North Bimini for X-mas

We moved from Cat Cay to the west side of Gun Cay on Wednesday as the wind had swung around to the East.  We wanted to spend another night at anchor before going into the house at North Bimini.  We anchored off a beach with the seabed alternating between rock, sand and coral .  Once again the water is this amazing shade of blue and so so clear.  Scott and Sam had a snorkel and there was lots to see - different corals, fish and crayfish.  

Calley finally getting used to jumping from the ships side

Sam on depth lookout

In the afternoon we took a trip into the beach and had an explore around and let the kids run around and play in the sand for a while.  Its always interesting having a look around these beaches.  The shoreline here is littered with conch shells - they are the beautiful big shells which have a amazing shiny pink colour inside.  When they are “live” there is a little critter inside that you can eat and which is a bit of a local delicacy.  We also picked up a couple of floats and a fishing lure so all in all it was a very fruitful trip.

Conch Shells

The night at anchor was relatively quiet.  The next day we had to shift to North Bimini.  The plan was to get up early and spend a few hours fishing to catch a couple of Mahi Mahi for X-mas.  We would then be able to enter North Bimini on the high tide.  All went according to plan apart from catching any fish.  This fishing is a bit like golf - when you think you are getting a handle on things it all starts to unravel.  At least we had a good sail.

We ended up off the entrance channel to North Bimini just before midday.  We had some time to kill so carried out a man overboard drill with the scenario being that Scott had gone over the side.   Everything went OK and we recovered our dummy but conditions were pretty benign.  At least it gave everyone an idea of what was involved.  One of the tricky aspects with Dulcinea is that due to her size the freeboard would make any recovery operation in any sea state quite difficult.  We recently bought a second boarding ladder which can be deployed over the side which would go some way to easing the situation but all in all we hope we will not ever have to use it for that purpose.  It is certainly our worst nightmare scenario.

While we were  drilling we took a good look at the entrance channel.  It is supposed to be dredged to 12ft.  The entrance buoys were in place however at some point between the the buoys and the beach the channel takes a dog leg and runs up the east side of North Bimini.  Unfortunatley the buoys marking the dog leg were no longer in place.  We had read that this is one of the challenges of sailing here and other non US destinations i.e. that marks etc may not be maintained or even worse may be in the wrong location.  As such all the guide books recommend navigating by eye.  The GPS can get you into the area but for any tight work you need to learn to read the water.  The different colours give you an idea of where the deeper water is.

We crept in past the outer marker buoys and at first missed the dog leg and touched on one of the skirting sand bars.  It was not a major as we going extremely slowly and the bottom was sand so we just reversed off and had another go at it.  This time we picked up the deep water colour and slowly motored in towards Bimini.  It was pretty nerve wracking because even though there is a channel you never know if there are any shallow spots and even in the channel there is only 1 to 1.5 m below our keel..  North Bimini must be about 4 or 5 kms long and about maybe a half km wide and no higher than 30m or 40m on the eastern shore.  It is orientated in a north/south direction.  On the west side a beach runs the length of the island and the water rapidly drops off to hundreds of feet deep in the Gulf Stream.  On the other side there is shallow reef for a few kms through which the access channel has been cut which parallels the shoreline and provides access to the resort development in the north end of the island.  This resort was our destination.  

Bimini west side

East Side Bimini

Bimini Street

We motored up the channel passing a couple of low key marinas with sport fishing boats tied up.  There were a couple of other boats at anchor just outside the channel but generally it was pretty quiet.  The shore is lined with mainly single storey individual houses which look like they have weathered a hurricane or two.  There are a few jetties, derelict land with rubble and abandoned boats aground.  At the north end of the channel we arrived at the resort which was also very quiet and berthed Dulcinea outside the house we had rented which was to be home for the Christmas period.  The resort is quite a development with two marinas, lots of private homes and jetties.  They are still building the resort adding more homes and a golf course in the next development stages.

Dulcinea berthed at the house in Bimini

We settled into the house and later in the afternoon Scott’s brother, Lars, arrived with his family and Scott’s mother.  So we are all set for X-mas.  It is great to catch up with everyone and for the kids to play with their cousins.  Scott and Nic are still staying on the boat but the kids moved into the house.  Its also great to know we will be in one place for the next week or so.  We may take the boat out for a sail but that’s about all the boating we will be doing.  We did have an issue with the water depth right alongside which was less than the necessary 8ft at low tide and so ended up setting two anchors out in the channel to pull us off and hold us off the quayside.

Lars working with Scott to set the anchors - note who is not in the water

There are a few cars on the island but the most common mode of transport is by golf cart and so we hired a couple and took off along the only road out of the resort.  Its an interesting place.  Generally outside the resort its pretty run down and our initial impressions when coming up the channel were confirmed.  There are a few shops and restaurants which look like they are based out of someone’s house and an inordinate amount of churches and the obligatory rum bar.  We did the whole island in half an hour and then grabbed some food - cracked conch in a little place called the "Three Daughters" run by this lovely local lady called Kim.  Kim gave us the low down on where to go to buy stuff and so after lunch we ended up at "Charlies" house  buying some bread.  We tried to buy some provisions on the way back to the house and the look around the stores confirmed that it was a good job we had stocked up in the US.  Bimini is known for its great sportfishing and due to the islands close proximty to Miami it attracts a lot of clients from mainland US.  Bimini was also the hang out of Earnest Hemmingway and he is a bit of a legend on the island.  He spent a lot of time on the island and wrote some of his novels here whilst at the same time adding to his reputation for living life to the full.

Local wheels

Lunch at the Tree Daughters

Buying bread island style

So that will probably be all for 2012.  We have had a hell of year and are looking forward to relaxing for the next week.  For everything above the island does have a relaxed feel about it.

We just want to wish everyone reading a merry and safe X-mas and happy New Year.