Back from Bimini!!!!!
Back from Bimini!!!!!
Back from Bimini!!
Got back from Bimini on Friday.....was a 91 mile boat trip from Islamorada to Bimini. The trip over was great, almost flat calm...did 30 MPH all the way, and it took, 3.3 hours to get there.
Bimini is way cool......crystal clear waters.....beautiful diving...and good fishing. Friday we took the boat to North Bimini for a dive on the steps to Atlantis....you may have seen this on the discovery channel....is a "road" underwater from the north tip of bimini leading off into the depths of the Atlantic ocean. It was a large area, you can clearly see the work of some ancient humans that carved and laid these massive stones underwater creating a road. The site is quite large, about the size of a football field, narrowing down to a single road about 40 foot wide. The stones are perfect squares and rectangles, so ,closely laid together that you cannot stick a knife between them. You can see where somebody has scrapped away the encrusting life on many of them to see what kind of rock it is....is not coral rock, but a black volcanic looking rock, defiantly not indigenous, but placed by some ancient culture, that dive alone was worth the trip......
We Kept the boat at Seacrest Marina, and stayed at the Seacrest motel....was very reasonable, $100 a night, but eating is a different story, expect to spend about $40 each for dinner at night......but you can eat at the local spots like CJ"s where cracked conch dinner is $8, compared to the big tourist hotels where the same is $40......Beer is $50 a case, so take your own. We carried 6 big coolers full of ice, as it is a rare commodity there....also is fresh drinking water, again, take you own....as there is little potable water on the Island.
You can rent a golfcart "the main source of transportation on the island" and go all the way around the island in about 30 minutes....there is only one road.....
There is a beautiful beach on the north side, about 4 miles long, and we had it all to ourselves, not another person on the beach but us....
Bottom fishing was good, lots of grouper, snapper, shark, just off shore, where the bottom drops off from the beach to 3000 feet in about 500 yards....makes for interesting anchoring, as if you miss the ledge with the anchor you are in 3000 foot of water, immediately!!
BUT, coming home Friday was a defiant story.....we watched the weather for a good day crossing, but had to vacate the motel as it was rented out for Friday night....going out the inlet the seas were quite large.....about 6-8 foot, but we had no choice as we had to go.....we ran into some large squalls, and the seas became quite nasty, but we kept on and plowed through.....turned into a 6.5 hour trip, and a real wet one......but soon saw the coast of Florida appear on the horizon, and soon we were across the reef in Hawks channel and only 35 miles to go to our dock in the Keys.
FYI
If you are going over, call ahead and talk to the immigration folks, as the day we checked in the fee was $100 for the boat, but the next day, as the Bahamians were short of money to pay their Police and customs guys, the fee went to $300, making some folks that got in late real hostile at the rate increase.....a day later it went to $200....so take extra $$$$ with you.
Rating ***** five stars for the hotel, food, and good times...
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com
:rollface:
