Our position is: 25:43.499N
79:17.355W
The passage from North Cat Cay to North Bimini on Monday, was
mainly uneventful. The tide was high enough to give few depth problems passing
through Gun Cay Cut, the only concern were clouds of dust being generated by a
digger restructuring the landscape on the tip of North Cat Cay. We were soon
past the wreck of Sapona, a concrete ship built during WW2 to save timber and
subsequently used for drug running, as a liquor store and as a target for US
army gunnery practice, before being destroyed in a hurricane – obviously more
effective than the American guns!
The entry to North Bimini was confusing to say the least. We had 3
different charts and they all showed the deep water in different places. We
passed through the red and green entrance (and only) buoys and were feeling our
way in when there were further repercussions from the plastic bag incident
approaching Clarence Town and the prop shaft became disconnected from the gear
box. Rapidly we turned round to head back towards slightly deeper water, while
unfurling the jib, then dropping the anchor to investigate the problem. While
this was going on we were hailed by a catamaran coming in behind us, who wanted
to know if we knew where the channel was. We had to recommend they radioed for
assistance with that as we had other things to think about. Ted was soon over
the side and able to push everything back into place and I watched other boats
coming in so we could work out where the deep water was. (It appeared the
channel was actually somewhere different to all 3 charts!) As we were motoring
in we called our chosen marina on the radio, but I had previously heard another
boat trying to contact them to no avail, so wasn’t surprised our call went
unanswered. As we approached it there seemed to be no empty berths so we headed
for the fuel dock on the adjoining marina where a helpful guy appeared from
nowhere and when we asked for a berth directed us to the next door pontoon and
sprinted round to take our warps. Somewhat alarmingly as we were doing this a
yacht coming from the opposite direction but headed to the same place ran
aground quite close to where we were, but they only had to wait about 30 minutes
before floating off and coming into the berth opposite, with no further trouble.
The water was absolutely crystal clear so at least they could see what they had
run onto!
On the next door boat, a traditionally styled, junk rigged, steel
hulled ketch named Lord Byron’s Revenge (the owner was a Byron fan at college) a
group of young Americans were dealing with a mega haul of conch they had picked
up on the other side of the harbour.
Later, when they had turned them into fritters, they gave us some as they
had made more than they could eat. (We were having a good time for free
seafood!)
North Bimini is more of a strip than a proper island, although it
does have quite a lot of barely submerged sea bed next to it and is practically
joined on to South Bimini, a bigger island and the location of the airport even
though North Bimini has the bigger town (Alice Town), which is famous for being
the home of Ernest Hemingway and being visited by Martin Luther King in 1964. We
knew we had to wait for the right weather conditions before setting off across
the Gulf Stream and originally it had looked as if this might be Wednesday, but
even before we arrived it had slipped to Thursday, which gave us a few days to
catch up with jobs and look round the town. Ted finally managed to fit the new parts
for the watermaker pump and it was declared functional again and I made it to a
Batelco office to sort out the non-functioning top up card purchased on Staniel
Cay.
On returning to the boat I discovered our peace was being
disturbed by a fuel delivery and the tanker was tied up to the fuel dock
just across from our berth. This went on until after dark and the tanker had to
remain until there was sufficient water in the entrance channel the next morning
before it could leave. There was also a certain amount of noise emanating from a
dredger operating just off the government dock, presumably with the intention of
keeping access clear to it.
On Wednesday we happened across The Dolphin House. This has been
built and decorated by Ashley Saunders, on the site of 2 previous timber houses
owned and lived in by his predecessors, which succumbed to termite activity. As
well as this labour of love he is a historian and poet, who has written a
history of Bimini and has many stories to tell about life in the islands in
times gone by and he is happy to show off his amazing dwelling, which is a
recycling achievement par-excellence. Everything he has used in the decoration
has been gleaned either from the beaches or from other people’s throw-outs and
offcuts.
After a fascinating time we went back to the boat to prepare for
our departure. I went to see if we should clear customs and the guys in the
office were extremely disinterested. They said I could have a clearance document
if I wanted but when I said perhaps I should in case anyone wanted to see it he
gave a heavy sigh before dragging himself to his feet and over to my window,
rubber stamp in hand. A bit of a change from some of the islands further south,
who were such sticklers for formality. As for immigration formalities, we were
just told to leave our departure cards at the
marina.
There were plenty of these fellows around as well