First Stop - Bimini

In order to get to the Bahamas on a sailboat most sailors will wait for a ‘weather window’, sometimes for days and sometimes for weeks! This ‘window’ is often the leading edge of a cold front (a west wind) that is moving east from Florida across to the Bahamas. This means that your arrival is followed by a few very windy, cool days in a marina.  This year we had to only wait a few days for our window to sail to the island of Bimini where we officially start our season (it is also a former home of Ernest Hemingway and the setting for his novel ‘Islands in the Stream’).
While killing time on Bimini, waiting for another window to move further south and west into the Bahamas, we walked north on the island and spent a day wandering around the Bimini Island Resort.This is a place we are not likely to stay as guests…it seems bizarre to have such opulence in the middle of a poor island. 

This pool wraps around three sides of the resort.
       
Cathy cooling off in the infinity pool with the Gulf Stream in the background (no we did not ask permission!).

These villas in the resort are custom built and the smallest ones are only a few million US $$
This year we met a couple from California who we now kindly and lovingly refer to as ‘the kids’ who had purchased their first boat ‘Lady A’ (a 49 foot Jeanneau) in October. When we bought Quiescence we had 11 years to get ready for our trip so you can imagine how much help they needed. Their boat draws seven feet (a relatively deep boat for you non-sailors) and they ran aground trying to enter the channel at Bimini.  We offered to  help get them down to the Exumas where they then plan to continue further south to Puerto Rico. Kim began their education on boat systems and we’ve been together for two months plus now so here they are…

Meet Michel and Amanda - we are at another ‘cruiser buffet' at the newly renovated Lorraine’s Café in Black Point.