Bimini sits about 50 nautical miles from the Port Everglades inlet. That is a short run and a real ocean crossing at the same time, and those two facts fight each other in people’s heads. Before you go, four things need to be sorted: the Bahamas paperwork, filed electronically before you leave the dock; safety gear that is current, not just aboard; fuel and range with a reserve you have actually done the math on; and a weather window with no north in it. Everything below is those four things, in that order.
How far is it from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini, and how long does the crossing take?
It is roughly 50 to 55 nautical miles from the Port Everglades inlet to Bimini, depending on your entrance. A 35 to 60 foot planing boat cruising 20 to 25 knots does it in about two and a half to three hours. A displacement boat at 8 or 9 knots is looking at six.
The Gulf Stream is what makes it more than a straight line. NOAA puts the current’s average speed at about four miles an hour, with a maximum near the surface of about 5.6 miles an hour. Call it three to almost five knots setting you north the whole way across. If you steer the rhumb line you will end up well north of Bimini and burn fuel crabbing back down. Point south of where you want to end up and let the Stream carry you onto it. How far south depends on your speed, so work it out for your boat before you go.
Do the Bahamas paperwork before you untie the lines
The Bahamas runs pleasure vessel clearance through Click2Clear, the customs electronic system, and you should file the day before you leave. Go to the portal, pick Pleasure Vessel, and work through the Create Inbound declaration. You will need vessel registration or documentation, passport details for every single person aboard, and the Maritime Declaration of Health. Weapons and pets get declared here too, and the firearms rules are strict, so read them before you assume anything.
When you submit, the system gives you a rotation number. That number is what you use to pay. Pay in full online. Customs does not approve the declaration until the money has cleared.
Then you arrive, you tie up at a port of entry, and only the captain goes ashore. Everyone else stays on the boat until Customs and Immigration have cleared the vessel. That is not a formality anybody bends. Bring the printed declaration, the rotation number, all the passports and the boat’s registration ashore with you.
Passports for everyone. Not a birth certificate, not a driver’s licence, not “he’s a kid.” A passport, for every person on the boat.
What does it cost to take a boat to the Bahamas in 2026?
Fees changed on April 1, 2026. A boat up to 50 feet pays $250 for a 30 day cruising permit, $300 for six months, or $500 for twelve. A boat 51 to 100 feet pays $350, $750 or $1,000. Fishing is a separate permit.
The fishing permit is $100 for boats under 50 feet and $300 for 50 feet and over, and it is only good for 30 days no matter what your cruising permit says. Renew it if you stay longer. There is a passenger tax of $30 per additional non resident guest over the first three, ages six and up. [One Bahamas Customs page still shows $20 here rather than $30. Worth a phone call to confirm before you quote it to a client.] There is also an anchorage fee if you are not staying in a marina, which does not apply if you are dockside. [Confirm the current anchorage figure for the under 50 foot band. Published numbers vary between $50 and $200 for a 30 day permit.]
If you are going to do this four or five times a year, price out the Frequent Digital Cruising Card. It is $1,500 for under 50 feet and $2,500 for 50 to 100 feet and covers unlimited visits for two years.
The flags, and why people get this wrong
Fly the yellow Q flag when you enter Bahamian waters and keep it up until you are cleared. Once Customs and Immigration have signed you off, the Q comes down and the Bahamian courtesy flag goes up in its place, at the starboard spreader or the highest starboard position you have. Your US ensign stays where it belongs, at the stern.
The courtesy flag should be clean and it should not be bigger than your ensign. A faded, shredded courtesy flag is worse than none. Buy a new one, it costs almost nothing.
AIS, if your boat is over 50 feet
Foreign pleasure vessels over 50 feet must have AIS transmitting at all times in Bahamian waters. The fine for not doing it is $1,000. If you are at the top of this size range and you have a receive only setup, that does not count. You need a Class B transceiver that transmits, and it needs to be on.
The safety gear the law requires
Federal requirements first, because these get checked and they are the floor, not the goal.
A wearable life jacket for every person aboard, plus one Type IV throwable. Visual distress signals good for day and night. A sound producing device. Correct navigation lights. Backfire flame arrestor and blower ventilation if you are gas powered.
Fire extinguishers are where I find the most problems. Since April 20, 2022, a disposable extinguisher with a date of manufacture more than 12 years old is no longer acceptable and has to come off the boat. Boats of model year 2018 and newer need 5-B or 20-B rated extinguishers that are date stamped. A boat 26 to under 40 feet carries two, or one if there is a fixed system in the engine space. A boat 40 to 65 feet carries three, or two with a fixed system. One 20-B counts as two 5-B units. Go flip yours over and read the bottom of the bottle. I would guess half the boats in this size range in South Florida have at least one expired unit aboard right now.
Also check your flare expiration dates while you are down there. Flares expire 42 months from the date of manufacture. Nobody remembers this until an inspection.
EPIRB and life raft: what I would carry across
Neither one is federally required on a recreational boat. Both are what I would want 25 miles offshore in 2,000 feet of water with the nearest land over the horizon.
Carry a 406 MHz EPIRB and register it with NOAA. Registration is free and it is required by FCC rule, and an unregistered beacon costs search and rescue real time working out whose boat it is. A Category I unit is float free and self activating, which is what you want if the boat goes down fast. A Category II is manually activated and it is better than nothing. ACR and Ocean Signal are the two names you will see. If you have moved the beacon from another boat, or you bought it used, update the registration today.
A life raft is the one that makes owners flinch at the price. My view is simple. If your boat sinks or catches fire, the tender on the swim platform is not a plan. A raft with a valid service tag, in a canister you can actually reach and launch, mounted where it will not be under a pile of fenders. Check the service date. A raft that is out of service interval is a decoration.
Ditch bag with handheld VHF, PLB or the EPIRB, water, and a signal mirror. Keep it in the same place every trip and tell your guests where it is.
Your radio may not be legal in the Bahamas
This one catches people. A recreational boat in US waters with only a VHF, radar and an EPIRB does not need an FCC ship station licence. The moment you travel to a foreign port, including the Bahamas, a licence is required. You also need a Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit to operate a VHF in foreign waters. Neither one is expensive and both are filed online.
The related trap is the MMSI. If your DSC number came free from BoatUS or Sea Tow, it is a domestic number. An international voyage needs an FCC issued MMSI, and that comes with the ship station licence. Same nine digits on the outside, very different on the inside if you ever push the distress button off Bimini.
Program the MMSI into the radio, connect the radio to your GPS, and test that the DSC position is populating. A DSC radio with no position feed is a plain VHF that took your money. On the Bahamas side, BASRA monitors VHF 16.
How much fuel reserve do you want for a Gulf Stream crossing?
I run thirds. One third out, one third back, one third untouched. On a 50 mile crossing that is conservative and I do not care. You will burn more than your calm water number because you will be pushing into a chop and holding a correction angle the whole way.
Know your actual burn rate, not the brochure number. Run the boat at cruise for an hour with a full tank and measure it. Then plan the round trip on that figure with the reserve on top. Fuel is available in Bimini, but plan the trip as if it is not. [Current Bimini fuel pricing and availability worth checking before you write about it.]
Water, power and the rest
Fill the water tank at the dock in Fort Lauderdale. Carry drinking water separately, in bottles or jugs, enough for everybody for the whole trip plus a day. People drink far more than they expect on a hot boat.
Check your battery state honestly before you leave. A start battery that is marginal in the marina is a genuine problem 25 miles offshore. Test the bilge pumps, all of them, by lifting the floats rather than by hitting the switch. Test the horn. Test the anchor light.
The spares that actually matter
Not everything, just the things that end a trip.
Fuel filters and the wrench that fits them, primary and secondary, with enough spares to change them twice. Bad fuel is the single most common way a crossing turns into a tow. Impellers and the gaskets that go with them, plus the screwdriver that reaches the pump. Belts. A spare prop shaft anode if you are going for more than a few days. Hose clamps in the sizes on your boat. Self amalgamating tape. A basic electrical kit with a multimeter, crimps and fuses in your boat’s amperages.
Have a paper chart and know how to use it, plus a handheld GPS with its own batteries. Two independent ways to know where you are.
Why does a north wind ruin a Gulf Stream crossing?
The Gulf Stream runs north at three to five knots. Wind out of the north pushes water south against it. Wind against current shortens the wave period and stands the seas up into steep, close, breaking faces. The same wind speed from the southeast gives you a manageable ride. From the north it gives you a beating.
This is the whole game. Not wind speed on its own. Wind direction relative to the current.
Reading the window
Watch for a cold front. A front comes through, the wind clocks around to the north or northwest and blows hard, and that is your no go. What people get wrong is going too soon after it. The wind lays down before the sea does. Give it 24 to 36 hours after the northerly has died for the Stream to settle.
What you want is east or southeast at 10 knots or less, or a light south wind, with a forecast that holds for the window you need in both directions. Read the NWS Miami offshore forecast for the Gulf Stream zone, not the coastal one and not a phone app that only shows wind arrows. Check the sea state forecast, the period and not just the height. Four feet at nine seconds and four feet at four seconds are different oceans.
And plan the trip home the same way you planned the trip out. The most common mistake I see is a perfect crossing eastbound and then a Sunday afternoon return into a building northeasterly because somebody has work on Monday. Go a day early or stay a day late. The boat does not care what your calendar says.
Getting back into the United States
You have to report your arrival to CBP immediately on return from a foreign port. The easiest way is the CBP ROAM app, which is free, and you should download it and set up your profile and your vessel before you leave, not while you are tied up at the fuel dock with one bar of service. Everyone aboard gets entered. If ROAM is not working, call CBP and follow what they tell you.
What I tell owners before the first one
Do the paperwork a week out, not the night before. Go through the safety gear with the manuals in front of you and throw out anything expired. Know your burn rate as a real number. Then pick a window with no north in it and let the boring one be the one you take.
The first crossing should be uneventful. That is the entire goal. If you want a second set of eyes on your boat’s gear or on a window before you commit, call me. If you are looking at a boat with a crossing in mind, I would rather have that conversation before you buy it than after.