2018 Bimini June trip (June 24th - June 30th)

[robert843]

no idea what the actual height from last was but the were a couple of times where from about 100feet all I could see was @Bruce's bimini top and myabe a feet or two of the poles. No actual boat, no human heads that were sitting on the cockpit.

I wasn't there so I could not gauge and I'm the first to admit video doesn't ever do it justice. Best Example I can give though is most people have a 7-8 foot garage door so if you stand in front of a garage door that is what and 7-8ft wave face would look like coming at you from the trough obviously most of us are not 8 ft tall so you would loose complete sight of any thing in front of you in 8ft seas I realize the deck is probably elevated from sea level but still you wouldn't see anything. Even in 6 ft seas because of the angle you would be viewing at an object 100 ft away in the trough it would probably disappear completely unless it was extremely tall. If I had to guess with what you are describing that is probably a 4 foot wave that is blocking you view that much it could be 5 ft. On that note please no one follow me at 100ft when we are crossing this year atleast keep it at about 100 yards for safety reasons.

 

[Betik]

On that note please no one follow me at 100ft when we are crossing this year atleast keep it at about 100 yards for safety reasons.

Yes, you are right.
On top of that, my insecurity caused extra stress to the boat too.

 

[bronze_10]

I wasn't there so I could not gauge and I'm the first to admit video doesn't ever do it justice. Best Example I can give though is most people have a 7-8 foot garage door so if you stand in front of a garage door that is what and 7-8ft wave face would look like coming at you from the trough obviously most of us are not 8 ft tall so you would loose complete sight of any thing in front of you in 8ft seas I realize the deck is probably elevated from sea level but still you wouldn't see anything. Even in 6 ft seas because of the angle you would be viewing at an object 100 ft away in the trough it would probably disappear completely unless it was extremely tall. If I had to guess with what you are describing that is probably a 4 foot wave that is blocking you view that much it could be 5 ft. On that note please no one follow me at 100ft when we are crossing this year atleast keep it at about 100 yards for safety reasons.

@robert843... 100 yards? I just ordered extra equipment to make sure I don't loose u in the crossing!
do I need to send it back?

 

[Bruce]

It is still looking nasty today. The forecast is mostly 3’+ with winds that will have stirred up the water confusing the seas and keeping them that way. This forecast is twice as rough as the forecasts for our 2015 or 2017 crossings.

Thursday has the first crossing window with less than 10mph wind but even that may not be long enough to allow the water to calm down.

 

[robert843]

Well they are off we shall see how it goes. This group has a spot so I can't tell speed.

 

[robert843]

Well the first two tracks coming out looked good about the same distance as the other tracks on there but the third was cut in half so I would guess the first two tracks were at about 25-30 mph and I bet this means they have slowed to a sub 20 mph pace already.

 

[Bruce]

The wind and wave forecast suggest that conditions will be worse the further west that they go. The forecast for Bimini is ~2 footers while Miami Offshore is ~4 footers.

The tide is going in for the next 3 hours which should help them if they make it across in that time frame.

The observed wind speed is ~16 mph near Miami.

There are a few small storms south of their path that could catch them on the crossing.

I would not want to be venturing into the stream today!

 

[robert843]

They appear to be doing ok right now they are probably 1/3 the way in so they probably are on pace for a 3 hour run pending they don't meet any of those storms.

 

[Bruce]

My thinking is that they have covers the easiest third. If they make it my guess is 4 to 5 hours.

 

[bronze_10]

looks like they stopped

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I'm pretty impressed with the pace thus far. Those guys are doing really well IMO. We all know what happens in the last 5 to 10 miles, but if they hold up physically there on a very good pace based on conditions.

 

[Bruce]

The Duplessis group is headed west as well now

https://share.garmin.com/BillyandGina

 

[robert843]

The Duplessis group is headed west as well now

https://share.garmin.com/BillyandGina

I guess the were watching the other crews track and decided to hit it as well.

 

[Bruce]

They started by venturing into Bimini Sands. It would be interesting to know if Blue Water was out of fuel.

 

[Bruce]

I wish that these tracking devices had G force meters!

 

[Bruce]

They are half way at 1.5 hours.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I wish they had live drone footage

 

[Bruce]

The actual wind speed is decreasing and the direction is much better than predicted.

The storms have switched to rain and stayed south of their path.

 

[robert843]

The second crew doesn't really seem to be keeping the same pace as the first crew. I could be wrong but they look to be more on a 3:30 hour pace and probably will be slowed down to a 4 hour pace at some point coming up.

 

[Bruce]

The second crew is half way at around 1.5 hours.

Both are making amazing time.