A Few Days in Bimini

I can't say I was all that impressed with North Bimini.  The water is the clear blue and turquoise that you see in pictures of the Bahamas.  The island itself seems to serve two purposes.  It is a convenient place for cruisers to clear in with customs and immigration and a relatively easy weekend getaway for those in Southern Florida.

The beach at the south end of North Bimini

The southern half of North Bimini is the older town.  Several marinas, liquor stores,  bars, and a few grocery and other stores.  The northern end of the island is being developed as a resort.  The Hilton, the cruise ship port, a couple of nicer marinas (including where we checked in), the passenger ferry terminal, and the sea plane base are all there.  There is a definite and visible difference in the economic status of the two ends of the island.  Money is being spent to make improvements in the north, and much of the south is being left behind.  The north end shops and some of the touristy south end shops are only open when a cruise ship is in port.  There was a bar at Fisherman's Village that closed at 4pm after the ferry and cruise ship left.

Not every day you get waked by a plane
...in a no wake zone.

There is a small store called Dolphin Electronics that we visited first.  This is more of a cell phone store than electronics shop.  We were there to pick up an Aliv wifi hotspot device and a BTC sim card for the phone.  The hotspot was reported as being an economical option for internet ($90 for the device and $90/month for 125gb of data) with decent coverage in the Bahamas.  Starlink seems to be the better choice for internet, but at $500 for the device and $150/month, it is less economical.

My quest to find a replacement radiator hose did not go well.  Despite there being numerous cars, boats, and golf carts on the island and many transportation options for delivery of merchandise, I was unable to find any suitable hose.  The hardware store, two general stores, a place called Moon Glow (which, despite what the name might suggest, is the closest thing they have to an auto parts store) had none. I even found a couple of 'shade tree car mechanics" who tried their best but didn't have anything appropriate.  Fortunately the rescue tape repair was holding up well, so it will continue to be used until a better replacement can be found.

The "main road" in North Bimini, near
The electronics store.

The highlight of the stop here were the nice locals we met.  The customs and immigration people were professional, yet friendly and welcoming. Josh, at Fisherman's Village marina was very helpful on our arrival with advice and recommendations.  Al, at the second marina we stayed at (after determining the first marina was no bargain once all the resort fees were added to the dockage rate), was very friendly and chill.  And then there was Anton at Smitty's Beach bar, who wins the award for hospitality.

The crew of Whisper and us went to Smitty's the second night and had a few drinks and a nice dinner.  Toward the end of the evening a crazy wind started blowing everything around and we pitched in to help him get things secured and chase menus and placemats around.  As a thanks for the help, he bought us a round and then insisted we not walk back to the marina and instead drove us there after closing up shop.  Anton, thank you!

After a few days in Bimini, it was feeling that it was time to move on and find the real Bahamas...next stop, the Berry islands.