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Bimini is located about 56 miles away from Florida and is the westernmost island of the Bahamas and the closest to the United States Onboard an "IRitis new look", regarding all the modifications we did to the boat during year 2008, we sailed through the Gulf stream.

This little trip to the Bahamas was a kind of sea trial and above all a reward as being able to finish this work while living aboard!

We left Fort Lauderdale at 9 AM and sailed with little wind through the Gulf Stream. At midnigth we anchored in South Bimini under a wonderful starry sky. In the morning after a few miles sail, we got to Alice Town, capital of Bimini, to clear in. Alice Town is still typical with its bahamian colors, despite the great number of tourist staying in some resorts. Nevertheless people here are very friendly.

Modern houses are closed to very hold ones made up with old pieces of drive wood, and are still up after being through so many hurricanes!

Bimini is so close to United States that Miami boaters get there in two hours with their power boat spending their week ends filling up their freezer with catches, diving on one of the many dive sites along the reef. I can tell you Sail boats are getting rare!

Bimini, was very famous during the prohibition and became a a sort of liquor store for the States. Hemingway, a sportfishing game amateur, stayed there too, not only for the fishes!!! Since this time a lot of international fishing game are still very famous and well known from the experts.

The island relies on tourism with a couple of huge resorts. When we first came here there were sea planes coming from Miami but since a crash happened for one of them along the miami coast in 2006 killing 6 people from Bimini, they don't fly here anymore. An airport located on South Bimini takes you to nassau , miami or other islands.

On the atlantic coast of North Bimini local bars serve conch salad, conch crackers or other local specialities offering one of the best view of the island, blue sea and pristine beach!

To clear in, we got in a tiny marina. Bimini's immigration prefers you to do so as if they need to come on board it is easier for them. Weech's Bimini Dock is a very friendly and cosy marina, son, father, grand father and great grand father, all caucasians, were born on Bimini. Very great and nice people.

You'll find here a convenient location right in town and close to the immigration office, showers and bathroom are super clean, two barbecues are available as well as large tables, and Sailor the parrot is ready for you if you are lacking conversation!

You can reach the marina on VHF channel 18. Sailor is not yet answering the VHF!. While in Bimini you have huge currents and if you can you'd better wait for the slack to get along the dock... Eventhough they have people on the dock to help you with your lines it's very strenuous !!!

After clearing in we left Bimini for Honwymoon cay but the place was overcrowded so we kept going and anchor at Gun Cay.

Gun Cay is absolutely uninhabited but some ruins still exists and a lighthouse at the southern point is fonctionning 1 white flash every 10 seconds to mark out the entry passage to the pricvate Cat Cay.

Anchored in very shallow water behind the southern point of Gun Cay we do not hesitate to jump in the water... to check what is going to be in our plate tonight!! We didn't do that for a while and believe me it is easier to drive to the supermarket!! But the spot is great and we were fast to find lobsters and conchs shells!

we were lucky to enjoy a beautiful rainbow!

We remained to Gun Cay just enough time to check all our diving equipment, fill up our tanks, track the GPS points for further dive sites. The sea wascalm and so good!

Once ready to keep on we sailed from Gun Cay to Tuna Alley a dive site located close by North Cat Cay N 25.31.509'-W 079.17.952'. We moored onto the buoy and got into the water. Tuna Alley is a reef dive which starts at 15 meters and get to 30 meters maximum. Visibility was gorgeous. Little canyons can be dive through to get to the 30 meters bottom. Quite a lot of fishes of all kind, turtles, and sharks are there. Soft corals are pretty nice and lively.

No one to bother us while we did this dive. A few curious nurse sharks followed us, slaloming between beautiful sponges. No Tuna were ever seen! I guess we should have check on board one of the many sport fishing boats cruising around the spot!!

Cat Cay is a private island. We were told the marina can be used but we are not sure about it. Nevertheless you can not go ashore... At the far end of North Cat Cay there is a huge palm grove, mans work!, which is hiding the dump place of the whole island... It's not smelling nice while sailing close by! Dumping is one of the biggest problem in the Bahamas... While sailing along North Cat Cay you can see huge houses, with private beach of course. The island even has a golf course! Houses have no specific architecture which is a pity ..They just look like any houses in the states. There is even a windmill! just like the one close by my mum's house in France!!

Cat Cays : North and South Cat Cay

Dollar Harbour located on South Cat Cay is uninhabited. Here we found lobsters, conches, fishes... as much as we needed! and dives sites were only a short sail away so it became our base anchorage!!

This is a very calm anchorage, no one around. One or two boats will try to go through the banks but they'll have to turn back!!

From Dollar Harbour we got to Victoria Reef , for 3 dives, but there was a very strong current. Better dive at slack time!!

Some of the buoy are underwater, or almost invisible, and difficult to pick up or sometimes they do not even exists....Sometimes some of them may even be taken by some of the sport fishing boat... no comment!

Visibility here was not as good as Tuna Alley although there was no specific wind or storm the day before. We found out that the proximity of Ocean Cay, another private island but this one with no resort and touristical purpose, could be the reason of the underwater turbidity! we were first told about aragonite mining, but the project seems to be bigger than that and on its way to transform the ecosystem, with a gas pipe going to south florida...check this link for more details ! It is hard to believe that when the man is bored he is forever having ideas to destroy what he touches...

Dollar Harbour, is a long coral stripe having beautiful pristine beaches on the banks side where hurricane here too might have apply mother nature rules... regarding a couple of ruins . On the ocean side, no access possible, but it is beautiful too.

Vegetation here is the same as in every Bahamas islands... rare! or tropical, with cactus, some pine trees, and rare exception a few flowers!

But to tell you the truth, were we stayed the most was in the sea! Our dive computer pointed out 30 degres celcius, at a depth of 30 meters below surface! Too hot for the captain... a dream for me! We caught groupers, snapers, hogg fishes, lobsters and conches... .

The rest of the time we just enjoyed watching the sky, invented new receipes, repaired the hunting stuff, filled up our tanks.... the weather was beautiful and hot. We were ready to cacth rainwater to fill up our tanks but... no rain!!! Clouds were not far away, but not for us! we had to head back to Bimini to fill up our tanks... hummm!

On our way back from Bimini we stopped to free dive the Sapona. A ferrocement wreck which got pushed by a hurricane onto the banks, before that it was a target for the US navy during exercise and before before that a sort of liquor store during the prohibition!!! Now it is a shelter for fishes, lobsters, and corals!

Back to our base anchorage we enjoyed the blissfull feeling of this heavenly and remote place and remained there before we set sail to Fort Lauderdale.

This trip to paradise and to the kind of life we appreciated finally set our countdown... we still have 774 days to go through before we go back to this life and continue our sailing trip. I know it is in two years... but anyway... it is coming !!!

We still have a few work to do on the boat anyway, as the aft cabins to finish, the storage cabin too, and the davit... to change with a stonger one. No time to get bored during the Hurricane season!!!!