wherearethediamonds

Rise and shine bahamas time which means about 10:30, we have a 5 hour trip in front of us with a planned stop half way in the hopes of getting lost in the Bahamas banks so we can grill out without the human race to be found.   We drop anchor right next to the tongue of the ocean, named for the shape of the ocean which goes from 10 feet to 600 feet in one cliff overhang.  Also know as one of the best fishing spots in the world, enough of useless knowledge lets move on to utilizing the grill.  My first project is officially a success with spicy turkey sausage and asparagus being served up for lunch.  Now we are really settling into the lifestyle of boating in the islands.  a city slicker as well as a novice seaman  may have mistaken us for real boaters.  This moment was what we really looked forward to, floating in the middle of nowhere, grilling, laughing and pinching ourselves because we are really doing it.

We really went rebel today by not waiting 30 minutes to swim after eating, good thing no one was in sight to reprimand us.  We couldn’t resist the turquoise crystal clear waters, somehow with snorkel gear in tow we still managed to loose Linda’s maui jim sunglasses which fell off the swim platform. We dove like jaque  coustow to no avail, 20 minutes into our makeshift treasure dive we gave up, turned on the engines and made our way to the atlantis marina on paradise island.

Its never easy to keep to a schedule when boating, for whatever reason everything is twice as hard and takes an extra few hours. I have a new level of respect for airlines, moving thousands of people around everyday without losing anyone (people that is not luggage). So of course our departure time of 11 AM quickly turned into 3PM. Just in time to make the 2.5 hour trip to our first stop the island of Bimini before we loose the sun light. As the deep blue ocean turned into a clear light turquoise I knew we were getting close. We quickly went from 500 feet of water down to 5 feet as we approached the white sand beach coast. Once docked at the 15 slip marina we got our first lesson in bahamas math. 1 dollar per foot per night is very inexpensive for dockage until you have the .25 cents per gallon for water and something like 4 dollars for enough electricity to charge an iPhone.

Before nightfall I began my first project of the trip, install a pedestal on the swim platform for the grill. 9PM mission complete, in just enough time to make it over to the big game marina to order a local conch salad and some blackened fish of the day. Caught less than a 5 minute boat ride off shore, and of course a night in the bahamas wouldn’t be complete without trying the pride of the bahamas local beer called kalik. Named after a cow bell style musical instrument played in the yearly junkanoo new years eve celebration.