Miami to Bimini by Jet Ski's

Agreed, and there is nothing wrong with alerting him to some of the challenges. By the way, a hand held is going to be useless when it comes to calling for help. Personal Locator Beacons are appropriate. Make sure they are registered and attached to your vests.
 
Just mount a full sized VHF and ant. on one of the skis. Take a EPIRB or at least a SPOT. File a float plan and follow it. And then sign up for Sea Tow.
 
As others have stated:
1. pick your day carefully,
2. make sure that you have more than enough fuel,
3. have a mothership travel with you.

Even if you do this, be aware that you may have to ditch the jetski to board the mothership to save your life. NOAA weather reports predict sea state based on broad weather trends. If a supercell thunderstorm kicks up, there could be winds in excess of 50 mph and seas upwards to 8 ft around the storm. Generally, it rains everyday in Florida during the summer. Cross early as storms usually happen in the afternoon.

I once joined a flotilla from Ft Lauderdale to Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama in July. The seas were predicted to be 1-3ft. When I got up at 5:30am to do my pre-departure checks, there was lots of lightening and thunder offshore. The flotilla waited until 9:30am to depart. 10 miles out, in 6-8 ft seas, I turned around and headed back to port.

Also, I don't know how sensitive a jet ski is to fuel, but Mixman reported that his Honda outboards had a bad reaction when converting from ethanol fuel purchased in the states to non-ethanol fuel purchased in the Bahamas. The south Florida fishing forums also have reports of fuel problems when making the same transition. You can buy non-ethanol fuel at the marinas in Florida. It is more expensive. Perhaps you should run a tank of non-ethanol fuel thru the ski before you depart. If you have a fuel issue, are you capable of fixing it while drifting in the gulf stream? Lately, the gulf stream has been running about 4.5kts. The gulf stream is close to shore around Miami and 30 miles offshore by the time it gets to Cape Canaveral.
 
believe it or not a guy on our dock here on Lake Lanier did this trip on his jetski with a friend last summer! I thought he was crazy and still think it was crazy but they did in fact survive. They strapped gas cans to back of their jetskis, etc. and they had a fun time but I just couldn't see doing it myself on a jetski!
 
Fuel, yes fuel and bad fuel happens! Make sure you have a good water separating gas filter installed. Don't depend on the stock issue filter. Our outboard (as well as many others) gummed up. I ran about 5 gallons through this filter that I added after tearing the carb down twice and you can see the gunk in the bottom from those five gallons.
I'm not messing with you. This happened to our dink and many others. The main jets plug up and if you are lucky you can idle back. You don't want to have to clean out the carbs in the middle of the stream on the way back. Make sure the mother has one installed also. While this is way oversized for an 18 hp, it has made a world of difference!
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Sorry about the image quality but that brown stuff in the back of the bowl will shut you down quick.
 
Go for it! our team set the round trip record last year 43min43seconds average speed 145mph its a 50 mystic with turbines
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCvvNt8C2-I
 
Jet ski?? This guy can do it on a pool float

BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. — A man who apparently passed out on a pool float at a Tampa area beach ended up drifting about a mile from Florida's shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the man, identified as Jerry Whipple, on Wednesday afternoon. Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Mariana O'Leary says they suspect the man was very drunk.

The Coast Guard says a boater reported seeing an unconscious man floating well offshore. The Coast Guard and a Clearwater Fire Rescue unit responded and found the man, still unconscious and wearing a life jacket.

He eventually woke up and was checked by paramedics at a Coast Guard station.

O'Leary said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office will investigate the incident.
 
Well we had a blast, the conditions were perfect on the crossing over " southeast 5-9 and seas less than two foot" we averaged between 30-45 mph when we weren't messing with the extra fuel, both skis used a little less than half a tank crossing. We left out of Key Biscayne 52 miles from Bimini, it would have taken about a hour and a half but we messed with the gas cans for about 45 minutes till we figured out a way to triangulate the bungees just right. One thing I didnt even think about was the height of the docks at Big Game, we came in at low tide and they moved us around a lot trying to put each of them on a ladder but we made it work. The resort had been recently been remodeled and was pretty nice, it is now called "Bimini Big Game a Guy Harvey Outpost". We drove all night thursday and crossed friday morning so we didnt do much friday once we arrived but saturday we went to Sapona and snorkeled . We had to come back sunday morning so we didnt have time to explore to much. We had 2-4 foot seas all the way back and averaged about 25 mph, much rougher than the trip over. All in all it was an great experience but I think I would like to take a boat next time. 
 
Cool! Looks like fun. Glad you made it across and back safely. Did you get any strange looks or comments when you told people what you were doing?
 
Hey, not bad! Thanks for the vid. So you found a nurse shark eh? There are plenty of those out there. The little ones like the shallows to the East of all of the marinas. Did you get a chance to go around South Bimini with high tide? I was wishing you had taken video of the return trip since 2-4 is very uncomfortable in out boat.
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Jonathan- glad you had an awesome trip! Next time let's get you going over in that 54 trojan! ;)
 
I wonder what the reaction of customs was when they ask what kind of boats you were on? :)
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

I wonder what the reaction of customs was when they ask what kind of boats you were on? :)

Click to expand...


Based on all the videos on YouTube of others who have done it, I'm guessing not much of one. :-)
 
Ja Ja!!
Well done!
Now you can look down on the skeptics but I know you
won't.
 
That video makes it look like one hell of a great trip to take.

Good luck.
 
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