What I have been up too...

[FtLaudBlkGT]

On June 11, 2011 we woke up to 2-3FT seas and decided that it would be good enough for us to ride to the Bahamas. Roman (2008 Yamaha FX SHO), Jose (2011 Yamaha FZS) and myself (2008 Yamaha FX SHO) fueled up our wave-runners to the absolute maximum in preparation for our adventure. My neighbor who captained "Dive-Hard", a 28FT Dusky, joined us along for the ride along with a few passengers. The boat is powered by a 2010 Evinrude motor.

Since we expected conditions to be alot worse for this weekend, we had cancelled our reservations at "The Big Game Club" and basically were left in the dark as far as sleeping arrangements. We were able to grab 2 rooms at the Bluewater that morning but that wasn't enough. We set out at 10AM in the morning as we had to gather everyone at the ramp. None of us were really expecting to go on that Saturday but an 8AM morning call made it all possible. We grabbed our stuff and headed for launch.

As we neared a 3 mile exit out of Haulover inlet, our chase boat started hesitating and running rough. Keep in mind the motor has been barely broken in, 30-40 hours on the clock. Danny stopped the boat to find the issue. We had overspun the prop. Oh oh.

A quick call to the marina landed us a spare prop that we would be able to borrow and a mechanic waiting at the dock with a lift to pull the boat out of the water. At this point we had decided to cancel the trip but since it was fixed quickly, the show had to go on. It was 11:50pm and we had to make the run.

We started our run east for Alice town. By this point winds had already picked up. We were seeing 5-7mph winds. After we touched the first 8 miles and entered the gulf stream our 2-3ft waves started turning into 3-5 foot waves and things got a bit breezy. We saw 10-15mph winds with rollers reaching past 5 ft which was alright with us.

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

Ocean conditions remained this way for the rest of the trip. We had BOV kits installed in all of the waverunners to prevent clutch failure. The water was dark in the ocean, nothing like we are used to near the coast.

We saw bimini miles offshore. I would guess around 10. We were very happy to see land. We were all tired but what got to us was holding our fingers on the throttle for 3 hrs. The waves were great for wavejumping but we conserved fuel.

^we threw our quarantine flags up and headed inshore. The water turned into a completely teal color, and most of it was see through. It was like riding around in a pool. The pictures do not do it justice, the water was INSANE!!!

We headed in to our two reserved hotel rooms at the Bluewater marina. Once again the water was INSANE!!! We saw a nurse shark swim by as we were docking.

We headed to customs

To be continued...

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

After going to the seacrest hotel and all of the others in the area and being denied, the big game club offered us a room for $212 a night tax included. We told them that we had booked with them but had to cancel due to weather and made the trip anyways. They felt bad and gave us a discount. We also managed to tip them in the process and score us a new parking spot for the jet skis and the boat, you know the one directly in front of the main office.

We refueled. There was no line to gas up. Gas was $6.15 a gallon. I burned 12.84 gallons going to bimini with a passenger on board in the SHO. That left me with 5+ gallons still in my tank. They were very nice at the fuel dock called up crazy for jet skiing there and gave us looks. Nice place! Cash is what they like, debit and credit cards are charged an extra 4% on all fill ups.
We decided that there was no time to waste, we needed to do some snorkeling! The sapona!

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

It was getting dark and we had to get out of there and get settled in at the hotels.

Yes, these two dont stop racing, when its a tie, there is a tie breaker

The parking

Hunger had set in as we did not eat the entire day but drank up on gatorade. We hit up the Big Game Club dining area and got some grub. The views were also spectacular. I will never complain about the service at Schuckers, it took us close to an hour to see our food. Bottle of water is $2.95, Soda $1.95. Cheeseburger, fries is $14 and change.

We woke up the next morning and decided that instead of heading up early we would go check out the rest of the island, this time the land LOL
We rented golf carts at $20 for each cart an hour. Some turned out to be low on battery.

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

We couldn't stay out of the water for too long knowing we would be headed home in a matter of hours. We grabbed the skis and fueled up to the top. The ride to see the Sapona and explore the island a little but burned us 2.5 gallons each.

The Dive hard crew decided to throw on their tanks and head down to see the dropoff. 120ft to 2000+ wall. They did their dive and came up wanting more. We decided to go explore the Road to Atlantis and the surrounding area.

Dive Hard Dan!

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

Jose got a little seasick, decided to hang out in the water

Having scuba gear allowed us for better shots

 

[FtLaudBlkGT]

and the fun came to a temporary pause as we headed back to Miami around 1pm. Seas 2-3FT with a reported storm hitting 30mph winds which we avoided.

And we enter haulover

and then the fun began, check in process


Thank you for checking out the pics, we will have all of the videos shortly as they are currently being compiled, on behalf of

 

[nvycrmn]

awesome pics and trip man. i wanted to take our seadoo's from san diego to catalina island but the wifey never wanted to do it.

 

[NewbieVet]

Bastard.....