Gulfstream crossing 2018 help

[Alexander Erie]

back story: I got a time share reservation in Freeport grand Bahamas for myself and soon to be fiancée (proposing on this trip) and the reservation is from the 7th of July to the 14th this year. We were planning to cross from Miami to Bimini then Bimini to Freeport. Unless we can find a group crossing else where directly to Freeport.
Here’s my questions:
•Is anybody leaving around these dates? I’d like to cross in a group.
•where do I leave my truck and trailer?
•what papers are required for the trip?
•Where do I go for customs to do passport things?
•is anyone crossing from west palm or Boynton?

 

[bronze_10]

What kinda boat ya got and what kinda range does it get?

 

[Alexander Erie]

I got that big 26’ sucker in my profile picture. It’s a Larson cabrio 254 cabin cruiser. I have a 60 gallon main tank with a 25 gallon gravity tank that feeds it so about 85 gallons. I ran it the other day and got about 80 miles out of it and still had room to play around and ski with and then retrieve the boat. I haven’t filled it back up to yet to calculate my fuel consumption on that trip but I plan to. I also keep 20 spare gallons of fuel (in cans) on the boat Incase of an emergency. (I got stuck last year at dauphin island because I ran out of gas)

 

[bronze_10]

I can't remember what brand it was but someone had a cabin cruiser similar in size last year.. For some reason it burned through 75 gallons of fuel before half way to bimini and had to be towed back if I remember correctly...

 

[Alexander Erie]

Holy shit man!!! Was it rough seas or relatively calm? I know rough seas will burn a hole in the fuel department! And I know load plays a big part in cabin cruisers too. Too much weight will eat some gas up too

 

[Alexander Erie]

I can't remember what brand it was but someone had a cabin cruiser similar in size last year.. For some reason it burned through 75 gallons of fuel before half way to bimini and had to be towed back if I remember correctly...

That scares me to be honest... hahaha

 

[bronze_10]

It was pretty rough from what I hear..

 

[robert843]

If your plan is Freeport don't even go to Bimini. Depart from West Palm Leave your truck at the ramp there and go to West End to clear customs and refuel. The customs office is right there on the refueling dock. Going to Bimini your just adding a ton of extra offshore miles to your trip. The path from West Palm to West End is pretty frequently traveled I wouldn't feel to bad doing it alone as more then likely there will still be boats with in a few miles of if trouble happened since its a pretty heavily traveled route more so then Miami to Bimini even.

 

[Betik]

If I were you I would seriously consider dropping Freeport and joining the Bimini group to Bimini. For 5 nights it will cost anywhere from $1,000 to $,1290. You will be going with a group of people who have been doing this for 7 years in row with probably 30 boats crossing.



https://jetboaters.net/threads/jetboaters-net-bimini-fling-july-9th-to-14th-2018.16250/

so you want to be this guy.....

 

[Alexander Erie]

Honestly I would love to brother. But like I said I already made my reservations at the time share. Maybe I can link up with you guys when at bimini when y’all get there. I’d love to hang around other boaters. And chill, there are also things I wanted to see in bimini as well so we will have to stay in contact through the trip since we will be in the islands at the same time.

 

[Alexander Erie]

If I were you I would seriously consider dropping Freeport and joining the Bimini group to Bimini. For 5 nights it will cost anywhere from $1,000 to $,1290. You will be going with a group of people who have been doing this for 7 years in row with probably 30 boats crossing.



https://jetboaters.net/threads/jetboaters-net-bimini-fling-july-9th-to-14th-2018.16250/

so you want to be this guy.....

And yes!!! I want to be that guy, I know she likes crowds for that kind of thing, you know when it comes to something special she likes the spotlight and attention, but other than that she isn’t an attention hog. She is a social butterfly. Opposite of me,lol I’ll stand back for a day or and people watch until I’m comfortable. So I wouldn’t do it away from everyone else because I know she wants to a of pictures and a show lol.

 

[Alexander Erie]

If your plan is Freeport don't even go to Bimini. Depart from West Palm Leave your truck at the ramp there and go to West End to clear customs and refuel. The customs office is right there on the refueling dock. Going to Bimini your just adding a ton of extra offshore miles to your trip. The path from West Palm to West End is pretty frequently traveled I wouldn't feel to bad doing it alone as more then likely there will still be boats with in a few miles of if trouble happened since its a pretty heavily traveled route more so then Miami to Bimini even.

Yea I think I will do that then it doesn’t sound so bad I’m sure I will find people. And like I told @Betik maybe I can link up with you guys for a day of the trip. And do my proposal. With y’all since she wants a crowd for it... haha

 

[Betik]

best of luck my friend, but I think honeymoon harbour would make a good spot for such event. 15 -20 around you and most likely someone will have a drone.....

if you must go to Freeport, I would take @robert843 route. Bypass Bimini. To much fuel and open seas for a single boat ....

 

[Bruce]

A small cabin cruiser with an 80 mile range crossing the stream scares me.

 

[Alexander Erie]

A small cabin cruiser with an 80 mile range crossing the stream scares me.

Oh that’s just how far I took it I haven’t filled it back up to get my range yet.

 

[Bruce]

Oh that’s just how far I took it I haven’t filled it back up to get my range yet.

Well then, the whole “I have an old, baby cabin cruiser and I a going to point her East and enjoy the Bahama’s” concept scares me.

We had two similar cabin cruisers get in trouble last year on the group crossing. One was totaled and the other had a shaken up crew that drifted for hours.

 

[Julian]

I think one of them was a bay liner.....and they are renouned for seriously crappy wave handling. Thus the "bay" in the name! As long as his cabin cruiser handles waves well, and he has decent range and a crew who's ok with the open ocean, I see no reason not to do this. Lots of ifs there, but there are lots of cabin cruisers way better positioned to make this trip than our Yamahas.

 

[Alexander Erie]

Well then, the whole “I have an old, baby cabin cruiser and I a going to point her East and enjoy the Bahama’s” concept scares me.

We had two similar cabin cruisers get in trouble last year on the group crossing. One was totaled and the other had a shaken up crew that drifted for hours.

Ok so I did my range calculation on an 80-85 gallon tank and I have a range of 139.2 miles on one tank, with fare season. When I did my calculation I went with numbers that would put me at a disadvantage. I’ve had this boat out in the gulf on mild to rough seas and it handles well. I feel confident in the trip. But I am going to do another open water test run with it in the gulf since installing the new prop (don’t worry all the calculations and test I ran were with this prop.)

 

[Bruce]

Ok so I did my range calculation on an 80-85 gallon tank and I have a range of 139.2 miles on one tank, with fare season. When I did my calculation I went with numbers that would put me at a disadvantage. I’ve had this boat out in the gulf on mild to rough seas and it handles well. I feel confident in the trip. But I am going to do another open water test run with it in the gulf since installing the new prop (don’t worry all the calculations and test I ran were with this prop.)

I have burned 3 times as much fuel in rough water as I would in good conditions. Even in very smooth water I burn 50% more fuel on a Bimini run than on a lake outing.

 

[Wisefam22]

I have burned 3 times as much fuel in rough water as I would in good conditions. Even in very smooth water I burn 50% more fuel on a Bimini run than on a lake outing.

Do you make it across with one tank or need to bring back up fuel? I have a 2006 sx230 starting to prep for 2019 since 2018 was already booked for us.