We cleared out of Bahamas,departed Browns Marina at slackwater just before sunset and dropped anchor on the west side of North Bimini island.

Planning to cross the Florida Strait we needed to wait a couple of days for weather to settle. Seaway in the Gulf Stream can be horrendous in strong winds, obviously worst if there’s any northern component in the wind.

Two days were spent diving on the stripper reef out in open waters. The local diving company has a mooring on the reef and we took the dinghy there. The reef is easily accessible on 12-15m depth but one has to be aware of the current which runs in different directions depending on the tide. Already while getting ready in the dinghy a grey shark circled around us and when going into the water there were a couple of more sharks in the vicinity. We both feel a bit vulnerable on the surface but once under water you have control. The stripper reef is beautiful with the ever present sharks,loads of fish,barracudas and lobsters . 

To spend less time on the surface upon return from the dives we had ropes from the dinghy to tie up dive tanks in when surfacing. Day two of diving with 16-20kts of trade winds I managed to get one of those ropes into the propeller. Not having any knife with us we couln’t sort it out and needed to paddle all way up to the beach line. Fortunately we were around slackwater time so current was weak and after an hour of paddling we were safely close to the beach.

A stronger current in ebb time and we would have drifted out to sea. The dinghy is really your lifeline when diving in open water which means you need to plan accordingly..

Obviously I failed by not bringing such a basic thing as a knife