Bimini Bahamas

So on Monday Dec 30 , 2013 we left Miami in the company of many boats. The long awaited weather window had finally arrived and there were many boats who took this opportunity to head to the Islands.

Stiltsville is a group of wood stilt houses located one mile south of Cape Florida on sand banks of the Safety Valve on the edge ofBiscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The structures stand on wood or reinforced concrete pilings, generally ten feet above the shallow water which varies from one to three feet deep at low tide.

We were one of 7 boats travelling together and we stayed in touch on the VHF calling ourselves Fleet B2B ( Biscayne Bay to Bimini) We never realized how reassuring it was to travel with so many boats, not until we were on our own a week later ( But more about that further along in the blog)

US Coast guard

The crossing was not without drama as we were half way through the trip in the middle of the Gulf Stream when we noticed our port engine running very warm. Poor Gary went into the engine room to investigate ( the heat in there was probably 150 degrees F) and while we were rocking across the gulf stream he removed the thermostat to allow the engine to run cooler. This did work and we were very happy when we arrived in Bimini.

Bimini

North Bimini, where we stayed, consists of 3 little towns, Alice Town, Porgy Bay and Baileytown.  Ernest Hemingway actually mentioned the marina we stayed in (Brown's Marina) in his book, Islands in the Stream and Jimmy Buffet spent some time on Bimini while writing one of his books. Bimini is also famous for it s fishing ( another reason why Hemingway hing around there a lot)

We teased Jacques that Quebec had declared war on Bahamas :)

Of course we arrived just in time for New Years celebration and Junkanoo. We gathered the boaters together for a pot luck dinner and many new friends were made.

New friends SV Amaroni ii

SV Mar a Lago

Boaters pot luck

Three retired military families

MV Quest

New years eve fireworks

New years day church ladies parade

Junkanoo, this young man was ready to join the parade

Leading Lady

The beat even gets us old folks joining in the parade

The beaches on Bimini are gorgeous. I picked up pocketfuls of beach glass and huge conch shells. (If you want one tell me and I will bring you one home with me) I use the sea-glass to make jewelry and I might have to start selling some necklaces soon to pay for all the engine repairs.

Wreck

Gary

Gary at the helm

Hands full of sea glass

Gary and I spent some time fishing and caught some Mutton Snappers which I cooked up  for dinner. The day before we had bought some conch and I cooked conch for the first time and I must say it was delicious. Hopefully one day I can get someone to teach  me how to harvest the conch from it's shell, I believe it is quite a job but the local fishermen make it look very easy ( it is not!)

The sharks know to come around the fish cleaning station in the afternoon when they can always pick up a little bite to eat

When we got to the marina we were warned not to put our fingers or feet in the water...this is why

Once again Gary was the go to guy for helping people make their own blow conchs

Cleaning conch

Look at this poor fellow, his one pincer is missing....ps this photo has not been retouched, that is the actual colour of the water

SO Sunday 5 January 2014 the fleet got together and decided to move on to Nassau. It looked like good sailing weather but because we are not sailors we decided to stay put and wait for the next window to travel. I, decided to check the weather and realized it was much better than previously  foretasted so around 2 in the afternoon we left Bimini.

As we are leaving Bimini , this monster shows up

Bye bye Bimini

Sea turtle as we got on the banks

This is when we really missed our friends,we were all alone on the banks as the sun started setting. The seas were a little rocky but nothing bad. We knew we had to stop on the banks because we didn't want to go out into the tongue of the ocean in darkness. But then we realized the port engine was over heating again but not only that,.....the starboard engine has a hose on the raw water side that is leaking,causing the bilge to fill up , so we had to run the pump every 15mins to be safe.

We anchored in a sandy shallow spot off the rum line and rocked all night,not a comfortable over night on the banks at all!

Oh happy days!!!

Sunset on the banks

We couldn't go the next 70 miles to Nassau in that state so we did a quick change of plans and headed to the Berrys......Oh did I forget to mention that a huge storm in fore-cased with winds in excess of 35knts!! We had to get somewhere  fast and somewhere safe. We picked Grand Harbour because it looked very protected and also our friends Bob and Monique were going to be there to sit out the storm.

And now, here is the thing....as soon as we rounded the corner into Great Harbour we knew we wanted to stay here. So protected and safe from weather, nice docks and not too far to go for hardware or groceries.
We just got here this morning but we will be staying a while to work on the engines and also to get some rest for our stressed nerves. Something tells me Grand Harbour is just the place to do that......

The entrance into Great Harbour

...................to be continued