Tuesday, February 24,
2015. 5am. Dark, moon has already set. Kachina stayed rafted to us last night and we
cast them off. Adagio has cast off the
wall where they stayed last night after finishing the water maker repair, and
our anchor is up. It is clear, 65 degrees, the wind is Northwest 10-15. It is supposed to be southwest. Everyone says do not go into the Gulf Stream
in a northerly wind. We figure we will
turn back if it gets too rough. The
water is lumpy, but not intolerable as we approach the Gulf Stream. Apparently the current is down to 2 knots and
the waves build a bit – maybe 6 feet, but with a 10 second period in between
and the ride is not uncomfortable. We
are making 6.5 knots over ground with both sails up. Clouds in the east as the sun rises, but
clear overhead. By 10am, the wind has
died to 5 knots and the seas settle a bit.
11am and Bimini is in sight. We are out of the stream, the seas have
settled to 1-2 feet, and the weather is glorious! At 2pm, Kachina, Adagio and Rhiannon are tied
to the docks at Blue Water Marina. We
walk down to Customs to check in. It has
moved to the Big Game Club, just down the harbor. Then on to Immigration, which is now at the
Police Station. We have paid our “entrance
fee” of $300 for a 3 month visa and are officially in the Bahamas.
Two other boats arrive in this marina today – Selene (Jan
and Jean Windscheffel) and Kintala (Tim and Deb Akey). There are also boats here that arrived
yesterday.
On the way across, Camden (age 8 on Adagio) caught a 55 lb.
Bull Mahi (Dolphin (fish not porpoise).
His Dad, Marc cleaned the fish and there was pot luck at the marina,
with the Mahi being cooked on the grill and everyone bringing another
dish. We met a lot of people and the
food was great!
66SM, 55NM today. 25°43.47’N 079°17.86’W
Wednesday,
February 25, 2015. First glimpses of
“island time”. The office at the marina
said to let them know when we decided to leave and then we could pay. We went to the Bahama Telephone (BTC) office/store. There was a line of people trying to discover
how to communicate in the Bahamas. There
was one person working, selling phones, getting them to work, selling plans,
taking money, etc. “no hurry, mon, I am
here all day”. Our iPhone 5 is supposed
to be unlocked, and sure enough it is!
It came from Verizon that way.
Verizon could not figure out how to do 4GLTE on the iPhone 5 when it
came out and lock the phone, so they
sold them all unlocked – but did not tell anyone! Anyway, after only ½ a day, we have a working
Bahamas phone. The service is still
expensive, but much less so that using Verizon over here.
The marina here has reasonably good wifi, so
communication for now is OK. I understand
that farther on, that will not be true.
We went to the beach in the afternoon. It is a short walk across the island. Beautiful.
The water is 85 degrees! You
cannot swim on the east side of the island (where the harbors are) because
there are sharks. You can see 8 foot
bull sharks swimming through the marina!
The Big Game Club feeds them at 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon.
You certainly do not want to be in the water during those times! A guy came by
selling fresh coconuts and would open them for you to drink the “milk” - $3.
Lisa bought 12 fresh crawfish (we call them lobster)
tails for $20! Tomorrow’s dinner.
Tonight we are having burgers on Adagio.
Thursday,
February 26, 2015. Sunny, 80 degrees today.
Wind North 15+. Today we got
the internet working. Everyone who offers wifi in the Bahamas is very secretive
about their passcodes. They will not
tell you what it is, you have to bring them your device (computer, phone, etc.)
and they put in the code. Some places it
changes every day. We walked around the island and explored the cost for a golf
cart. Tomorrow we plan to rent one to do
more exploring.
We met an interesting couple from France (Annie and
Michel). She was injured in a car
accident and is in a wheel chair! They
are from the same area of France where Jeff is going to school this semester.
She taught “French as a second language” and is familiar with the school Jeff
is attending. Their sailboat is about 34 feet long and somehow they
manage. They carry a power chair on
board and get it into the cabin. Another
boater here (from Newfoundland) borrowed a wheel barrow and a group of folks
carried Annie over to the beach! They
got her in and out of the water and onto and off of a chase. Then 4 big Bahamians carried here off the
beach to her power chair! Good deeds all
around!
Cam, on Adagio, is teaching Lisa how to fish. His family will never starve! He catches fish every time he tries! Lisa caught a nice size pompano with the rig
that has been hanging in our salon since Jeff left us last year.
A lady named Miss Juliette came by taking dinner
orders (fish, vegetable, salad and potato) for $12. Everyone says her food is
great, so we order dinner for tomorrow night.
Lisa made pasta with some of the lobster she bought
for dinner. Really sweet and tasty!
Dessert was from the ice cream truck which passes the
marina every evening at 6:45pm.
Friday,
February 27, 2015. The wind is
supposed to swing around to the East, so we move Rhiannon off the east-facing
face dock to an inside slip. We are hoping for a decent weather window Sunday
or Monday. Today, it is party cloudy and 80.
We went down to Sue and Joy’s Variety Store and
rented a golf cart for 24 hours. We had
to wait while they located the cart and filled it with gas and then brought it
to the store. “A few minutes” island
time was over an hour, but we got to watch Millionaire re-runs on their TV
while waiting. We picked up the Konescos (Adagio) and headed out to explore the
island. The north end of Bimini is a
resort, with beautiful marinas, a Hilton hotel (not quite done), a cruise ship
terminal (not quite done) and lots of high end condos with gorgeous views. There is a man-made beach which is
beautiful. Other than 5 people on the
beach, we saw on people who work there – deserted. Maybe everyone comes over for the week-end
from Miami and Fort Lauderdale. On the
beach there we found lots of conch shells.
On the way back, we passed two “conch shacks” and saw piles of conch
shells!
Marc on Adagio is in need of propane. So what you do is call (or go to) the local
liquor store (a block away) and ask for “Big Fred”, who is either hanging out
there or down at the south end of the beach.
If he is not there, they will call him and sooner or later (island time,
remember) he will show up in his propane truck to fill your tank.
We stopped at Nate’s bakery and bought cinnamon rolls
and banana bread.
One of the landmarks here is the Dolphin House (see
pictures). It was closed when we were
there, but when open the owner gives tours and it is a bed and breakfast too!
We have found all the Bahamians to be very polite and
courteous. The school kids wear uniforms
and everyone is well dressed, even tho’ as you drive around the island, it is
obviously not too prosperous. There are
many houses/buildings that appear to be half finished. There are many more that are derelict, not
sure if it was caused by hurricane damage or neglect.
Besides teaching Jo Ellen on Adagio how to crochet,
Lisa spent an hour babysitting Maria (age 3 (Adagio) and Gina (age 4 – her grandfather
works at the marina).
Driving is on the left, English style – well actually,
everyone drives in the middle of the road and then dodges to the correct side
when meeting an oncoming vehicle (golf cart, scooter, car, truck, trolley). You just have to remember which way to dodge
(left not right). It is also common to
see two vehicles stopped in the road – one going each direction – the drivers
having a conversation.
Dinner tonight courtesy of Miss Juliette. I had grouper and Lisa had snapper (a whole
small one). The food was very good.
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