Bahamas Bound 2020 Update #7

August 3, 2020

We know everyone has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or another. It has been a tough adjustment for all. We hope everyone of you are doing well and are in good health.

Fortunately for us our boater lifestyle provides us with a solitude that is conducive to being self quarantined.

As most of you know we are back in our home port at The Marina at Ortega Landing in Jacksonville, Florida.

We left Brown's Marina in Bimini, Bahamas on Tuesday June 9th, 2020 and arrived here at Ortega on June 18th, 2020.

Our journey started on New Years Day 2020.


After six and a half months we returned to our home port, The Marina at Ortega Landing, on June 18th.

Our destination was Bimini, Bahamas. Since we are retired we were in no hurry to get there.

We travel at a leisurely pace, of 8 to 10 Knots or 9 to 12 miles per hour, to conserve fuel.

On our way to Bimini we:

Return trip:

  • anchored at Lake Worth
  • docked in Fort Pierce
  • moored at Titusville
  • anchored at Daytona Beach
  • moored at St. Augustine
  • docked in Mayport
  • back at our Home Port

751 Nautical Miles traveled

Or 864 Statute Miles round trip

On March 12th we left Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale and headed across the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean to Bimini.

Approximately 50 miles and 6 hours later we were docked at Brown's Marina on the beautiful island of Bimini, Bahamas, having cocktails on the "Lido" deck of the Fortunate 2.

When we first arrived in Bimini the beaches, restaurants, stores and shops were still open and the island was still full of tourists.

Everything was pretty normal for the first two to three weeks. We did enjoyed our freedom to move about the island before any restrictions were put into place.

We were able to take in some of the beauty of the island before the COVID-19 pandemic caused international travel to shut down worldwide.

The Bahamian government closed it's boarders and put curfews into place, fortunately for us they did not force us to leave since we had arrived prior to the closure.

Eventually all the tourists left. We decided to stay since we felt safe and secure here. We had no reason to leave.

We were the only boaters left at Brown's Marina and enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

The island is amazing and it's people are wonderful and inviting.

We made a lot of great friends and can't wait until next year to go back and see them.

We have left one of the safest places to be in the world for Coronavirus and went to one of the worst places in the world to be....go figure.

Bimini has become our Home away from Home.

If it wasn't for the hurricanes we would make Bimini our home.

Bimini is an amazing island with wonderful people. The sand is white and the water is an electric neon blue.