Bimini Trip June 27th - July 2nd 2021

[tim h]

It was a tad SPORTY....

 

[robert843]

@swatski and @Betik not sure if your guys saw this but after her fighting it Vicky did start a channel last week.

 

[Betik]

Damn it son. Y'all went through some pretty choppy water.

A lot of it self inflicted by putting my boat to close to other wakes lol

 

[Betik]

@swatski and @Betik not sure if your guys saw this but after her fighting it Vicky did start a channel last week.

Good for her, but no I have not seen it. As rule of thumb I avoid looking at my friends’ spouses.

 

[Julian]

For those of you that made the 2017 trip (and perhaps for those contemplating it), here is a PDF of the presentation I put together using this trip as an example of how things can go wrong. Of course many of the slides require the back story to understand (which I told during the presentation)....but you should get most of it. Some of you will see you are now famous.....

 

[James R Whitten]

Got my house reserved at resort world. One more piece of the puzzle completed.

Boats without wake board towers what are you using for antenna mounts?

 

[NeilFSU]

Is it possible to still join this group for these dates?

 

[James R Whitten]

Is it possible to still join this group for these dates?

Shouldn't be a problem. If you plan on docking at bahia mar if ft lauderdale hit me up. We have discounted docking for the group.

 

[swatski]

Boats without wake board towers what are you using for antenna mounts?

I would just mount a (cheapo) antenna on the windshield, and/or hook it up to a handheld that you may also be able to use in the resort to communicate with the group, anyway.
@MrMoose had a great setup with a handheld and headphones over head, IIRC, he could actually hear the conversations unlike most of us, the little VHF speakers are barely audible in our loud boats, and inaudible on plane, lol.

--

 

[James R Whitten]

I would just mount a (cheapo) antenna on the windshield, and/or hook it up to a handheld that you may also be able to use in the resort to communicate with the group, anyway.
@MrMoose had a great setup with a handheld and headphones over head, IIRC, he could actually hear the conversations unlike most of us, the little VHF speakers are barely audible in our loud boats, and inaudible on plane, lol.

--

Thanks I'll look into that. I bought a uniden vhf thats supposed to be good for 25 to 30 miles. Got a ram triple suction cup mount. Really don't want to screw holes in my boat. I was gonna invest in either a loud speaker or a head phone setup.

 

[Babin Farms]

This is the speaker I’ve got. Probably going to go with suction cup mount for radio & speaker as well.

Kenwood KES-5

~Speaker for mobile radios

www.gigaparts.com

 

[James R Whitten]

This is the speaker I’ve got. Probably going to go with suction cup mount for radio & speaker as well.

Kenwood KES-5

~Speaker for mobile radios

www.gigaparts.com

Nice. I like the idea of a speaker so the whole boat can hear the conversation.

 

[Julian]

I would not do this trip with only a handheld.

 

[MrMoose]

I would just mount a (cheapo) antenna on the windshield, and/or hook it up to a handheld that you may also be able to use in the resort to communicate with the group, anyway.
@MrMoose had a great setup with a handheld and headphones over head, IIRC, he could actually hear the conversations unlike most of us, the little VHF speakers are barely audible in our loud boats, and inaudible on plane, lol.

--

During my last crossing, I had a headset hooked up to my handheld so I could communicate with my group (left ear), and I also was listening to the emergency channel on my fixed VHF (right ear). I really thought that I had things covered... but the last thing I expected was for someone in my group to run out of gas and not get on the f'n radio to let me know.

 

[James R Whitten]

During my last crossing, I had a headset hooked up to my handheld so I could communicate with my group (left ear), and I also was listening to the emergency channel on my fixed VHF (right ear). I really thought that I had things covered... but the last thing I expected was for someone in my group to run out of gas and not get on the f'n radio to let me know.

If I run out of gas with my 172 gallon tank I'll definitely let someone know.lol

 

[BigAbe75]

For those of you that made the 2017 trip (and perhaps for those contemplating it), here is a PDF of the presentation I put together using this trip as an example of how things can go wrong. Of course many of the slides require the back story to understand (which I told during the presentation)....but you should get most of it. Some of you will see you are now famous.....

Thanks for sharing that! Well done.

 

[Betik]

If I run out of gas with my 172 gallon tank I'll definitely let someone know.lol

@tim h got some competition

 

[Julian]

The boat we saved went through 85 gallons to reach Bimini.....now this was because the owner didn't understand the impact of cavitation (or even know what it sounds like). Not a normal situation - but the sort of thing that results in people being lost at sea (the rest of the boats couldn't sit out in the middle of the ocean and drift with them). Thankfully they had a full 25w radio and 8' antenna and could get in communication with us and the CG. They took 65 gallons to go half way across, then once I eliminated their weeds we made it the rest of the way on 20 gallons. Plan for the worst.

 

[tim h]

@tim h got some competition

NOPE... I will start with a full tank of 240 gallons.

 

[James R Whitten]

You should be good the whole trip.