Florida to Bimini
A month of skiing in Vermont was wonderful. The conditions were near perfect and from what I have read more snow has arrived. However we have left the cold behind and are now in the Bahamas.
Our flight from Newark to West Palm was easy as usual and after several days of intense provisioning in Stuart we fueled up and headed out of the St Lucie inlet for a full day run down to Ft Lauderdale. Perfect FL weather had us anchored in Lauderdale by dinner time. The Lauderdale inlet was busy with three cruise ships departing within an hour of each other. We slipped in behind the second and just made it thru the turning basin when cruise ship number three headed out. We were politely moved along by a well armed Coast Guard tender.
A gorgeous early morning departure out the inlet started our two and a half month Bahamas cruise. We had been to the Bahamas the prior two springs but only to the Abacos and only for a couple of weeks each. Our first destination was Bimini. It is an easy 56 mile crossing when the weather is right. And this day was perfect. The Atlantic and more importantly the gulf stream was glass smooth. Numerous boats chose this day to cross as it was the only perfect day in over a week of testy weather. We were accompanied by loads of flying fish.
Bimini is one of the many ports of entry into the Bahamas. Our destination was Browns Marina and we made the crossing in 8 1/2 hours. After filling out customs, immigration, and vessel paperwork provided at Browns a quick trip to the customs office and a $300 dollar payment gave us permission to enter and stay for 90 days. Bimini is a popular fishing destination and hosts several large tournaments each year from the Bimini Big Game Club.
Since the 1920’s many celebrities have ventured to Bimini for it’s world class fishing. Zane Grey and Ernest Hemmingway are two of them and apparently Ernest liked drinking and brawling along with the fishing.
Today there is a large casino and housing/condo development under construction by the Malaysian firm, Resorts World. Not all are on board with this change to the low key Bimini life style. We ended up staying four nights on Bimini due to a weather front that brought strong east winds and small craft advisories. We agreed four days was plenty on this island.