BAHAMAS - NORTH BIMINI

The westernmost islands of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas are about 50 miles east of south Florida and 70 miles north of eastern Cuba. The country covers an area approximately 600 miles long by 250 miles wide and includes more than 700 islands and 2,400 cays. Only 30 of the islands and/or cays are inhabited. 

"In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and was the first European to make landfall in the 'New World'. That was on what is now the island of San Salvador in the eastern Bahamas. Later, the Spanish enslaved the native Lucayans and sent them to Hispaniola, the island now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This left the Bahama islands mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.

The Bahamas became a British colony in 1718 as the British clamped down on piracy. After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists to the Bahamas. They took enslaved people with them and established plantations. African enslaved people and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. Slavery in Bahamas was abolished in 1834. Subsequently, Bahamas became a haven for freed African slaves as well as North American slaves and Seminoles who escaped from Florida. Today Afro-Bahamians make up 90% of the nearly 400,000 population, of which approximately 70% live in the capital city of Nassau.

The country gained governmental independence from England in 1973. In terms of gross domestic product per capita, Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas (following the United States and Canada), with its economy based on tourism and offshore finance. English is the official language but sometimes you really have to listen hard and fast to understand it. The currency is pegged to the US dollar one to one.

Most of the above, but not all, was stolen from Wikipedia. 

The red circle is around the Bimini Islands which are covered in this blog. The five red dots are where we have been since Bimini and the red "X" is over Shroud Cay where we are anchored now. 

As I mentioned last time, in order to be allowed into the Bahamas the stars must align in terms of having a negative Covid test that is no more than five days old and meshing with a good weather window. We had been tested three times so we had that down, but up to that point had never had the right weather within five days of testing. However, if the forecast held, Christmas Eve Day didn't look too bad. The day was to begin with winds and waves from the southeast (not good), but by mid-morning they were to be from the south (good) and by that afternoon from the southwest (great). So we left first thing Christmas Eve morning into pretty unpleasant conditions. That was fine though; it wasn't a surprise and it was expected to improve. But by 10:00 there was no sign of it changing. We were still beating into the wind and waves. At noon the same and by 2:00 we were resigned to the fact that it was just going to be one of those crossings. The good thing is that it was only a nine hour ordeal and although loud and crashing it really wasn't uncomfortable in terms of sea sickness.

 

This was our first look of Alice Town on North Bimini, Bahamas. It was much quainter and less developed than I expected, which was a nice surprise. Bimini includes three islands, North, South and East. East is deserted. South has the airport, a resort, a couple hundred people and is connected to North Bimini by a pontoon boat ferry. North Bimini is 7 miles long by only 700' wide and has a population of around 2000 living in three small settlements. North has all of the government offices, businesses and services, as well as a Hilton, casino, high end resort and residential development at the very north end. Being an island of rock, traditional agriculture was never really a thing on Bimini so it has a history of booms and busts including pirating, ship wreck salvaging, smuggling during the American Civil War, sponging, turtle harvesting, sisal farming, conch harvesting, sea shelling, rum running during prohibition in the States and tourism. It is also considered the "Big Game Fishing Capital of the World"

Even though it was late afternoon on Christmas Eve, Brown's Marina was able to arrange for Customs and Immigration to come to the boat to check us in. 

The process was very easy. it cost $300 to keep the boat in the Bahamas for three months, which we'll renew for another three months when the time comes. For Delana and I it was $60 each for the entire length of our stay. The $60 includes a fishing license, as well as an insurance policy to pay for a flight back to your home country in the event you come down with Covid. However, I'm not sure how welcoming most home countries would be.

The next morning Delana took down our yellow "quarantine" flag and raised the Bahamian courtesy flag.

Then she got after Christmas dinner including at my request, making French silk pie.  

This isn't a very good photo, but it kind of shows how rough the entrance to the harbor had become overnight. So even though we had a rough crossing, in hindsight we're glad we did it then versus waiting for the next weather window which wasn't for another 10 days.

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Though it was very rough on the Atlantic side, in the bay and just across the channel from where we were docked, there was some Christmas Day kite boarding going on.

The boat had been decorated for Christmas since shortly after Thanksgiving.

A friend on another boat gave us a half dozen lobsters, which we had for Christmas dinner. Thanks Tom. The lobster and everything else, including the French silk, was great. 

We had a Very Merry Christmas.

The marina we checked in at only had three boats including us, a boat that arrived just before we did and one that looks like it's been there a long time.

It's a nice little marina and only one of three that were open but between Covid and this being their off season, it was very quiet.

There was only one person on staff and he didn't have much to do other than watch old American westerns, Ozzie and Harriet, etc. Clifton's favorite show was Hazel.

I've read almost all of Hemingway's books, including Islands in the Stream, so it was interesting that our marina is mentioned in that novel. Besides big game fishing while in Bimini, Hemingway worked on To Have and Have Not, wrote a few articles and was inspired to write Old Man and the Sea.    
                                                            

Besides Hemingway, Dr Martin Luther King Jr visited Bimini, western author Zane Grey (my Dad's favorite) spent time there, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell exiled himself to the island, it's where Gary Hart's presidential aspirations ended and one of the places Ponce de Leon looked for the Fountain of youth.

The Bimini Big Game Club, also has a great history.

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Though from a different era, the Club is still very cool.

This is where they measured and weighed the marlin, tuna and other big game fish seen in so many old photos.

Like where we were docked, Big Game's hotel and marina were practically deserted.

There are only two north/south roads on North Bimini, Kings Highway and Queens Highway (Highway is a big word for such a little road). They go through all three of the settlements (Alice Town, Bailey Town and Porgy Bay) and are connected by 5 or 6 perpendicular streets. There's probably less than 10 miles of road in total.

Like I said, it is a quaint place.

Bimini reminds me of many of the places we've been to in Central America and Mexico. They've all seen their better days with most buildings built in the 50's or 60's and not much construction since. But where those countries and the Bahamas really differ is that we haven't seen one armed guard or any military presence. In Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Guatemala, guns are everywhere. And of course, the language. As much as we wanted to learn Spanish we never really put in the time needed to get where we could have a real conversation. So having a common language has really made things much easier and more interesting. Plus, with the exchange rate with US currency at 1:1 and US money being so readily accepted it is just that much more convenient.

All the windows in the library were busted out and the door was wide open, but still plenty of books.                      

Near the north end of North Bimini is a Hilton Hotel and casino. 

But like Brown's and Big Game Club, the hotel, casino and marina were pretty much empty.

Just north of the Hilton is Resorts World. A large, and what looks like a fairly new resort, but it doesn't look like it has ever really opened.

Outside the resort were hundreds of beach chairs. If this was Honduras or Belize these would have all disappeared within days and every home within a couple miles would have had new furniture. As a matter of fact, when we were in those countries, specifically Honduras, we were always relieved to come back to where we had tied up the dinghy or anchored the boat to find everything still there. Maybe that's not fair, but we heard enough credible stories to make us pretty cautious. I don't think I realized how much that weighed on me until we got back to the States, and now the Bahamas, which seem much more secure. However, it sounds like Nassau, like any larger city, may be a different story.

At the north end of the island there were also modest town homes without water views.

Nice bay side single family homes with water front.

And an area with large luxury homes being developed though it looked like construction had been on hold for awhile.

Their are wrecks along the Atlantic side. As a matter of fact, salvaging wrecks was what the local economy was based on during much of the 1800's.

Tidal pools always have some interesting creatures.

On Christmas Day we heard a very scratchy distress call from off the island. They weren't able to hear us, and with the high seas, not having the right boat and lack of local knowledge, there's little we could do other than try to find someone who could help. Luckily Jay, the local Dive Master, heard us on the radio and took his small power boat out to find them. They were anchored in 20' of water with waves so large that the bottom of their boat's keel would touch the sea floor when it was in a trough. We could overhear their conversation on our VHF. Jay said that with the high seas he couldn't tow them in, but could get them off their boat. Since they didn't have a Bahamian Visa, they decided to stay on-board for what had to be a terrible sleepless night. 

The next morning was calm so Jay towed them in. He had them drop their anchor in the channel right behind us. We were close enough that we could have an actual conversation across the water. Their story was incredible. It turns out that this was the same blue boat the U.S. Coast Guard had been searching for over the past 22 days. Apparently they left Florida for another Florida destination and an unexpected storm disabled their engine and damaged their sails. They decided it best to sail to Cuba for repairs, but were only given two hours and then had to leave. They then headed to Mathews Town, Bahamas where they were also sent away because they had no visa. To make a very long story somewhat short, they basically drifted to just north of Bimini, but only after getting caught in the middle of a water spout and being spun around until nearly everything else was broken. After 22 days at sea they were towed into Bimini without a working engine or generator; a deflated dinghy; torn sails; two lost anchors, luckily they had a third; an inoperable autopilot, AIS and VHF antennae; and wet cell phones. The only reason we heard them on channel 16 was because they had a small portable antennae that the first mate held over her head while standing as high as she could get on the boat. 

And before you say they must have been new dumb sailors, they were "old salts". He used to be the captain of one of Ted Turner's boats back in the 80's. Once they got food brought out to the boat and some badly needed sleep, they were in surprisingly good spirits. And credit to the Immigration and Customs Officials in Bimini for letting them stay (without getting off the boat), while they had some repairs done....at least enough to get them back to Florida. 

That Sunday I had quite a few options but chose to attend the nearest church. By the way, the Bahamas is very religious and has one of the highest number of churches per capita as any country in the world.

The Wesley Methodist Church is in an old small wood frame building. There were only three of us attending services, including the Pastor. Besides my "singing", I thought it was funny that the only one in the congregation besides me, sat way at the back. The pastor and the other congregant were both whites from long time Bahamian families. It sounded to me like their accents were Maine like. Anyway, it was a nice short service

It seems like many of the cemeteries have the best views.

A few blocks down from the church is this beachside restaurant.

With cold beer and a great view 

We had the fried lobster. It was excellent.

Thirteen species of sharks are known to be in the waters around Bimini. While at the marina we saw two of them. A bull shark swam under the boat, as well as hammerhead. We did not go swimming there.

We then found out that the Big Game Club's dive shop, which was only a couple hundred yards from where we were docked, has a cage that people can go down into to watch sharks underwater, while the dive staff throws fish parts near the cage. We didn't do that, but I really wish we had.

This photo is of a bunch of bull sharks looking for more fish parts. Oh, and Jay, the dive master who came to the rescue of the blue boat, takes divers out to swim with sharks in a more natural situation. Plus, he's been the head diver for many of the "Shark Week" videos. Jay's also a Marine and really a nice guy, but is obviously an adrenaline junky.

This is the All-Age School.

Dominoes is THE game.

After staying at the Marina for a couple nights we anchored near the Hilton. We were in more or less a gravel pit that was created to provide fill for the new development.

This was our view from the boat, looking at the Hilton, the casino and some bay side homes.

We were also near the flight path of the sea planes bringing and taking the few guests.

Five days after checking into the Bahamas we had to take a Covid test. It was the fourth one we had passed. This is the clinic.

Now it was New Year's Eve so we thought we'd really celebrate by going to the casino. There were maybe five other people and all the tables were closed. That left slot machines as the only way to lose our money which we did in about 15 minutes. Neither of us had been in a casino in years, let alone played newer generation slot machines. By the time we figured out how they work we had lost twice our limit. 

So we took a walk around the empty hotel and then back to the boat to lick our wounds. 

We then returned for the bon fire. There were maybe 20 people along with some really loud music.

On New Year's Day we went to the beach with our portable bar.

The water was beautiful but a little too cool for me to go swimming.

During the Coast Guard announcements in the States there are always notices of missing channel markers. I found a few on Bimini.

Near the Hilton on the Atlantic side is a huge pier that's for the high speed ferry that comes from Florida. It wasn't operating which I think was more a function of it being the off season rather than Covid.

Before leaving Bimini we visited the Dolphin House. It's been a work in progress since the mid-80's and is decorated totally with items found on the island. 

It is being built by the Ashley Saunders, local historian, author, and UW-Madison graduate (go figure).

Ashley has even built a rooftop lighthouse with great views. Did I mention that he's also the local Building Inspector, which I'm sure has come in handy with this project.

On the side of Dolphin House, Ashley has an orchard/garden with bush medicines, papaya and I can't remember what else.

Basketball is pretty popular. When a local heard we were originally from Minnesota, he mentioned that back in the 80's Mankato State had nearly an all Bahamian basketball team.

Beginning in Bimini we have seen piles and piles and piles of conch shells.

The last Sunday there I went to the Anglican Church in Bailey Town. The Anglican Church was founded by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1867, it's aligned with the Church of England and is the third largest church in the world. It's only smaller than the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. It sounds like some congregations are very Catholic and others are very Protestant. Anyway, it was well attended and the mass seemed more Catholic than Catholic. At the end they asked it there were any visitors. Seeing how I was the only white guy there, I could see and/or feel everyone in the congregation looking me. I stood up, introduced myself, said we were on a boat and enjoying the island. Then on behalf of the congregation, Rt. Rev'd Laish Boyd blessed our future travels.

One last look at Bimini's water. It's hard to believe, but the Bahamian waters get much nicer.

We went to bed in our gravel pit to a full moon. The following afternoon, after nine days (Dec 24 - Jan 3) on North Bimini we left for the Berry Islands.

For the next blog we'll be in the Berries. Here Delana gets a closer look at a ray.