Bahamas 2012 - Bimini

We awoke to brilliant sunshine, a gentle, cool breeze and gin clear, crystal Bahamian waters, where everything on the ocean floor was clearly visible. Our morning coffee tasted especially good today! After breakfast, we upped anchor and headed into Alice Town on North Bimini for our inbound Customs and Immigration clearance.

The channel into Alice Town, although not well marked by bouys, but the water is generally easy to read, with the blue channel visibly evident from the surrounding white shallows and shoals. Today (Sunday), there was significant traffic in and out of the harbor. The channel, though wide, shoals quickly on either side. Vigilance and attentiveness is required, especially today, with a dredge working mid channel, to improve the approach for the arrival of a planned high speed ferry from the US.

Upon arrival into Alice Town Harbour, there are several marinas, all located on your port side.

We elected to stay at Sea Crest Marina and were greeted at the dock by Captain Pat, who provided us with the required paperwork for Customs and Immigration. The master of the vessel then heads to the Customs House, with the completed paperwork, passports for all on board and ships documentation. All other crew and passengers must remain aboard until clearance is complete, at which time, the yellow quarantine flag is taken down, and replaced by the Bahamian courtesy flag. Customs and Immigration officials in Bimini are friendly and helpful. Our cruising permit, which includes a fishing license was $300 for vessels in excess of 35 feet.

Alice Town was a delightful little town, with its bustling, single lane main thoroughfare.

The locals are warm and friendly, with everyone bidding you welcome by waving or tooting their horn. These locals are genuinely happy to have visitors, and willing to share local knowledge. January is certainly the off season here in Bimini, and it is evident that the current economy has also taken its toll. Regardless, the local vendors welcomed us into their stores and treated us with warmth and respect, whether or not we made a purchase.

Being Sunday, and off season, many of the businesses were closed. The funky, waterfront “End of the World” sandbar was open, where we enjoyed our first cold Kalik beer.

We later discovered the restaurant at the Bimini Big Game Resort and Marina, where we had an enjoyable lunch out on the waterfront deck, overlooking the anchorage to the north.  During lunch, we learned a local trick for dealing with the flies that descend as soon as food is served………Tobasco sauce shaken onto a dish seems to deter the flies. It certainly worked in this case. Lunch was walked off with a visit to nearby white sands of Radio Beach on the Atlantic side of the island, and a visit to the unique “Dolphin House”, which is totally adorned and decorated inside and out with shells and other beach treasures.

   Another magnificent day dawns here in Paradise. This Monday morning, Susann set out to meet with the folks at the Tourism Office, and update the “Goin Ashore” info for the Waterway Guide, which we have been asked to update on this voyage. They were most helpful and provided many changes and updates on activities and services on North and South Bimini.

Later, we decided to rent a golf cart to tour around the island. Not the Rolls. It was parked and looked like it hadn't run in a while.

The streets were bustling with increased activity, and we had to be ever cognizant to drive on the left hand side of the road. Although both the Kings and Queens Highways are the main roads circling the island, they are little more than a single lane, and traffic zips through at an alarming pace for such a small community.

Our sightseeing took us through neighboring Bailey Town and out to the Bimini Resort. We stopped at the local cemetery and walked the beautiful adjacent Spook Hill Beach.

On our way back through Bailey Town, we stopped at the waterfront bar at Eddie’s Bone Fishing Tours.

The bar was closed but a delightful Bahamian woman opened the Rum Shack and sold each of us a refreshing Kalik beer. She was very entertaining and passed along lots of local information.

Upon our return to the marina, we chatted with folks from Marathon, FL who were returning from a morning of fishing. They caught 5 wahoo, and speculated that the largest topped 50 pounds! As we watched them clean and filet their catch, they generously offered us some, which we gratefully accepted. Wahoo was planned for dinner, until Alan met a local diver with lobster tails for sale. After some negotiation, we agreed on a bag of both small and larger tails, which was split with friends Paul and Denise. Needless to say, lobster was the menu of choice, and the wahoo frozen for a treat sometime in the near future.

Happy hour was spent watching another magnificent sunset across on Radio Beach.

After a scrumptious feed of lobster, it was early to bed, due to a 6:30am departure across the Great Bahamas Bank to the Berry Islands the next morning.
Bimini was a warm and charming place, and one we hope to visit again sometime.