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| Captain Bob's |
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| Us eating in Captains Bobs |
Since we are staying another
day, we all went to breakfast and Captain Bob’s. Pretty good food. Pricey, but not untypical for here on the island.
While we were there we met
another couple on a 1979 Hinckley 49’ center
console. They, Grant and Diane, came
over after hearing us discussing anchoring in the Bahama Banks tomorrow. We ended up having a rather long conversation
ending when I suggested they join us at BTC where I had to purchase a Bahamas
As we were getting ready to
leave Grant asked if I wanted to take is electrically powered bike out for a
spin.
Its basically a regular bike
but with an electric motor in the rear wheel hub, and a heavy lithium ion
battery on the rear fender. Heavy bike
too with all that motorized gear, about 50+ pounds.
So I got on and really had to
push on the pedals to get it moving with Grant shouting at me to use the
throttle. Very strange to be on a bike
and operate a twist throttle on the handlebars much like a motorcycle. But I finally overcame the pedaling fixation
and twisted the throttle. Wow … there is
certainly some torque in this thing. It
just took off so smoothly with plenty of power. What a cool
little vehicle. And you can use the
pedals anytime you want. Batteries have
enough juice for 30 miles and it sure seems fast.
Only downside was the price
tag. $1500 for the low to mid level model. I'm guessing but Santa probably isn't bringing me one anytime soon.
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| This is our dinghy's twin sister |
After my all to short joy
ride, they returned to their boat and we ours.
After a few minutes Jeff and Judy met us on the dock and we walked to
the Bimini Big Game Club Marina (reportedly a Hemingway haunt years ago) to meet Grant
and Diane.
While the others milled
around looking at the place I went to their boat and was invited aboard. Very spacious and livable. I usually don't make such observations about
sailboats either.
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| Diane, Judy and Grant and Mary sitting |
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| Phone booth right outside the BTC Cellular Phone store |
We all walked to the local BTC (Bahamas Telephone Company) store where we waited in line awhile before I purchased a Samsung J1 smart phone
and $44 worth of minutes. The minutes seem to be applicable either as phone minutes or data. Edollia was the nice lady who took care of
me.
I have yet to figure out how
all this interacts with each other but at least we will have access to internet
data. Not for web surfing but weather
information. I'd hate to be caught out
in all this shallow open water in a named stormed.
On our way back to the boats we stopped at the better grocery store on the island, Roberts. Nice
people in there and it had a surprisingly extensive inventory considering all the stories we heard about lack of standard grocery store items. The supply boat doesn't get here until Thursday so they are a little light on inventory.
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| Diane and Mary in Roberts |
We walked back to the boat
and said good bye to Grant and Diane who are planning on leaving a few hours
earlier than we are. But we'll surely
run into them down the island chain since they are also going to be poking
around the Exumas.
Mary and I did a few boat
things and then walked to the straw market where she bought some shirts and a
dress.
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| The Straw Market shops |
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| Mary buying a dress and getting opinions from the owner and some other woman |
We then hiked to Charlies Bread which was a mile back up the road in Bailey Town. We talked with him, a really pleasant fellow. Unfortunately we was sold
out. But if we stay another day we'll certainly head back there since its reputed to be the best bread in Bimini.
We took the upper road back to the marina. It runs along the raised shore on the ocean side and is less congested than the main road. As I said previously, the road is narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass. Add, golf carts, bicycles and many pedestrians and ... well its gets crowded!
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| Bimini Dolphin Museum |
We took the short road back down to the marina which goes right by the Dolphin museum which we didn't enter but will, I;m sure tomorrow if we stay another day.
Then we walked the short distance back to Captain Bobs restaurant where, next door, is the liquor store. Mary bought a six pack of Kalik beer and I noticed that Captain Morgan rum was only $17 a bottle. Thats cheap! Well, it was cheap until I noticed the VAT tax which brought the price back up to $21 a bottle. Still not bad. Cheaper here than in Marathon!
I stopped in the marina
office when we came back and had them add another $40 to my pre-paid phone
account. I walked the docks and talked
with a few fellow boaters who gave me some pointers on anchoring out on the Bank.
Anchoring on the Bank means
just anchoring anywhere on the Bahama Banks which is quite large and lacks
almost any navigational aids. But Mackie Shoal, which is shallower than most places on the Banks, seems to be a popular place to anchor because of the depth and its location off the main commercial shipping routes. The
inter-island ferries and supply boats ply the Banks, usually at night so we
need to be well lit if we do anchor out there.
The alternative would be a 90
mile run tomorrow and I'm not comfortable leaving until at least the tide starts rolling in giving us another foot of water over the shallows here next
to the dock. The issue revolves around
backing out and turning the boat around very near shoal water and risking
running aground. Don’t want to to
that. But waiting means we won't be able
to make the journey all the way to Great Harbor Cay on the other side of the
Bank. Decisions, decisions...
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| Our boat flying the Bahamian courtesy flag |
But we’ll see what tomorrow
brings. It’s supposed to rain, or maybe
storm, or possibly be calm and wet or …
the number of alternate forecasts are as numerous as they are different.
I stopped over at Jeff’s boat
to see if I could resolve an autopilot issue they had. No joy on that one. Then tried to get their Bose bluetooth
speakers working with their laptop but that was also a bust. There’s some driver incompatibility.
So I finally returned here,
ran the water maker (making 65 gallons an hour even in this extra salty warm water!) and pondered fiddling with the new phone. Nah ... too much gadget fiddling today. So we just went to bed since we have to rise rather early and decide
if we’re leaving or staying tomorrow morning.
Today was a hot day. Even the pool water is hovering around
90. Ice cubes in drinks last only
minutes. And its not even summer yet!
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