ALL ALONE IN PARADISE

             Bimini!  1600 happy people and a couple of soreheads (and I’m not even sure about the soreheads).  This little island has attracted big game fishers and the rich and famous and infamous.  Hemingway fished for Blue Marlin here, drank a lot of booze and wrote a bit, “Islands in the Stream” is about Bimini.  Richard Nixon had a house here, near his friend, Bebe Rebozo.  Appropriately, the nice anchorage south of Bimini is called Nixon’s Harbor.  Then, there was Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.  Who can forget Gary Hart's run for the Presidency?

            The best conch salad in all the Bahamas can be found here, a mere 50 miles from Florida.

  Friendly Joe puts on quite a show, but he also makes a mean conch salad.  He has passed the tricks of the trade onto his daughter whose salad is not the same as Joe’s, but she’s a lot prettier!

            Ashley Saunders whose family has lived on Bimini since the American Revolution has built a unique house.   

In 1993, he began construction of a house unlike any other on the island.  Using found and recycled materials he has built one of the most creative structures in the world.  It’s a massive structure designed to withstand the ugly forces of a hurricane but endowed with the touches of a true artist. 

 The interior and exterior walls are mosaics composed of colorful tiles, shells, bottles coins and other found objects.  His home is inviting, comfortable and certainly unlike any other on the island or in the world.

            Besides conch salads there are rum punches, rum runners and the like.

  Sherry’s on the Beach has been a mainstay for years.  Even before there was a building for her, she served up drinks from coolers under a tiki hut on the beach. 

  If you’re lucky, you can see the green flash when the sun sets over the ocean to the west.

            Leaving Bimini is hard.  The people are wonderful and necessities (food, rum, beer) are available.  The water in the marina is so clear you can almost read a newspaper on the bottom and it is filled with all the creatures of the sea. 

 

Fish and

 rays

                                                          And even sharks.  Eeek!

                                      The beach is inviting, even when there is a storm brewing.

  

Besides shells and sea glass you can find interesting sculptures or maybe an altar to Poseiden

  But, “all good things must come to an end” or maybe not.  We struck out bright and early around the north side of the island.  We immediately encountered NE winds that called for a really close hauled sail.  As the morning progressed the wind shifted more and more to our nose and the waves were not kindly either.  It soon became apparent that we were in for 10 more hours of a motor slog.  So, we turned around and headed for Bimini.

  Then, it occurred to us that we had plenty of ice (necessary for the rum drinks!) and food, especially since I had caught a beautiful king mackerel (we threw the barracuda back!).  We didn’t need to go back to Bimini. 

            Let’s go to Gun Cay!  Honeymoon Harbor, uninhabited island all to ourselves.  Sounded good.  When we got there, there were 2 trimarans and 5 power boats anchored there, one of which was polluting the tranquil anchorage with its music.  Happily, they all moved on by nightfall and we had the place to ourselves.

When we anchored, the air was filled with the perfume of tiny flowers that covered part of the island.

  This is what we came for! Life is good, no?