Still in Bimini Part III
18 February 2009 | Bimini Islands
On the way back we took the upper road on the other side of the island and I noticed a large yellow building with no roof. We speculated that maybe a hurricane had blown the roof off but as we walked along it, it was obvious that a fire had gutted the long strip building. I had to get a picture of Joan and Brigid along our walk the view was so pretty and as we started to cut back towards town we came by the Dolphin House Museum where an older man gave us trumpet flowers to welcome us to Bimini and another man at the museum - Ashley Saunders asked if we'd like a tour of the building. We did. It was $2/person and I have to say it was the best $2 I've spent in a long time. Ashley has spent the last 15 years building this place from coral, shells, and things he's found along the shore and the dumps. It's quite incredible - his masonary and tile skills. There are dolphins of tile, marbles, coral, glass, etc... and we got quite the history lesson of this place - his family is one of 3 major families here and I loved listening to his story of the house and the families. He's a writer of history, poems, and a builder of stone and the future. His mother sold bread so that he could go to school and get a degree. He was a history teacher to the kids here on the island - went to school in Wisconson and returned home to teach and preserve the history of the Biminis. I was asking him what Volume 1 and 2 in his History of Bimini contained and we got a brief history of the area. Volume 3 - he's currently working on - and here's where we found out that the burned out building that we passed had been set afire during the riots that occurred here. I guess the police shot a local that had been handcuffed which set off some good size riots in the islands here and the remnants of the building still stand.
We went for sundowners over at the pool/grill area again tonight. A lot of the French Canadians that were here last night had left this morning. One of the ladies had a contagious laugh last night, I was sad to see she wasn't here tonight. So from 4:30 - 7 we sat around chatting with the couples from 3 other French Canadian Boats, Aurora and Shahadaroba. I was glad we had this extra day here in Bimini - I thoroughly enjoyed the day. We talked with Lou & Donna (Sooo Fine 2) and tried to set up our MMSI communication with them on our two boats for tomorrows trip. I think I finally got it set up, we were able to chat with each other and call (similar to a phone between ships without going through the VHF chatter) but found out Aurora didn't have that so we'll stick to VHF hailing.
Back at the boat I made BLTs for dinner - very tastey. We agreed on 6:30 tomorrow morning for departure and I discovered that my phone alarm clock wouldn't work without cell coverage (it can't pinpoint a time and date). S*%$! Hope I wake up early - I probably will - I usually do...