harsh combination of the jarring and pounding through waves and the corrosion that comes along with the marine environment means safety equipment needs to be in duplicate or triplicate. One of the most important pieces of safety equipment is a good VHF RADIO WITH A LONG-RANGE ANTENNA so you can call the US Coast Guard or a tow company in the event of

an emergency, as well as communicate with marinas and nearby boats. Although I had installed mine years ago and it had never failed me, we picked up a

HANDHELD VHF to back it up. •

An emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or personal locator beacon (PLB) is essential. Both fill a similar role, which is to notify search and rescue agencies in the event of an emergency. The difference is that an EPIRB mounts on the vessel, while a PLB is worn by a crewmember. For our situation, a PLB was the perfect solution. When registered with NOAA, it would allow us to signal for help from anywhere.

• Next up, you need what the Coast Guard defines as an “efficient SOUNDPRODUCING DEVICE,” or what I call a whistle. That’s right, you need some way to signal other vessels in close proximity, and whether it’s a built-in horn, a PA system or a whistle, it has to be there.

•A FIRE EXTINGUISHER is next. The humble fire extinguisher is something you hope you never have to use, but having it around can make the difference between an inconvenience and a tragedy. Make sure it’s charged and ready to go. Oh, and carry more than the minimum requirement for your boat type.

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To navigate, we made sure the CHART

PLOTTER was up to date. Sure, you can always use OLD-FASHIONED

CHARTS, but a modern chart plotter with a man-overboard function and charts installed for your chosen waters is the way to go. To back up your chart plotter, we recommend a good offshore compass as well. If all else fails, you know you can get home with that.

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Also, carry a complement of FLARES

AND SIGNALING DEVICES, both electronic and pyrotechnic. Choose those manufactured to SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea treaty) requirements.

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And finally, LIFE JACKETS. They are arguably the most important piece of safety equipment on your boat, and you need to have at least one well-fitting US Coast Guard-approved life jacket for each crewmember. It’s a good idea for all crewmembers to wear them when making a crossing, and it’s federal law for kids under 13 years of age aboard most types of boats while underway. Back up the life jackets with a throwable US Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device and you should be ready. If this all sounds redundant, how many sad stories have you heard that could have been avoided by running through this routine checklist?

CLEARING BAHAMIAN CUSTOMS

Before disembarking from your boat anywhere in the Bahamas, you will need to clear customs. To do this, we docked at the Bimini Big Game Club in Bimini Harbor, and I (only the “master” of the vessel is allowed off) walked to the immigration office a block north on Queen’s Highway with health visas, Bahamas customs clearance forms, immigration cards, boat registration, negative PCR COVID-19 tests, vaccination cards and passports for each crewmember. A temporary cruising permit is required and runs $150 for a foreign pleasure boat up to 35 feet, or $300 for larger boats. Good for 90 days, this fee covers the cost of fishing permits for up to three people. Additional fishing permits can be purchased for $20 each for additional anglers. Every crewmember needs to fill out and sign a

Game Club (see “Comings and Goings”), we headed south to Honeymoon Harbour to swim with stingrays, nurse sharks and turtles, and had the beach to ourselves. From there, it was a quick jaunt down to Gun Cay to explore the abandoned lighthouse, and then on to snorkeling near the wreck of the Sapona. The history of the Sapona is a story in itself, but suffice it to say that this World War I-era concrete ship is now a wonderful destination for checking out wildlife and attempting some pulseraising dives off the top deck. We rounded out the day with drinks and dinner at Big John’s overlooking the channel.

The beauty of Bimini is there’s plenty to see when you’re not boating, as well. We rented golf carts and toured every inch of the island, chatting with locals on the way to and from restaurants and food stands. Shoreside highlights included fresh conch salad from Bonefish Eddie’s, where we learned how to clean conch while we waited. With a net full of live conch waiting to be harvested beside the restaurant, fresh doesn’t even begin to describe the taste of that conch salad. It was absolutely nothing like the texture or taste of the conch salad we have access to in central Florida, and I think we are ruined on the dish until we return to the Bahamas.

A few of us woke up early each morning and further explored the island, getting fresh baked goods from Nate’s for the rest of our sun-kissed, rum-soaked crew. We also went to the world-famous Radio Beach, a stretch of powdery sand with waves lapping the shore. The purifying waters are perfect to while away the afternoon, playing beach games and soaking up sun. This truly made every bit of preparation worth it.