Bimini

Friday, Dec. 2

Our first Bahamian sunrise was a good one!

Bimini is actually two main islands, North and South. The island of North Bimini, where most inhabitants live and most tourists go, is about 7 miles long and maybe a mile wide with two towns – Alice Town, where our marina is, and Bailey Town a mile or so further north. Being so close to the US border, this was a popular place during Prohibition for rumrunners to store their stash. Bimini has been visited by many notable Americans including Martin Luther King who wrote some of his acceptance speech for his Nobel Prize here; Jimmy Buffet who wrote a book here; and of course Hemingway who wrote and drank rum here! For movie buffs, the last scene of “Silence of the Lambs” was filmed on the beach. Exhibits on these and much more were in the Museum and Heritage Center. But think small and simple when you think museum. The door is open, the exhibits are there and there is absolutely no one inside watching over it.

The Museum is on King’s Hwy, a narrow road, barely two lanes wide, which runs the length of the island. We have to be very aware of traffic while walking since they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Cars, golf carts and pedestrians take up the road space, but amazingly few bicycles. 

Here’s more of what we enjoyed seeing walking around Alice Town…

These shops were packed with clothes (shipped in from Nassau but probably made in China) and typical tourist kitsch. One vender sweetly pleaded, “Don’ pass me up, honey!”

The Library door was wide open and totally unoccupied. More like an exchange only with just books.  Lots of variety and some quite up-to-date as I suspect cruisers often leave materials.

Off the King’s Hwy, we went uphill (yes, there are decent hills and they are all natural, not manmade) past small houses many of which double as a business. 

Down the hill from the small neighborhood pictured above is the crushed coral sand beach. The clouds of the morning burned off later, but 

you can still see the exquisite blue of the ocean.

                                   
                              

                                              unidentified wreck on the beach

 Many, many conch shells and some of them line the top of walls along the roadside.

Working our way back to the marina was a museum that we’d hoped to go in called the Dolphin House, built and occupied by local author/historian Ashley Saunders. His 79-year old brother “Bonefish Ansel” is a 5^th generation boat builder and gives tours at his Bimini Boat Building. Sadly, both places were closed (the fishing must have been too good!) so we have something to look forward seeing to next time.

Back at the marina, the fish cleaning station at the end of the dock was busy in the morning and we talked to the fishermen. They told us they’d been out for 3 or 4 hours to get the catch which they would sell to restaurants and other venders. They had dozens and dozens of snapper and grouper. Later in the day Tom went over to chat again and came back to the boat with a nice gifted snapper which we consumed with a salad for dinner that night.

I got out the steel drum later in the afternoon and played some island music with Tom adding in good shaker and tambourine accompaniment. Nice way to end our first day in the Bahamas!

Saturday was bright and sunny and I got the folding bike out, riding to Bailey Town to “Charlie’s” for some good Bimini bread. The bread is made and sold right out of a home and I was inhaling the heavenly fresh bread before I got to the door. $5 a loaf, so not really that different from any good fresh baked bread in the states.

Those blue waters on this sunny day were very tempting and proved to be as warm and lovely as I’d hoped! 

Two nights at a dock though is enough and we pushed off around 3pm to anchor a few miles away at South Bimini in Nixon Harbour.

Settling into cruising life, Sunday was intended to be a zero day (hiker term for going nowhere). But in the afternoon we left this rather rolling anchorage and sailed 7 miles south to Cat Cay (“cay” is still pronounced “key”) where the water is more calm, plus it’s a good place to be when the next weather window opens up for the 90-mile sail to the Berries.

Cat Cay is a small resort island with an airport, a country club, golf course and some extremely nice looking homes. Soon after our arrival a few American teenagers came out on their paddleboards to say “hi” and paddle on around.

Passed by this little government lighthouse on Gun Cay.

Another Leopard catamaran named Rum Tum Tiger arrived in the afternoon and they are also headed across in the morning so we’ll have a buddy boat for this next leg. Turns out they are from Scottsdale and she taught at Camelback High School!

Cruising actually has some similarities to hiking, one of which are names. If you were in on the AT hiking blog you may recall hiker names. Boat names are just as unique and you often get to know folks by their boat name first. It’s fun to try to guess how names come about. We are Double Life. Our new buddy boat is Rum Tum Tiger. We’ve also met Sundance, Dog’s Life (dog Lucky is on board), Lucayan (name of the original Bahama residents that Columbus did away with), and Upside Up (let’s hope so!).