Jan 15, 2010

North Bimini Island, day 2

Everyone slept through the night until 7:30-8:00. It was warm waking and sunny! Shorts and t-shirts were the days dress. After having a leisure coffee Peter cooked Irish breakfast for the girls. We then packed for a dingy ride and dressed for a beach somewhere. We motored about 2 miles north along the shore and came upon a new Bimini Bay resort and marina. It is well planned and beautiful but very empty. At $2.50 a foot it doesn't compare with our dock for $1.00 a foot, including hot showers. We then headed south again and pulled up on a beach to see a boat builder, Ansel. It turns out he is famous on the island for being a champion bonefish fisherman, which he makes his living on. He also makes Bahamian bonefish boats which can motor in 6" of water. He had one in progress and one finished. They were beautiful and Peter was extremely impressed with his skills. He told us a story about Martin Luther King who visited the island on many an occasion and liked to go bonefishing with him. On one of his visits (3 days before he died) MLK wrote the sanitation workers speach while in the bonefish boat with Ansel anchored among the mangroves in a secluded section of the island. Many other famous people have visited with Ansel and he hand made a shell necklace for Queen Elizabeth on her visit to the island. We were captivated by his work and his stories and as we were getting ready to leave Ansel came to us with 3 dishes of freshly made conch salad. Our first time eating it and it was delicious!!
All along the shore we saw piles of conch shells and before we left we picked out a few to take home as souveniers. We only found one shop on the island that sold souveniers carved from these shells, of course we had to buy one.




After the boat building visit we dingied further down the channel, pulling up onto a soggy sandbar. Peter reached into the water and pulled out an enormous sponge! Liz took a walk on the sandbar while Jane waited in the dingy with Pretzel. (She doesn't like to get her feet wet.)









We then motored to the end of the island, found a beautiful beach that stretches the entire east coast of the island. Bimini has 3 main roads running the length of the island and you can walk across it in 5 minutes. A very nice first day!!

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