Day 162 - Bull Sharks — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 63, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $145, includes water charge $25, electricity charge $25 and resort fee charge $20, Daily high temperature 74°f

We chose the perfect day to cross the Gulf Stream from Ft Lauderdale to Bimini. It is sunny and the seas are flat. Curiously we are not making our usual fast pace. We have the throttles wide open and we are cruising at 18 – 20 mph instead of 28 – 30 mph. We have the boat loaded with fuel and water and beer for 30 days. We are wondering if our hobbled race horse of a boat has a fouled bottom or fouled props. The last time we had the bottom checked and props cleaned was in Key West seven weeks ago. We thought that because the New River is brackish ( fresh and salt water combined ) that we would not get much growth. There were several divers working near us at Marina Bay. In hindsight we should have asked them to check our bottom. We will inspect our bottom when we get to Bimini. It will take us longer to arrive at the mind numbing speed of 20 mph.

Flat, flat, flat crossing the Gulf Stream.

We arrived at the Bimini Big Game Club and Marina at 1:30 pm. Cisco took our lines and gave us the customs and immigration papers to fill out. I realized there is an advantage to staying at a marina because the marina provides all the papers and it very easy to have each person fill out the forms before I took them to the appropriate government office to check in. The boats that anchor out come in by dingy and pick up the forms and go back to their boat to have them signed by the crew. Then they come back again to clear in.

As we approached Bimini we flew our yellow quarantine flag to announce our arraval.

After we checked in with the Bahamian authorities I decided to dive on the boat bottom to try to determine what happened to our 10 miles per hour. The water is crystal clear and warm. There is a ladder at the end of our finger pier so I used a mask and jumped in. The boat bottom was as smooth and clean as a new born babies bottom. I will always use Pettit bottom paint. However, there was a bunch of rope wrapped around our port propeller. I guess we didn’t miss every crab pot or else we just picked up a floating line. I found my dive knife and went back in the water. I cut off one piece of line and went back to cut more. I can only hold my breath for about five seconds at the most so I knew I should get my scuba tank and do it right. As I climbed out of the water Priscilla exclaimed “look at that.” Just as I climbed out of the water two large bull sharks swam past.

i took this photo from out dock.

I decided that the big ones must come in to feed at this time of day and perhaps I should wait until tomorrow when the sharks are gone to dive on the propeller. Then I saw this sign.

The bull shark is commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. The bull shark is known for its aggressive nature, predilection for warm shallow water, and presence in brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and rivers.

Bull sharks can thrive in both saltwater and freshwater and can travel far up rivers. They have even been known to travel as far up as the Mississippi River in Illinois although there have been few recorded freshwater human-shark interactions. They are probably responsible for the majority of near-shore shark attacks, including many bites attributed to other species.

One of the unusual sights at this marina was a barge with an excavator onboard. The only propulsion for the barge was the excavator using the bucket to grab the sea floor and pull the barge along. When the barge was about to hit the wall the excavator put the arm down into the sand and stopped the barge.

Bonus photo

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote of the day.

From all that I saw, and everywhere I wandered,
I learned that time cannot be spent, It only can be squandered.” – Roman Payne