On Monday, June 3rd we crossed the Gulfstream into the Bahamas. We always go into Gun Cay and drop the anchor on our first night. Theres good holding, a pretty beach and a spectacular view. Its a wonderful place to chill out after making the LONG crossing!! No matter how many times I come over, I am still amazed at the clarity of the water. It makes 15 to 20 feet look like a couple of inches. Ray always dives the anchor which I think is just an excuse to get into the water before anyone else. This year, he had Andy to "help" him out!
Angie and I laughed as the two of them swam around like little boys.... :) Ray found a sea biscuit that was empty of its resident, so I added it to my seashell collection.
After we cleaned up the boat and Ray and Andy showered off the saltwater, we headed over to the "Hannah B" for dinner!! Our engine wouldnt start, so Ray rowed us over in the dinghy. What a sight we were!!! We had an enjoyable evening with our friends, Wes and Terri, then back to the boat for a good nights sleep!!!
The next day, we pulled up the anchor and headed into one of my favorite towns in the Bahamas, Bimini!! The people are friendly, the dockage is cheap and the peas and rice are to die for!!!!! We usually stay at Weech's however, Bimini Blue Water Marina has RO water and we needed to fill our tanks. The marina is nice and even has a pool!!! We hiked the island and stopped in at a local restaurant on top of the hill called CJ's. Restaurant may be a strong word, but you can get food and drinks and watch them cook it!!
Then you have to go outside and sit at a picnic table. It decided to pour down rain right as we sat down to eat!! We ran up under the roof overhang and waited out the downpour, then took our seats back and chowed down on conch fritters and fries. Ray and Angie ate conch but I'm not a fan of chewy snails unless you batter and deep fry the suckers!! The view over the Bahama Banks is wonderful. The waves were crashing a little too hard for any swimming though. After we finished our food, we walked along the water and found a freighter that had washed up on the beach. Ray and I saw it back in 2007 and the hull was rusted but still together. This time, the whole top had caved in and sand had almost covered the bottom half.
Time waits for no one or nothing!! Anytime you leave the USA, culture shock sets in whether a little or a lot. The first thing that I have to get used to is the "hurry up and wait" mentality. No one is in a hurry to serve, move, go or bring anything!! The internet, if you have it, takes so long to load a page that its really not even worth the effort!! Phones dont work unless you want to help send Verizons CEO's children to Harvard...... Im not complaining, we are on vacation, but it takes time to get used to the island time.... Pretty soon, however, you dont know what time it is, what day it is, or what month it is!! We started eating when we were hungry, sleeping when we were tired and moving when we felt like it!! Not reall;y a bad way to live! Another thing that the islands do not have is preservatives. I cannot believe how quickly bread molds and crackers go stale. It kind of makes me wary of eating anything when I get back home! My bagels from the states were still "fresh" after three weeks but the Bahamian bread was molding after 8 days!! Irony, we like our food to wait around and our people to hurry up!!! No wonder we all get sick!!!
A note also on the economic state of Bimini. The little restaurants that are locally owned, struggle even though their food is AMAZING!! The consensus is that Americans are coming over to the Mega resorts and eating, drinking and playing there. They hardly set foot into the rest of the island. They eat Americanized food and shop in duty free stores. It is such a shame because the island is so beautiful, the people so friendly and the need for tourism so great!! I like the little marinas, the restaurants in the back porch of someone's house and the straw market gifts.
We stayed in Bimini for two days and decided it was time to make the LONG crossing over the banks to the Berry Islands. I dread the crossing because it is long and monotonous. To add to my dismay, the winds picked up to 15 to 20 knots out of the east..... the way we are going.... of course!!! We decide, well captains Ray and Wes decide and I go along with it cause well, I really dont have a say... that we will start out and drop the anchor in the middle of the banks... without land anywhere.... so there's no land around.... see none, no land, nothing!!! Did I mention this is also the route used by HUGE freighters like the one beached in Bimini who run on autopilot with no one watching out for little 41 foot sailboats anchored out with no land around???? yeah!!!! Well here we go.... dock lines are off, common sense obviously as well..... hopefully there will be a blog in the future about this crazy trip!! If not, you all know, the rest of the story!!!!!!
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