The closest inhabited Bahama Island to Miami is Bimini, but crossing the Gulf Stream, depending on the weather of course, can be either a non-event or an absolute nightmare for smaller recreational and charter vessels. Seas can be glassy and as calm as a mill-pond or crazy and dangerous. The sea state of the approximately 40 Nautical Miles of deep water with a north bound current of between 2 and 3 kts. is instantly affected by the wind direction and intensity as well as by distant Atlantic swells. When the wind is from the North or North East, it opposes the direction of the current and has the effect of forming shorter and more irregular wave patterns that can be quite disturbing. Generally speaking, we do not recommend crossings in the Winter, especially if you have an immovable window of time, like 7 or 10 days, into which you need to shoe-horn your vacation. What we're trying to say, in a rather roundabout way, is that the Summer Months are generally the safest and most pleasurable for crossing the Stream.

On a powerboat, it is possible to go to Bimini from Miami in 2 1/2 to 3 Hours. You can therefore go for the day although it will be quite expensive ($2,500 to $3,500 dollars) because there is no "regular" ferry service and you have to charter a boat to do the crossing and pay the 4% Bahamas cruising tax on top of this. On a sailboat, you're talking about an overnight trip of about 8 hours to arrive in the morning. Care needs to be exercised on overnight trips, the Gulf Stream is a high traffic area with cruise ships, freighters, tankers, and recreational boats all doing their thing. Radar recommended.

Bimini is a Sport-Fishing paradise. There is always a fine array of recreational fishing vessels, either locally or Miami based that will take you out for the day. There are also diving boats that will take you to the "Atlantis" rock formations and numerous power and sailing boats that will take you and the family out to "swim with the Dolphins".

On land at Bimini you will find the quintessential Hemingway memorabilia like "The Compleat Angler" bar (actually burned down a couple of years ago) and other places similar to share a beer or two with the locals. There are several marinas, some good eating places, a few hotels and a whole bunch of bars; macho atmosphere with the emphasis on pictures of heavy duty Sports-Fishing boats with stuffed swordfish and marlins on the walls. Nevertheless, Bimini remains a good weekend getaway or a good first stop on your trip from Miami or Fort Lauderdale across to Nassau or to the Berry islands. You need to check in to clear Bahamas customs and pay the rather steep cruising tax.

Gun Cay and Cat Cay are smaller islands just South of Bimini. Gun Key is uninhabited and Cat Cay is home to a pretty snooty yacht club where you can have an excellent but expensive dinner. The cut between these two Cays is one of the favorite recreational routes to get up onto the Grand Bahamas Bank and across to the Berry's and Nassau. You should be quite careful navigating this cut, however; hopefully you would have done it before with a professional captain. If not, make sure your draft is less than 5 feet and follow the instructions in your cruising guide to the letter.

South of Cat Cay there are some uninhabited rocks, including the Sal Cay archipielago that afford little protection but offer some pretty good fishing. South of these rocks at some distance, you will find the larger island of Andros. Although the, is island is quite large on the map, in practice it's a huge swamp with small channels that cross it and a bunch of mosquitoes . Very Shallow here. The East side of Andros is now being slowly developed with some neat small resorts.