Bimini. Hemingway jousted Marlin on his new Wheeler yacht under Thomas Hudson’s house on the hill. Brown’s Dock still hangs on water a kind of blue you feel more than see, clear to the bottom. The current carries the island’s lilting English to every ear, as every life here is bound to the water. We were bound for Bimini.
We cast off from Key Biscayne before light in early August, not the cautious crossing season, but mindful of the storms ahead. Karen charted a slow course, and the Gulf Stream pulled us dutifully to Brown’s, not the cheapest Marina but the one most likely to answer the radio.
Sometimes it’s the little things.
The weather window was worth the two week wait – soft winds, short swells and clear skies left us time to think as we put the mainland to our backs, likely never to return. Four years into our plan to cast off ties we had done it, and the act weighted our private thoughts as the boat ran smoothly on.
It would not be smooth for long.
Jay & Karen contribute the Fitness Afloat column to PassageMaker magazine. More of their blog can be found here.
