The Baleària Caribbean ferry crosses the Gulf Stream along a 70-nautical-mile route that has connected South Florida to Bimini since 2021, replacing the sporadic charter charters that served the island for decades.
The high-speed catamaran departs from Terminal 21 at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale three times per week, reaching North Bimini's Resorts World ferry terminal in approximately three hours. The vessel maintains a fixed Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday schedule year-round, departing at 09:00 and returning at 18:00, a timetable designed to maximize island time while respecting maritime weather windows and U.S. Customs re-entry processing at both ends.
Bimini remains the westernmost point of the Bahamas archipelago, positioned 50 miles east of Miami Beach and closer to Florida than to Nassau. The island gained prominence in the 1920s as Ernest Hemingway's sport-fishing base and a rum-running hub during Prohibition, leaving behind a string of weathered docks and limestone-walled bars that still anchor the settlement of Alice Town. Today the crossing serves a dual market: day-trippers seeking the novelty of international water transit and divers accessing the island's shallow reefs, submerged aviation wrecks, and the limestone formations known as the Bimini Road.
The ferry terminal at Port Everglades sits within Fort Lauderdale's industrial port complex, a 30-minute drive north of Miami International Airport and 20 minutes south of Palm Beach County. Passengers clear outbound U.S. exit procedures and Bahamian immigration before boarding, a process that typically requires arrival 60 to 90 minutes before departure. The return leg includes Bahamian exit stamps and U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection upon docking, a secondary screening that can extend disembarkation by 45 minutes depending on passenger load and staffing levels.
Round-trip ferry tickets include all port fees and fuel surcharges but exclude optional ground transfers from Miami Beach or downtown Fort Lauderdale hotels, which are sold separately by third-party shuttle operators. The vessel operates under Bahamian maritime registry and maintains bilingual crew announcements in English and Spanish throughout the crossing.
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