For the past few years, we have wanted to sail to the Bahamas AND this is the year! Our "sea plan" was to leave Key West and sail all the way across the Gulf Stream (Straights of Florida) to Freeport, Bahamas. Steve had checked with his "weather man" and all signs said GO! We pulled away from the gas dock about noon and sailed out into the Atlantic for a planned overnight and arrival at noon the next day. Well, as all sailing goes, everything didn't go according to plan. Once we were in the Straights, it gave us good speed, but the winds were such that we were "rocking" along. This type of sailing gets very uncomfortable very quickly for the "whimpy" sailors on board aka Nancy! We did our watches , as planned, but soon decided we were only going to go as far as Bimini! (we would save Freeport for another day)! Bimini is the first island where you can check into customs and enter the Bahamas. Our first challenge was getting into the harbor! The channel is very shallow and you also need to be aware of the tides. WELL, to make a long story short, we had sailing book information but NOT local knowledge. As we entered the channel, we went right down the middle (which usually works for us) between the red and green markers. OOOOOPPPPPS, we drug bottom and got stuck for a few minutes (which seemed like a long, long time) and finally Steve "unstuck" us and we went back out in the ocean to wait for higher tide. After watching other sailboats that have keels, we noted you must stay by the red markers and you are fine! So, that's exactly what we did and we made it in!
Upon entering a country, you must fly your quarantine flag (it is yellow) until you check in and then you fly the flag of the nation you are visiting. Steve (only the captain may leave the boat until you have checked in) took all our paperwork, passports, etc and ! to customs. We finally had arrived and were legal! We enjoyed Bimini, but were surprised about a number of things while we were there visiting. First of all, it consists of two islands (north and south Bimini) I believe the total population is around 1,000 people. On north Bimini, where we were docked, there is only one main street lined with a smattering of shops, a library, police station, grocery stores and bakery. The tourist folks have not decided to make Bimini their home, so there isn't the constant trying to sell you tee shirts, braid your hair or any such thing. Big game fishing seems to be the best attraction!
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| Local Library |
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| Main Street |
Once again, local knowledge seems to be your best information. Everyone bragged about going to CJ's for lunch or dinner. Of course, you needed to try their conch! CJ's is on a hill overlooking the beautiful waters of Bimini! We ate two meals at the restaurant. All was good, but I discovered that I have an allergy to conch....I won't say more, but it is NOT what I'm going to order anywhere else on this trip! We, also, enjoyed the restaurant at the Big Game Club. Now this place was FANCY for Bimini!!!!
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| Views From CJ's |
Part of the fun for us at all of these new locations, is getting to meet and visit with people from all over the world! Belive it or not, a number of folks we met there had come from Texas! Yee haw! One day, Steve thought he saw a boat flying the Texas flag, so we went over to investigate! The joke was on us, because they were from Chili! I guess we aren't as well informed on our Texas flag as we thought! The captain told us lots of other people had mistaken their flag for Texas, also! But, they were delightful people and we had a nice visit with them!
All good things must end, so we decided it was time to finally move on to Freeport, so stay tuned folks!
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| A Good Use of Conch Shells |
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