This trip is rated 5 little globes out
of 5 on the Globe-Trotting Globe-o-meter. Florida, Bimini, and the Conch Republic -- November 29 - December 12, 2006
This trip is rated 5 little globes out
of 5 on the Globe-Trotting Globe-o-meter.
Part the Third - In which we venture deep into the heart of the Bermuda Triangle to visit beautiful Bimini briefly, concluding with our first-ever Bimini Bailout.
After a nondescript night in our nondescript hotel, we were up and kicking early, got to the Fort Lauderdale Airport, got the car checked in, got through security, and then enjoyed a hearty airport muffin for breakfast while waiting for the 8:45 flight to Bimini, but it must be noted that Sue provided no small amount of drama as we were leaving: A while before the flight was ready to board, she headed off to the far reaches of the airport, and as our departure time approached - and the gate agent had long since announced that boarding was in progress - still no Sue, and soon everyone in the airport was listening to the melodic, and repeated, announcement: "Frazee. Party of 2. Please board your flight immediately". Finally she showed up, and we were hastily dispatched down the stairs and across the taxi-way to the plane, taking time only for this ill-composed shot of the plane in it's final pre-flight preparations.
It must be said that a good part of the reason that this trip initially included Bimini was the opportunity to fly one of Chalk's Ocean Airways' Grumman G-73 Mallards from Miami to Bimini. When we started looking into it, though, we learned that one of Chalk's Mallards had lost a wing and crashed in December, 2005, while leaving Miami, sadly killing all 20 people on board, and resulting in the FAA grounding all such flights indefinitely.
So there we were in our boring (but airworthy) Beech 1900, and with only 5 other passengers we had plenty of room to spread out in the back and enjoy the 35 minute flight.
Behind and below the wingtip is the narrow channel that separates the North and South Islands of Bimini.
We landed on what seemed to be an extremely short runway, and Sue, never one to ignore a photo opportunity, is seen here making her Grand Biminian entrance on South Bimini Island while our pilot regards her with some amusement - if not impatience.
The airport was not a hotbed of activity - perhaps this should have told us something. We took the shuttle van to the water taxi 'depot' and caught the boat over to Bimini's main metropolis, Alice Town, where we had 3 nights reserved at the Bimini Blue Water Resort, arriving in style as we walked through town right down the middle of the King's Highway, easily dodging the occasional wayward golf cart. Our extensive web-based pre-trip research had revealed that the premier place to have stayed on Bimini would have been the Big Game Resort and Yacht Club, but we had tried to reserve a room on their web site and couldn't - it kept telling us that nothing was available for our dates - so we figured that Bimini was alive and kicking even in December. We never did figure out what Big Game they were talking about - Bimini is famous for fishing, not big game hunting. Hmmm...
We got checked in at the Bimini Blue Water Resort and Marina office, and went across the street and up the hill to the main part of the Resort.
They were in the midst of painting the place, or at least parts of it, and had just painted some of the doors with a very odiferous oil-based paint. We started out in Room 5, but the paint smell seemed to be particularly strong, and the room seemed to be particularly marginal, so we headed back to the office and traded it in for Room 6, the door of which was a bit less fragrant, the paint apparently having had a day or two to dry before our arrival. In any case, the two rooms turned out to be of equal marginality.
The room had a small patio, with a nice view across the street to the beach, and some beautiful plywood wall covering - it looked like some of the finest CD grade stuff, complete with the occasional plugged knothole..
We were soon settled in and headed across the street to 'our' beach where we wandered around a bit, and then headed downtown or uptown (or maybe just to town?). High on the list of things to do right away was to touch base with the Snorkel/SCUBA guys on the island, Bimini Underseas Adventures. We had seen their web site, and were looking forward to some good snorkeling, and maybe even giving SCUBA diving a try - if Sue could be talked into it. They had their storefront at the Bimini Big Game Resort and Yacht Club.
We walked through town, passing Elvis' Golf Cart Rental and Charter Boat Service. Little did we know that later in the trip, in Key West, we would have a close encounter with an Elvis, a "Blue Elvis" in fact.
Along the way we also passed what was left of The Compleat Angler, which was Ernest Hemingway's old hangout on Bimini. Sadly, it had burned down in January, 2006, and the owner was killed in the fire. We found Bimini Underseas Adventures, but it was closed, with a sign in the front that said it would be open again between 2:00 and 4:00 that afternoon. We figured that they were out diving, and decided to wander around some more and stop back later. It did seem odd, however, that the Bimini Big Game Resort and Yacht Club was virtually deserted, given that we were unable to secure accommodations there. Hmmm...
We walked back through town, made a grocery run, and ended up back at 'our' beach, where we kicked around for a while,
and discovered the remains of a power boat.
After we got home, a little research on the web revealed that the "Deep Admiration" had been a 30' boat that was used by one of the diving excursion companies on South Bimini - hence the name.
From the bahamasdiving.com website: The newest addition to the fleet is the Deep Admiration, a 30-foot Delta fiberglass yacht, complete with a 420 horsepower engine capable of running 30 knots, thereby making those pristine dive sites to the distant south all the more accessible.
But that was then...
A little further down the beach we found what we supposed was the engine and driveline from the "Deep Admiration".
We walked back to Bimini Underseas Adventures to give them another try, but again, no one was there. Hmmm... And the Bimini Big Game Resort and Yacht Club was still virtually deserted. Hmmmm...
The main golf cart rental agency downtown had plenty of golf carts available. Hmmmmm...
Right across the walkway from our room was this small cemetery. It pretty much amounted to our front yard.
They really seemed to have problems keeping boats afloat in Bimini.
Here we are on our way back from making yet another trip through town to check on our friends at Bimini Underseas Adventures - still nobody home. Hmmmm.... We pressed on to Jonathan's Grocery Store and picked up more provisions, then dropped them off at our room, which seemed to be getting more and more marginal as time went on.
We decided to broaden our horizons, and walked down to the Sea Crest Hotel and Marina, at which we had tried to get reservations after having no luck with the Big Game Resort. Their web site didn't offer any way to reserve a room, and they never answered our phone calls, so we had given up on them and that's why we had ended up at our 3rd choice - the Blue Water Resort. After a good bit of waiting and wandering around, we finally found Michael, the front office, boating, fishing, grounds keeper, and general hotel and marina guy. He was happy to show us a room, the view from which is seen above, and for not much more per night we could bail out of the Blue Water and stay here. But how to bail out of the Blue Water, given that we had already paid for 3 nights? We decided that Sue was really starting to have serious problems with the overpowering paint smell at the Blue Water Resort, and that although she could maybe tolerate it for one night, sadly it just wouldn't be possible to stay there any longer. Michael indicated that they weren't exactly expecting to be overrun with unexpected guests real soon at the Sea Crest, so we told him we would be back and hopefully firm up a 2 night engagement at the Sea Crest - after weaseling out of the Blue Water reservation. We went back to the Blue Water and had a discussion with the front desk lady about fresh paint smells and Sue's sensitivity thereto. She seemed quite sure that we were stuck there for the duration, but said that we could certainly bring up the subject with the manager later in the day if we chose to do so. Jaws tightened on all sides, and we soon 'did what we had to do', checked out of the Blue Water Resort, and got moved into the Sea Crest, assuring Michael that we would be there for 2 nights. We consummated the deal by using Michael's phone to try calling our missing friends at Bimini Underseas Adventures, and, to no one's surprise, got no answer. Michael then suggested that we give Bonefish Ebbie a try - he does fishing trips, but since things were sort of slow, he might be willing to go out on a snorkel trip. We called Bonefish Ebbie (Ebenezer), who said he might take us out for a little snorkeling for about $300. Hmmmm....
So, given that it was looking less and less likely that we would get in any good snorkeling, we talked to Captain Pat of Captain Pat's Golf Cart Rentals and were soon motoring off into the distance in our smart, speedy, green EZ-GO Golf Cart.
We headed up to the north end of the island, with our snorkeling stuff in the handy storage bins on the back of the golf cart, just in case the winds died down, the sun really came out, and the ocean waters cleared up.
A good chunk of the north end of the island is being leveled to make room for Bimini Bay Resort and Casino - just what Bimini needs to drop-kick itself into the modern world. Or doesn't need.
Heading back into Alice Town, we passed this forlorn beached sail boat. We stopped for a brief but heartfelt moment of reflection, and decided that we wouldn't ever again let Cap'n Jack take a nap while we were driving his sailboat..
On one of our many trips into town looking for the Bimini Undersea Adventures guys, Sue had spotted a small pickup truck with some freshly caught lobsters flailing around in the back. She asked around and was told that Sarah cooks up real good lobster tails in her restaurant up north of town in a pink house, "no sign though, so you'll have to ask". Earlier, on our way north, we had been keeping an eye out for Sarah's, and had pulled over right in front of the place and asked a passer-by if he know where Sarah's restaurant was. He pointed across the street and said "Right there, Mon". Since it was around lunch time, we pulled into Sarah's for a seafood luncheon - at least for one of us.
Sue ordered up a couple of lobster tails, and while the lobster was cooking, the talk turned to Conch Fritters,
and Sarah served us up a big plateful of the 'popcorn' variety - so-called because they look like big puffy popcorn - on the house! Here Sue gives Sarah a hearty thumbs-up for Conch Fritters well done. Sue reported that the lobster tails weren't too shabby either. We continued south toward town, one of us sated, one of us not.
We sped by Ebbie's Bonefish Club, and, deciding that we really wanted a closer look at the place, slammed on the brakes only to find that the EZ-GO wasn't such a good EZ-STOP, either. We made a quick u-turn, headed back up to Ebbie's, scoped the place out,
and as we sped off snapped this colorful picture.
Soon enough, we spotted the Bimini Breeze Bar and Restaurant coming up on the right, and stopped in for a tasty Bimini Burger.
We never actually saw the "On-Da-Curb - Eat In - Take Out" cafe open for business.
Since we had rented the golf cart for the whole day, having essentially given up on getting in any snorkeling, we decided to make a speed run back up to the north end of the island to grab some more conchs to take home with us. We made it north in record time, not stopping for anything on the way. In retrospect, perhaps we should have taken it a bit more slowly.
The northern beaches were covered with conch shells.
We carefully picked out a dozen or so of the best small ones to take home with us and hauled them back in the golf cart. Just as we were leaving the north end of the island and heading back toward Alice Town, we noticed that the EZ-GO seemed to be going slower and slower and slower. Hmmmm... After a while, it became apparent that that even with the 'throttle' pedal all the way to the floor, we were barely able to keep up with the pedestrians, and soon they were passing us. We went into battery conservation mode, pulling off and resting on the shoulder of the road to give the battery a chance to revive a bit. In fact, we ended up having to do this a number of times, and finally managed to pull into Captain Pat's and drop off our erstwhile bundle of electromotive energy.
Our Bimini farewell dinner was provided by good old CJ's Deli. We had chicken and fish and conch balls. Yum, yum, yum...
After dinner, the conch shells got a good scrubbing, and we left a whole lot of sand in the drain trap. And we appreciated that fact that the sink was one of those scalloped affairs that is supposed to look like a sea shell. Sometimes everything fits, and the world simply makes sense. This was almost one of those times, but not quite.
Just to jerk us around and to pretend to make up for all the good sunsets we had not been seeing on the trip thus far, the moonrise was quite nice, albeit somewhat lacking in color. The next morning found us in the office of Alicetown's sole travel agent, asking about our options to return to Florida a day early than planned. We finally struck a deal, and after paying $30.00 each to change the tickets, they agreed to spring us outta there that very morning.
We celebrated with a lavish breakfast back at CJ's Deli, and then walked over to the harbor and caught the water taxi for the thrilling 3 minute voyage from the southern tip of North Bimini to the northern tip of South Bimini.
We arrived amid the hustle and bustle of Bimini International Airport, in the comfort and style of the silver Ford van taxi/bus seen above,
and were once again thrilled as we headed to the very rear of the Beech 1900.
Yes indeed, Bimini had certainly captured our imaginations, but thankfully enough - after a short but somewhat intense tussle - we got them back ok, and headed happily for Fort Lauderdale. Whew - quite an adventure...
