Lots was learned in the 2015 crossing, and future crossings will benefit from the experience. Hindsight is 20/20. It is my opinion that the group leaders did the best job possible in assisting newbies such as myself in preparing for the crossing. I trusted them then, and I still trust them now. I would not have attempted this amazing experience if it were not for this forum and those within it who prepared and guided the group.
One thing that was not mentioned was that the leaders changed tactics for the second attempt, which was to minimize the choppiness by following in single file. Good idea, but many boats ended up following too closely and it kind of became a stop n go traffic jam; well not actually full stop, but many times too slow to keep the bow up, and definitely too slow to get reasonable fuel mileage. One benefit of the single file formation is that I could see when a big wave was coming by how the boat ahead of me reacted. As conditions changed, the experienced captains in the group found better ways to go about things, and in some cases, they broke from the group and went on their own. I wanted to join them, but the last instructions that I received as part of the group were to stick together in single-file and to keep an eye on the boat behind me; so that's what I did. It was good advice because the boat behind me ran out of gas about 5 miles out; I had packed extra fuel, and the seas were calm, so it was no big deal to circle back to help them. And to give you an idea of the kind of people they are, while I was at the airport getting through customs, they went to my boat, retrieved the empty gas can and filled it up. Very nice.
In crossing, I was part of the front group that was proceeding in the single-file formation. After transferring 5 gallons to the boat behind me, I carried on to the final destination at planing speed. The 19 footer that has been referred to in the previous posts (the one that was going too slow, and that needed to borrow gas a couple of times... the one who's marriage either got stronger or ended in divorce because of the event) actually beat me to Bimini Sands, so in my opinion they weren't that far behind the front group. In my opinion, my front group was going too slow. My 2015 AR240 has a range of over 130 miles in nice seas. My low fuel alarm started going off about 8 miles out. I ran at 0% fuel (according to Connext) for the last 2 or 3 miles. I wasn't worried because I still had extra fuel on board, but I was curious to see whether my boat had enough fuel to make the trip by pushing water all of the way; it did.
Lastly, I don't really want to stir things up with
@rollosan and
@upperdeck, but I think that it's important to recognize that I think that both have the same goodwilled intentions, which is to make the next crossing preparation and tactics more robust than the previous one. I get where
@upperdeck is coming from (don't intentionally put your boat or other's at risk), and I get where
@rollosan is coming from in that you always assist a boat in need especially if they are part of your group. My opinion is that they are both right, but
@rollosan, if you had the chance to meet
@upperdeck, you would know that "coward" is a word that should not be associated with him, and that knowing so, an apology to him would be the right thing to do later on when things have cooled down.
I don't think that the Jetboaters Bimini crossing should become a case to demonstrate natural selection. I don't think that it's possible to screen all of the captains who want to join. I do think that preparation and tactics will be improved based on the 2015 crossing. I think that it is vitally important for any captain who decides to join the crossing to understand that their vessel and crew are their primary responsibility, and that it is their responsibility to prepare accordingly. All that being said, the 2015 conditions were a new experience for the Jetboaters group. Sure, some captains were better prepared than others,
but no captain embarked on the crossing knowing that they were ill-prepared.
I trust that the forum leaders will do their best to help everybody prepare for the trip, but don't go on the trip if you are not fully prepared.
