Bimini 2016
Saturday, March 5,
2016. Cloudy this morning. 75
degrees. In the afternoon, sunny. Wind constant NE at 15+. Went to visit Mr. Thomas Sanders, who we met
on the beach yesterday. He house is on
Queens Road, which faces the beach and is next door to his brother’s house –
Ashley Sanders’ Dolphin House (see last year’s blog (Bimini)). We walked the beach – lots of shells large
and small. This is one of the best
beaches for shells we have ever found.
Each evening at 5:30, the folks staying in the marina get together for
cocktails by the pool. It is a nice get together because it only lasts an hour
and you still have time for supper. Some
of these “sundowners” get a bit long and then one may drink a bit much with no
dinner – not a good combination.
Dinner on board, Benny made chicken curry. Janet and Alan (Stella Maris) came to dinner and brought
some delicious Bimini bread (heavy and sweet).
Nice evening. Wind still howling.
Sunday, March 6,
2016. Sunny, 70 degrees, wind still
NE at 15+. Walked the beach again. Protected from the wind on this side. Janet and Gary and King Tut (the dog)
(Windsome), Linda and Bob (Patience) came along. Sundowner at 5:30. Nice day.
Wind now East @15+.
The marina is full and everyone is waiting for the weather
to proceed on their journeys.
Jaz (the trimaran)
– Chris and Margaret (on the dock next to us).
Jana – Greg and
Jana
Afterwards – Bill,
Larry and Terry and 2 dogs
Submit – Reggie
and Barbara
Hemera – Don and
Michelle
Journey – Wendy
and Bob
Gusto – Ray and
Anita
Lost Puppy – Ian
and Jennifer
Piece of Cake – Dan, spouse and a golden
Princess Di –
Willie, caretaker
Stella Maris –
Alan and Janet
Southern Cross –
Steve and Kathryn
Kismet – Jim and
Laurie
Bailemos – Dan and
Jackie
Patience – Bob and
Linda
Whisper – Vic and
Marilyn
First Borne –
Diego and Marina
Windsome – Gary
and Janet and dog (king Tut)
Monday, March 7, 2016.
Cloudy in the morning. 70 degrees. Wind east at 20+. Walked the beach and found a hamburger sea
bean. Although we have been told that
people find them here, this is our first.
There is a tall ship anchored just south of the harbor entrance. We had lunch at CJ’s deli on the beach. We met a mom and her daughter. The mom has been coming to Bimini since she
was a little girl. She came with her
family – her dad was a sport fisherman. We hear that spring break is coming to
Bimini. Should be interesting. 1500 college students taking over the reswort
on the north end of the island.
Dinner at Stella Maris
(Alan and Janet). Alan made
spaghetti and we brought salad. Nice
evening.
Tuesday, March 8,
2016. Sunny, wind east 20+. Today is
haircut day. Marilyn (Whisper) and Reggie (Submit) are the “hair dressers”. Also, today they are doing manicures at the
high school. Lisa, Janet (Windsome),
Janet (Stella Maris), Kathryn (Southern Cross) have their nails done.
2 new boats came in today,
Hoodlless (Larry and Barbara). They
had been anchored south of Bimini and it was very rough. They broke some of their ground tackle and
then ran aground trying to get into the marina – and had to wait for the water
to come back. Now safe and sound in a
slip. Bolero ( a large catamaran) came in also, with three generation on
board.
Joe’s Conch Shack for a late lunch with Stella Maris (Alan and Janet) and then the sundowner at 5:30. The wind is cold, so the evening’s
festivities are cut short.
Wednesday, March 9,
2016. The morning is spent making
fender boards for Jaz, the trimaran
next to us. They are on the outside of
the dock and continually get pushed against the dock. The fender board is placed between the boat
fender (bumper) and the piling on the dock.
Because Jaz is relatively
“flat-sided” like a power boat (as opposed to curved like most sail boats),
multiple fenders and a very long fender board is needed. This will keep the boat away from the dock
and the fender board must be long enough to cover at least two pilings. Vic (Whisper)
and Chris (Jaz) find some long boards
and everyone contributes fender and helps construct the rig.
More haircuts today. Yoga. After luch a group goes shelling
on the “flats” opposite the marina. Wind is consistent and overnight hits
30+. The tides here are normally range about
2 feet from high to low, but with this constatnt wind and a new moon, they are
running about 4 feet.
Thursday, March 10,
2016. Very bouncy overnight. Sunny, 80 degrees and the wind refuses to give
up. Still blowing at least 15 from the SE.
Yoga has become a morning ritual for the ladies. Lisa and a group of
ladies went to the high school today for pedicures. I started to clean and service the port side
primary winch (the large one for the main sheet). When I got the drum off and started to
disassemble the winch, I ran into an issue.
When the winch was mounted (probably at the factory), it was put on
“backwards”. The result is that you
cannot remove the gears as the opening to do that is jammed against the coaming
(the hull). If mounted correctly, the
gear opening faces the outside toward the rail, not inside toward the
cockpit. Obviously, this winch has never
been serviced by anyone, even tho’ we paid a couple of yards to do so. To compound the problem, there is no access
to the underside of the winch. Taking
the winch off and remounting it with the correct orientation is the solution,
but first I have to borrow a saber saw (Bob on Patience had one) and cut a hole
in the top of the pantry cabinet to gain access to the winch. Now this winch has probably been in place for
the life of the boat, so removing it, even after taking the bolts out is no
easy task. The bedding compound is like
glue. Once the winch housing is removed
and turned 180 degrees, we discover the holes are not symmetrical, so we have
to re-drill them. No problem, except we
have every drill bit known to mankind, except a 5/32. So, off again to find someone on the docks
that has one. Finally at n4:30pm, we have the winch correctly mounted. The
cleaning and servicing will be tomorrow’s task. So, what should have been about
a two hour job, turned in to an all-day affair.
Dinner this evening with Jaz,
Windsome, Southern Comfort, Whisper and Sella
Maris at the Big Game Club. Tonight
is bar-b-que night. The food was good
and they had 2-for-$5-rum-punch, but the wait for the food was long.
Friday, March 11,
2016. Sunny, 80 degrees, wind east at 15+. Marina (First Borne) instructs yoga this morning. Men can attend, but they
have to be in the front row (none do). We finished taking the port primary
winch (the big one) apart, cleaned everything, replaced a couple of prawls (the
things that go into the gears to stop the winch from turning) and the springs,
greased it and put it back together. We
took the drum off the starboard primary (it was completely cleaned and service
2 years ago), cleaned where needed and lightly greased that one.
Diego (First Borne)
was working on his also, but got the starboard one together incorrectly and it
would not work. Once the gears where put
it right side up, it works great. He
also put way too much grease in it – a common mistake – more is not better,
because the grease get full of dirt and salt and turns to a solid.
We filled the boat with fuel and then used the wheel barrow
to carry the cans over to the fuel pumps and back to the boat. Much easier than moving the boat, especially
in this wind. We took the dirty clothes
to the laundry (a drop off and pick up service here), went to Charlies’ for a
loaf of cinnamon bread, stopped at Roberts’ grocery for some fresh fruit and
vegies (the mail (supply) boat came yesterday so the groceries are stocked full
today).
Lisa and I had dinner at the Anchorage restaurant
overlooking the beach, but it was cloudy and no sunset to see. Very nice place – part of this
marina/resort. Ernest Hemingway used to
stay here back in the day (he stayed a lot of places in the keys and Bahamas).
It is spring break in the states and the new resort on the
north end of the island is full of college students. There is a party next door and we are sure
you can hear the “music” in Miami.
Saturday, March 12,
2016. Yoga for the ladies again this morning. After lunch (at high tide) a flotilla for
dingys led by a center cockpit made their way across the harbor to the
mangroves and through a mangrove river to a monument in the middle of the
mangroves to Martin Luther King.
Apparently, he (like Hemingway) used to come here often to fish. He became friends with Ansel Sanders (brother
of Thomas Sanders, who we met on the beach) and Ashley Sanders, who we met last
year (and owns the Dolphin House, see last year’s Bimini blog). MLK apparently wrote his last speech here and
told Ashley on their last fishing trips that he (MLK) was sure this was his
last trip as he was going to be killed soon.
Vic and Marilyn (Whisper) made
a recording of the “I Have a Dream speech” (not MLK’s last) and played it while
everyone was at the monument. Very
moving.
Tomorrow is the opening of a weather window (finally) and
many boats will be leaving. At 3pm,
there is a captain’s meeting on Rhiannon
to discuss plans to head east. Tonight, there is a pot luck dinner at the
cabana, and it may be the last time some of the people here see each other as
they go their separate ways (some east to Nassau, Exumas, Eluthera, some west
to the US, some north the Berry Islands, Grand Bahama or the Abacos). A very
nice event.
The college crowd has another party next door tonight, but
the band does not seem as loud. Maybe we
are getting used to it. You can feel the
base vibrating through the water to the boat.
The good news is they stop at 12pm.
Sunday, March 13,
2016. Several boats leave, but we
elect to wait one more day for the seas to settle a bit more from this week of
constantly howling east winds. The wind
subsides, but it takes a day of so for the seas to calm down. We have a beautiful day on the beach with Bob
and Linda (Patience) and Vic and
Marilyn (Whisper). They are both leaving
on Tuesday, Patience to the US and Whisper to Lucaya on Grand Bahama.
At 3pm, 2 catamarans full of college students arrive from
Miami. They crossed the Gulf Stream in 8
foot waves! Fun way to start your spring
break! The party tonight is over on the
beach on the other side of the island, can just barley feel the vibrations.
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