Kendall
Member
- Feb 3, 2009
- 369
- Boat Info
- 2006 260DA
"WET BAR"
Generator
Tow Vehicle:
2006 F-350 Dually 4X4 Diesel
- Engines
- 350 MAG w/Bravo III
Hi All:
I wanted to tell you all how great a time we had taking the 260 over to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale for this past Memorial Day weekend. Of course when towing 11,000 lbs 1400 miles and crossing the gulf stream there are bound to be a few learning experiences.....:grin:
This may get long.....
Myself and two buddies left Lake Wylie, SC for Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday morning 5/25/11 at around 4:30 am. We were making good time until about the GA line on I95 when we heard the first POP! Starboard side front trailer tire went kaboom. May I add here that the trailer is a very nice tandem axle aluminum Majic Tilt supplied with my 260 when new. The tires are 5 or so years old and I had 100 psi in all of them (max pressure on sidewall = 110 psi cold)...Load range G! Kenda tires (Chinese). Maybe 700 miles on this trailer since new.
After the 20 minute tire swap I looked over the package and could tell I had a little more weight on the front axle than I should have and these tires on the front axle were running noticeably hotter than the rear axle tires. Anyway we towed at 65 - 67 mph the rest of the way to FLL averaging around 9.5 mpg in my F-350.
We arrived at the Harbortown marina around 4:30 pm and wound our way around the facility looking for the ramps and guard....he found us... Paid him the $48.00 for 6 days and launched the 260 with no problems. The ramps are steep and as we found out on our return quite shallow and almost impossible to retrieve this size boat at low tide. Please time your arrival to hit mid to high tide if possible. Our trailer had to go beyond the concrete ramp ledge to retrieve my boat and most of the F-350's torque had to be used to raise the 260 over the ledge at low tide.:smt100
We put the tops on the 260 loaded the cooler onto the swim platform and idled our way over to the Las Olas public boat docks near Bahia Mar. Took about 25 minutes. Very nice facilities at the Las Olas docks and way too convenient to the Elbow Room and other assorted fun places.....
We made a somewhat early night of it...back in the boat by 12:00 am. We left at 6:30 the next morning after listening to forcast of 2-3 footers and low-med winds and idled our way over to the Port Everglades cut and into the big BLUE. You know, now that I have crossed once I can honestly say if you don't like the wave height and conditions as you come out of Port Everglades you sure as hell wont like the conditions in the gulf stream....:smt043
Needless to say the waves were not 2-3 footers but more like 6-7 footers with a slight Northerly wind component thrown in occasionally just to keep things mixed up. I told my guys as we idled out that we should turn back as the seas were not supposed to be this bad and that I really liked FLL anyway. They asked if I could plane out and I said no...they then asked if we could idle/motor our way the entire 54 miles and I said I guess so....bad mistake. Their wanting to get over and catch fish had them puking by 5 miles out! :wow:
Now the story gets better...you may recall ChuckW's issue with his 260 having a gap at the rub rail and letting water into the bilge. Well I found out my 260 has the same issue but I found out in the middle of the gulf stream! I noticed an odd noise from the engine room as we motored/plowed at around 2300 rpm (6 mph against the current). I raised the engine hatch and much to my horror the bilge had sea water up to the bottom of the lower crank pully and was slinging water around the engine compartment. I immediately switched on the manual bilge pump and it sucked out the water. All this is going on why 6-7 footers throw us around in the middle of the gulf stream... I verified that no water was still coming in and was confused why my automatic float switch was not working... We proceeded for another 7 miles in which I had time to think about where the water could be coming from and I remembered ChuckW's post and I figured that had to be it. With the loaded boat and high waves we were taking water in at the starboard aft rub rail. I opened the hatch again to check on things and low and behold she was up to the lower pully again. I flipped on the bilge and...nothing!!!! My main bilge pump had died!! I stood in the engine compartment holding a dead bilge pump, my buddies sick from the ride, and Bimini still 25 miles away. About this time the most ear piercing alarm I have ever heard goes off...I first think it is the CO alarm...I unhook this...no help....I then remove every fuse I can find....no help....I pray...no help....I ask one sick buddy to check the manual and he can't find anything....so I just start bailing my bilge with a small bowl from the galley. Alarm goes off.....sweet...not sure why...dont care at the moment. Well long nightmare short we idle from here on in and the good Lord settles the seas down as we come in sight of Bimini.
We pull into Bimini Sands Marina and kiss the concrete floating docks and hug the dock master....much to his surprise! Turns out the alarm was the forward bilge alarm so when I removed the water all was good. The rub rail gap was 1/4" and about 2 feet long. I sealed up the gap with some marine silicon I had on board. Checked the breakers under the aft sink....automatic bilge pump breaker had flipped!! Luckily the Bimini Sands ships store had all the bilge pumps and accessories you could want. I purchased a new bilge pump, washed the entire engine room down with fresh water, fogged the engine with WD40, cursed a little, had a beer and all was good. Total trip time 7.5 hours.
We had just then started to take in how beautiful and how nice Bimini Sands was. I had all our forms ready and checked into customs on site no problem...extremely nice customs agents and staff there to greet us. We took a walk and checked out the beach at sunset and words cannot explain how beautiful the water is here...you must see it for yourself....even if you fly over...
We got a good nights sleep and headed out the next day for a little fishing, snorkeling, and exploring. We caught several Barracuda a couple of trigger fish, and hooked several fish we could not budge off the bottom...even with our larger tackle. We snorkeled the Sapona...very cool swimming into the engine room and seeing the large crankshaft and gear drives. We then headed over to Honeymoon harbor which I must say is just fantastic! We were anchored in 3 feet of water and the black rays keep coming by circling us....just awesome!
We made our way back to the marina and cleaned up the boat. We grilled on the boat with the little Magma grill and had a few drinks before heading to Macky's bar on the southern end of the island (little bus/taxi takes you there 2 miles or so). This turned into a crazy party...people on the bar dancing, two for one shots, beautiful people...you get the picture...yes we drank too much. Next day our hangover was tough. :smt100
Saturday we fished some more and made our way by $2.00 ferry from South Bimini to Alice Town on North Bimini (original settlement). Really cool to see the large fishing boats and party boats at Guy Harvey's. We had dinner there and sampled fresh fried conch fritters and homemade conch salad from (Joe's I think)...all wonderful! We saw golf cart load after load of kids having a good time and wondered where they were partying. Turns out they might have all been coming from Bimini Bay another mile or so down the island.
After we returned to Bimini sands I checked the weather forecast for Sunday and Monday and it looked like Monday might turn into another rough trip so I told the guys we were heading back to FLL in the morning...they whined but I made the Captain's call. We topped off on fuel ($6.19/gal) gas at Bimini Sands dock grilled out again, watched the party crowd heading to Mackey's again...passed this time...
Sunday we awoke to light winds and good 2-3 foot seas. We planed out and were making excellent time with two other center consoles when we heard...."Coast guard to two center consoles and one cuddie please come off throttle and maintain your heading...prepare for boarding" Cool!..I think... We waited our turn answered all the questions on the radio and then prepared for the safety inspection. The guys came on board and were really cool. Checked the engine compartment (bone dry!), my safety gear, registration etc. We were on our way in 25 minutes.
The seas had now picked up a little and we were getting tossed around with the USCG guys but we set our heading planed off at 28.5 mph and 16 gph we headed to Port Everglades. Counting the coast guard time we made it in around 2.5 hours. What a much, much, much better trip!
We fished some weed lines on the way in....could see the Mahi but could not get them to bite...our luck.
We idled back over to Harbortown marina just as dead low tide hit. I measured 1.5 ft under my boat at the docks and I knew we were gonna have issues. I put the trailer as far back as she would go before dropping off of the ramp but it was not far enough for the boat even under power and winch to get back on the trailer. I then dropped the trailer off the ramp, floated the 260 onto the trailer and prayed the F-350 would have enough guts to pull her out. The Ford pulled the boat right out to the applause of the crowd that had gathered to watch.
We sorted everything for the trip home, called customs...gave our info and proceeded to Eller Drive for the face to face check in....we were the only ones there.... We then hit the Firestone dealer for a new spare and headed North out of town for home.
About West Palm we heard the dreaded POP and the spare I had installed in GA on the way down had now bit the bullet. We replaced the tire with the new Firestone tire and let the air pressure down to 80 psi in all tires to match the firestone and trailer recommendation. We proceeded at 60 mph towards home averaging 10.5 mpg. The drive was not fun as I waited to hear the next pop knowing my front axle tires were running hotter than the rear. The new Firestone which was an E rated tire ran much cooler than the other front tire so I may be switching all of these. We made it to the edge of GA by 1:30 am and I decided we should all rest/crash and get started back in the morning. We made it home by 2:00 the next day and my other front axle tire had a nice bulge on it by the time we got home just to let me know we were going no further.
We cleaned up the boat and put her back into the fresh Lake Wylie water...(fresh may be an over statement here).
All in all an excellent adventure! My Sea Ray goes in for her rub rail work tomorrow and hopefully we can have a boat that holds out water the next time we try ocean "cruising"!
I hope this report helps those looking to do the crossing. Please remember the following:
1) If something in your boat will break it will be at the worst possible time and the longest distance away from help as possible.
2) Tires that run hotter than the others will pop.
3) Your passengers will get sick when crossing the gulf in rough seas...even with patches, bracelets, etc.
4) There is nothing like the water in Bimini.
5) The fishing is awesome in Bimini.
5) Honeymoon Harbor is fantastic.
6) Bimini Sands is extremely nice for the money....I only have the BVI's to compare to and what I was able to see in Alice Town.
7) The walk back from Mackey's at 2:00 in the morning is long.
8) I love Fort Lauderdale.
9) I love Bimini.
10) I love knowing the coast guard is out there.....
Pictures to follow.....
Kendall
www.biminisands.com
I wanted to tell you all how great a time we had taking the 260 over to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale for this past Memorial Day weekend. Of course when towing 11,000 lbs 1400 miles and crossing the gulf stream there are bound to be a few learning experiences.....:grin:
This may get long.....
Myself and two buddies left Lake Wylie, SC for Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday morning 5/25/11 at around 4:30 am. We were making good time until about the GA line on I95 when we heard the first POP! Starboard side front trailer tire went kaboom. May I add here that the trailer is a very nice tandem axle aluminum Majic Tilt supplied with my 260 when new. The tires are 5 or so years old and I had 100 psi in all of them (max pressure on sidewall = 110 psi cold)...Load range G! Kenda tires (Chinese). Maybe 700 miles on this trailer since new.
After the 20 minute tire swap I looked over the package and could tell I had a little more weight on the front axle than I should have and these tires on the front axle were running noticeably hotter than the rear axle tires. Anyway we towed at 65 - 67 mph the rest of the way to FLL averaging around 9.5 mpg in my F-350.
We arrived at the Harbortown marina around 4:30 pm and wound our way around the facility looking for the ramps and guard....he found us... Paid him the $48.00 for 6 days and launched the 260 with no problems. The ramps are steep and as we found out on our return quite shallow and almost impossible to retrieve this size boat at low tide. Please time your arrival to hit mid to high tide if possible. Our trailer had to go beyond the concrete ramp ledge to retrieve my boat and most of the F-350's torque had to be used to raise the 260 over the ledge at low tide.:smt100
We put the tops on the 260 loaded the cooler onto the swim platform and idled our way over to the Las Olas public boat docks near Bahia Mar. Took about 25 minutes. Very nice facilities at the Las Olas docks and way too convenient to the Elbow Room and other assorted fun places.....
We made a somewhat early night of it...back in the boat by 12:00 am. We left at 6:30 the next morning after listening to forcast of 2-3 footers and low-med winds and idled our way over to the Port Everglades cut and into the big BLUE. You know, now that I have crossed once I can honestly say if you don't like the wave height and conditions as you come out of Port Everglades you sure as hell wont like the conditions in the gulf stream....:smt043
Needless to say the waves were not 2-3 footers but more like 6-7 footers with a slight Northerly wind component thrown in occasionally just to keep things mixed up. I told my guys as we idled out that we should turn back as the seas were not supposed to be this bad and that I really liked FLL anyway. They asked if I could plane out and I said no...they then asked if we could idle/motor our way the entire 54 miles and I said I guess so....bad mistake. Their wanting to get over and catch fish had them puking by 5 miles out! :wow:
Now the story gets better...you may recall ChuckW's issue with his 260 having a gap at the rub rail and letting water into the bilge. Well I found out my 260 has the same issue but I found out in the middle of the gulf stream! I noticed an odd noise from the engine room as we motored/plowed at around 2300 rpm (6 mph against the current). I raised the engine hatch and much to my horror the bilge had sea water up to the bottom of the lower crank pully and was slinging water around the engine compartment. I immediately switched on the manual bilge pump and it sucked out the water. All this is going on why 6-7 footers throw us around in the middle of the gulf stream... I verified that no water was still coming in and was confused why my automatic float switch was not working... We proceeded for another 7 miles in which I had time to think about where the water could be coming from and I remembered ChuckW's post and I figured that had to be it. With the loaded boat and high waves we were taking water in at the starboard aft rub rail. I opened the hatch again to check on things and low and behold she was up to the lower pully again. I flipped on the bilge and...nothing!!!! My main bilge pump had died!! I stood in the engine compartment holding a dead bilge pump, my buddies sick from the ride, and Bimini still 25 miles away. About this time the most ear piercing alarm I have ever heard goes off...I first think it is the CO alarm...I unhook this...no help....I then remove every fuse I can find....no help....I pray...no help....I ask one sick buddy to check the manual and he can't find anything....so I just start bailing my bilge with a small bowl from the galley. Alarm goes off.....sweet...not sure why...dont care at the moment. Well long nightmare short we idle from here on in and the good Lord settles the seas down as we come in sight of Bimini.
We pull into Bimini Sands Marina and kiss the concrete floating docks and hug the dock master....much to his surprise! Turns out the alarm was the forward bilge alarm so when I removed the water all was good. The rub rail gap was 1/4" and about 2 feet long. I sealed up the gap with some marine silicon I had on board. Checked the breakers under the aft sink....automatic bilge pump breaker had flipped!! Luckily the Bimini Sands ships store had all the bilge pumps and accessories you could want. I purchased a new bilge pump, washed the entire engine room down with fresh water, fogged the engine with WD40, cursed a little, had a beer and all was good. Total trip time 7.5 hours.
We had just then started to take in how beautiful and how nice Bimini Sands was. I had all our forms ready and checked into customs on site no problem...extremely nice customs agents and staff there to greet us. We took a walk and checked out the beach at sunset and words cannot explain how beautiful the water is here...you must see it for yourself....even if you fly over...
We got a good nights sleep and headed out the next day for a little fishing, snorkeling, and exploring. We caught several Barracuda a couple of trigger fish, and hooked several fish we could not budge off the bottom...even with our larger tackle. We snorkeled the Sapona...very cool swimming into the engine room and seeing the large crankshaft and gear drives. We then headed over to Honeymoon harbor which I must say is just fantastic! We were anchored in 3 feet of water and the black rays keep coming by circling us....just awesome!
We made our way back to the marina and cleaned up the boat. We grilled on the boat with the little Magma grill and had a few drinks before heading to Macky's bar on the southern end of the island (little bus/taxi takes you there 2 miles or so). This turned into a crazy party...people on the bar dancing, two for one shots, beautiful people...you get the picture...yes we drank too much. Next day our hangover was tough. :smt100
Saturday we fished some more and made our way by $2.00 ferry from South Bimini to Alice Town on North Bimini (original settlement). Really cool to see the large fishing boats and party boats at Guy Harvey's. We had dinner there and sampled fresh fried conch fritters and homemade conch salad from (Joe's I think)...all wonderful! We saw golf cart load after load of kids having a good time and wondered where they were partying. Turns out they might have all been coming from Bimini Bay another mile or so down the island.
After we returned to Bimini sands I checked the weather forecast for Sunday and Monday and it looked like Monday might turn into another rough trip so I told the guys we were heading back to FLL in the morning...they whined but I made the Captain's call. We topped off on fuel ($6.19/gal) gas at Bimini Sands dock grilled out again, watched the party crowd heading to Mackey's again...passed this time...
Sunday we awoke to light winds and good 2-3 foot seas. We planed out and were making excellent time with two other center consoles when we heard...."Coast guard to two center consoles and one cuddie please come off throttle and maintain your heading...prepare for boarding" Cool!..I think... We waited our turn answered all the questions on the radio and then prepared for the safety inspection. The guys came on board and were really cool. Checked the engine compartment (bone dry!), my safety gear, registration etc. We were on our way in 25 minutes.
The seas had now picked up a little and we were getting tossed around with the USCG guys but we set our heading planed off at 28.5 mph and 16 gph we headed to Port Everglades. Counting the coast guard time we made it in around 2.5 hours. What a much, much, much better trip!
We fished some weed lines on the way in....could see the Mahi but could not get them to bite...our luck.
We idled back over to Harbortown marina just as dead low tide hit. I measured 1.5 ft under my boat at the docks and I knew we were gonna have issues. I put the trailer as far back as she would go before dropping off of the ramp but it was not far enough for the boat even under power and winch to get back on the trailer. I then dropped the trailer off the ramp, floated the 260 onto the trailer and prayed the F-350 would have enough guts to pull her out. The Ford pulled the boat right out to the applause of the crowd that had gathered to watch.
We sorted everything for the trip home, called customs...gave our info and proceeded to Eller Drive for the face to face check in....we were the only ones there.... We then hit the Firestone dealer for a new spare and headed North out of town for home.
About West Palm we heard the dreaded POP and the spare I had installed in GA on the way down had now bit the bullet. We replaced the tire with the new Firestone tire and let the air pressure down to 80 psi in all tires to match the firestone and trailer recommendation. We proceeded at 60 mph towards home averaging 10.5 mpg. The drive was not fun as I waited to hear the next pop knowing my front axle tires were running hotter than the rear. The new Firestone which was an E rated tire ran much cooler than the other front tire so I may be switching all of these. We made it to the edge of GA by 1:30 am and I decided we should all rest/crash and get started back in the morning. We made it home by 2:00 the next day and my other front axle tire had a nice bulge on it by the time we got home just to let me know we were going no further.
We cleaned up the boat and put her back into the fresh Lake Wylie water...(fresh may be an over statement here).
All in all an excellent adventure! My Sea Ray goes in for her rub rail work tomorrow and hopefully we can have a boat that holds out water the next time we try ocean "cruising"!
I hope this report helps those looking to do the crossing. Please remember the following:
1) If something in your boat will break it will be at the worst possible time and the longest distance away from help as possible.
2) Tires that run hotter than the others will pop.
3) Your passengers will get sick when crossing the gulf in rough seas...even with patches, bracelets, etc.
4) There is nothing like the water in Bimini.
5) The fishing is awesome in Bimini.
5) Honeymoon Harbor is fantastic.
6) Bimini Sands is extremely nice for the money....I only have the BVI's to compare to and what I was able to see in Alice Town.
7) The walk back from Mackey's at 2:00 in the morning is long.
8) I love Fort Lauderdale.
9) I love Bimini.
10) I love knowing the coast guard is out there.....
Pictures to follow.....
Kendall
www.biminisands.com
