Alice Town, Bimini

Bright and early Monday morning (5:30) we headed out from Rodriguez Key, dodging lobster pot buoys in the dark.  Once we got out into deep water about the time it was getting light we started sailing.  The winds started going light after a few hours, and since Bimini was 70 miles away we motor-sailed for a while, and finally just motored.  The Gulf Stream was pretty calm, so we had a pretty easy crossing.  We did have some light rain in the afternoon, and a couple of hours of big rollers which made motoring rather uncomfortable.  Sue sighted land around 3:15, and we were tied up at a dock by 5:30.  By then it was too late to do all the paper work and clear Customs and Immigration.

With all our paper work in hand I arrived at the Customs office at 8:00 this morning.  They didn't know I was coming, so they didn't show up until after 8:30.  We had been worrying about not getting the 180 day cruising permit that we wanted (some people we only getting 90 days), or that we didn't have all the proper paper work to bring the cats into the country.  But things went without a hitch, and 15 minutes and $300 later I was on my way back to the boat.  After breakfast Sue and I walked into town to sight see.  We also bought a loaf of bread for $4, causing us to realize we might only be able to stay half as long as we had planned, or eat only half as much as we are used to.  One of the first things I noticed in the store, all the products are from the States.  Kellogg's, Ritz crackers, Oreo cookies, Clorox, Campbell's soups...  When I asked, the store owner said almost every thing came from the US.  And someone else told us if the cargo freighters missed a couple of weeks everyone would go hungry.

The cars drive on the "wrong" side of the road.  Gas is $5.20 a gallon.  There are as many golf carts as cars on the roads.  Virtually all of the cars are from the States, though some of the newer ones are right hand drive from Japan.  Every block or two there is a small food shop, and there are almost as many churches.  Two of the newer, more modern looking stores are the Alcoholic Beverage Controls.  One side of the island has the King's highway, while the other side of the island, a block away, has the Queen's highway.  Both are not much wider than one lane, and since there are no sidewalks to speak of, cars can't go very fast, and often need to stop or slow for on-coming traffic or walkers.

When we sat in Marathon for two weeks the barnacles and other sea creatures started taking up residence on our boat and dinghy.  The paddlewheel for the boat speed had quit spinning due to little barnacles so we didn't have speed through the water the last couple of days.  And the bottom of our dinghy was getting covered with grass and barnacles.  We had pulled the dinghy up on deck for the Gulf Stream crossing, so yesterday I scrubbed the bottom and pried off all the growth when we were crossing to Bimini.  Tonight we pulled the impeller out and chipped off all the growth so we will have boat speed tomorrow when we start heading across the Bahama Banks, and south.  Once again we expect to be out of touch for a while.

Bottom growth.

King's Highway.

Alice Town gas station.

17 years, still not finished, house using reclaimed local materials.
The builder/artist is renowned, local artist and author, Ashley Saunders.