Water taxi in front of Customs House
Looking toward the Banks from Queen Street. Turning the other way we can see the Atlantic.
(notice the number of cars!)
Wednesday, April 16/08
Our plan is to leave Bimini tomorrow, as there is a weather window available. We have refitted our depthsounder with stronger glue and put extra diesel and biocide in the fuel.All the boats are getting anxious to leave, heading either east further into the Bahamas and beyond or west to the USA.
North Bimini has been lovely. We have walked the length of the longest road in the island, which ends at a new development called Bimini Bay. It is partly finished and will have condos and a marina. This is not the length of the island, maybe 2/3 of the way. There are three towns in North Bimini but you would think they were all one if it weren't for the road signs as there is no break in the buildings. Alice Town is where we came in, then Bayley Town to the north of it, followed by Porgy Bay.
We have finally seen a couple of dogs, but they are rare. The two long roads on the island are called The Kings Highway and The Queens Highway and from the higher one you can see both sides of the island at the same time. Bimini has lots of conch and the shells are used imaginatively in the buildings and patches of garden. Some garden walls have the shells placed along the top in various patterns, either slanted side by side, staggered every so often, or just at the corners. The columns at the bar next to us has conch shells circling them where they join the ceiling, and there is a house in town that has conch shells going up all the inside and outside corners of the building. Little garden plots are outlined in conch shells, or have one or two placed near a planting. The arrangement that takes the cake is the garden wall where the conch shells are placed along the top edge every two feet or so, and then painted all over in a drab matt green!
We were finally able to get a little internet time at the telephone company and Chris was able to get the taxes paid (!) and some emails done. I managed to snag my toe on a taut cord during the week (yes, I was wearing shoes) and have been pretty incapacitated since. The Wilderness Medicine course we took said that injured digits could be painful (agreed!) as there was no where for the swelling to go but my toe still managed to be 1/2 inch longer and wider than it's mate, and twice as deep. I have been pretty stoic and refrain from mentioning it more than once an hour or so.
It has been cool here for the last couple of days. The local population is wearing toques and parkas, and Chris is wearing a zipped up fleece jacket. He only does that on the coldest days in Canada! Two young sisters waiting for the water taxi were wearing matching ski outfits AND hats in pale pink and pale blue. The high that day was 72, with a low of 59!
We are all familiar with the computer screensaver of the desert island surrounded by turquoise waters and a sailboat. (the waters here look pretty much like that) It seems everybody has that dream image on their computer. So it was fun to see what the screensaver on the local telephone company computer was - a winter wonderland of a pine forest covered in snow! A local man told of visiting Canada because he simply had to see snow. I guess it underscores the point that we don't always notice the beauty in our own back yard.
Our plan is to leave Bimini tomorrow, as there is a weather window available. We have refitted our depthsounder with stronger glue and put extra diesel and biocide in the fuel.All the boats are getting anxious to leave, heading either east further into the Bahamas and beyond or west to the USA.
North Bimini has been lovely. We have walked the length of the longest road in the island, which ends at a new development called Bimini Bay. It is partly finished and will have condos and a marina. This is not the length of the island, maybe 2/3 of the way. There are three towns in North Bimini but you would think they were all one if it weren't for the road signs as there is no break in the buildings. Alice Town is where we came in, then Bayley Town to the north of it, followed by Porgy Bay.
We have finally seen a couple of dogs, but they are rare. The two long roads on the island are called The Kings Highway and The Queens Highway and from the higher one you can see both sides of the island at the same time. Bimini has lots of conch and the shells are used imaginatively in the buildings and patches of garden. Some garden walls have the shells placed along the top in various patterns, either slanted side by side, staggered every so often, or just at the corners. The columns at the bar next to us has conch shells circling them where they join the ceiling, and there is a house in town that has conch shells going up all the inside and outside corners of the building. Little garden plots are outlined in conch shells, or have one or two placed near a planting. The arrangement that takes the cake is the garden wall where the conch shells are placed along the top edge every two feet or so, and then painted all over in a drab matt green!
We were finally able to get a little internet time at the telephone company and Chris was able to get the taxes paid (!) and some emails done. I managed to snag my toe on a taut cord during the week (yes, I was wearing shoes) and have been pretty incapacitated since. The Wilderness Medicine course we took said that injured digits could be painful (agreed!) as there was no where for the swelling to go but my toe still managed to be 1/2 inch longer and wider than it's mate, and twice as deep. I have been pretty stoic and refrain from mentioning it more than once an hour or so.
It has been cool here for the last couple of days. The local population is wearing toques and parkas, and Chris is wearing a zipped up fleece jacket. He only does that on the coldest days in Canada! Two young sisters waiting for the water taxi were wearing matching ski outfits AND hats in pale pink and pale blue. The high that day was 72, with a low of 59!
We are all familiar with the computer screensaver of the desert island surrounded by turquoise waters and a sailboat. (the waters here look pretty much like that) It seems everybody has that dream image on their computer. So it was fun to see what the screensaver on the local telephone company computer was - a winter wonderland of a pine forest covered in snow! A local man told of visiting Canada because he simply had to see snow. I guess it underscores the point that we don't always notice the beauty in our own back yard.
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