No Travel
For some reason Clark could not sleep this morning and was awake to see the sunrise. I missed it.
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| Sunrise in Alice Town, Bimini, Bahamas |
I ate my breakfast and sat reading a novel while I watched it rain, and then it suddenly hit me that we should be collecting the rain water as we had been advised and read about in preparation for our visit here. I gave Clark my small cooler to put out to collect water, and I ran to find more empty containers to use to collect the rain. Clark decided to pull out our 'rain collection' tarp that we had bought special for the Bahamas.
He tied the tarp to the railings on the fly bridge and ran tubing down to the cockpit where we had our collection buckets positioned. Once he got the system going, i.e. the water flowing, I was amazed at how well it collected the water. We kept filling up containers, and I had to get creative to find more.
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| Rain water being collected into our water jug |
Whereas the one container we put out to collect water without using the tarp only collected one inch of water, the ones using the tarp filled to the brim rapidly. Today's water collection project served as an experiment in preparation for when we might really need to add to our water supply via rain. Here we can buy the water if we need to. In the remote anchorages of the Bahamas we may not be so lucky.
We learned that next time we need to be ready with our system as soon as we know it is going to rain. Clark got soaked through setting up the tarp in the pouring rain, and we had laundry hanging across the salon the entire day as a result. In addition, I figured out which containers work well, so I'll know what to grab next time we need them.
After the rain stopped pelting down, Clark poured most of the collected water into our water tank. We kept one to replenish our drinking water supply. When reading about the Bahamas before coming here, I saw an article about collecting water that said the water sold here often comes out of cisterns filled with rain water. Whether I drink the water I buy by the gallon or I collect rain water, it is one and the same.
As we sat on the sofa intently watching our water-collection system in operation, Clark suddenly realized that the sofa behind him had become very wet. We had a leak on the boat. It is one that we have been haunted by for years. Since he could investigate the leak as it was leaking, Clark went on the prowl to find the source of our drips.
First he took down the wooden framework holding our air conditioner vent since the water dripped from a corner of that area. After inspecting that area, he decided that the source of the leak was elsewhere, and we put that section back together. Next he took down the radio speaker mounted in the ceiling on the starboard side of the boat to look around in there. Voila! After years of frustration he finally found the source of the leak. After rummaging around in his bins of parts and such, he came up with some putty-type substance that he used to patch the source of the leak.
When the bulk of the rain storm had passed over, Clark went off to talk to Larry and Linda on Lila Blue. Since it was already noon, I told him not to be gone too long because it was time for lunch. Two hours later he finally came back to the boat. I had given up on seeing him about five minutes after he left, so by the time he came back I had eaten long ago. I wondered how long it would take him to figure out he missed lunch. Around 2:30 he finally said, "Did you eat?" My answer, "Of course."
I fed him and by the time he finished eating it was already after 3:00. We left the boat to walk to the Bahamas Telephone Company to ask for help on our Bahamas phone setup. We did not get very far. Almost as soon as we stepped off the boat, Bob came by and started chatting. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I am in the Bahamas and things move slowly here - no sense rushing or trying to rush anyone else. Finally I had to drag Clark away saying I did not know what time the store closed.
Once again we took our lives in our hands walking the "main" street in town called interestingly enough "Queen's Highway". With traffic coming from the opposite direction than in the U.S. and with barely existent or non-existent sidewalks, walking from one location to another is challenging. I saw bicyclists, motorcyclists, and folks driving golf carts, cars and trucks plus a few (very few) pedestrians.
In fact I saw many of the same people going back and forth on the road. They were easily identified by what they were driving or what they were carrying. For example, one bicyclist went by carrying a propane tank on his handlebars. I had no trouble recognizing him when we went past me a second time.
We used the opportunity of walking to and from the phone store as a site-seeing tour.
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| Bahamas Telephone Co. and Store |
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| Cell tower |
On the way to the phone store, we passed three stores that claimed to be food stores or groceries. We didn't need anything but thought it would be interesting to poke our heads in to see what they sold. Only the first one we came to on our way back to the boat was worth even a look. It was well stocked with a reasonable selection of goods. One store looked so disgusting we did not go in and the other seemed to sell mostly non-food products so we did not go in there either.
If we are here long enough to need something, we now know where to go for food. We also stopped into a bakery we found along the way, but the selection of sticky buns on display and the white bread on sale did not appeal to me. Perhaps they have a better selection in the morning rather than late afternoon. In our search for food sources we saw and followed signs that lead us to CJ's Deli. Once there, we discovered that they sold pre-made sandwiches only.
As we walked around town we saw a sign with an arrow pointing up a lane that read "Dolphin House Museum and Gift Shop". We decided to walk up the lane and see what they had to offer.
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| Lane to the Dolphin House Museum |
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| Dolphin House Museum with Mosaic Tile on walls and steps |
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| Cannon at entrance to Dolphin House Museum Made in Scotland in the mid-1700s and in use until early 1800s |
For such a small museum, a room of perhaps 20' x 15' in size, the collection on display impressed me. As we walked up to the entrance a man immediately stepped out of the gift shop to lead us into the museum and tell us all about it. He introduced himself as the museum curator, the Bimini historian, and the author of two books on the history of Bimini.
He explained that the museum contained items on display and not for sale as well as a library but not a lending library. Several times he pointed out quotes on display from Ernest Hemingway. The quotes mostly appeared written on the ceiling, but some also appeared as signs hanging on the walls within the museum. One picture of Hemingway getting a haircut in town in 1937 on display at the museum seems to be quite a popular piece of Bimini history.
Besides Ernest Hemingway, the curator told us, Bimini is famous for pirates / swashbucklers / buccaneers. He showed us an old leather pirate's hat, a prized bottle that was covered in coral that he said clearly came from a pirate's shipwreck since it contained both the bottle and a piece of wood with it, and miscellaneous items like spoons and knives that came from old ships as well.
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| Pirate's hat and "Jolly Roger" in the background |
The museum also held unusual works of art including conch shell sculptures that were gorgeous as well as coconut and shell artwork.
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| Four Conch Shell Sculptures |
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| Carved-Coconut Football in Front |
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| Curator holding a fishing rod made completely from coconuts he demonstrated the coconut-carved reel -it worked! |
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| Sailboat made from Coconut Made by Curator's brother - the last of the coconut carving artists |
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| Museum non-lending library with Hemingway Quotes on Display |
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| Museum with Shell Sailboat in foreground |
Once again we had managed to find a "free" museum. As we left, the curator asked us to please put a dollar in the donation collection box. In response, Clark said, "I've already done better than that!" The curator appeared pleased with that answer.
As we toured the area near the museum we also saw views of the beach. Fabulous!
Having walked back to Queen's Highway as we continued our stroll, we found a building filled with vendor boutiques. Each one of these 15 or so boutiques appeared to be no bigger than a small-sized walk-in closet, but they were packed with items for sale. Mostly we saw t-shirts advertising the Bahamas, but we found key chains, souvenirs and handbags as well. I had no interest in buying any of it, however, so we left them disappointed with no sales.
As we toured around we saw evidence of Ernest Hemingway's influence on Bimini. His interest in the island and his love of big-game fishing brought others to the area to pursue fishing and helped Bimini's economy as a result. Sadly the hotel where Hemingway stayed when he visited Bimini in the thirties burned to the ground in recent years. The hotel manager died saving the life of one of the hotel's guests.
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| Compeat Angler Hotel where Hemingway stayed when he visited Bimini |
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| Famous Hemingway Haircut Picture from 1937 |
Having seen the sights and read the historical posters scattered around town, we decided it was time to head back to the boat. We chatted with Jamie and Christina on the sailboat Cleopatra docked next to us before boarding our boat. Shortly afterwards, Bob from Aftermath stopped by to review Bahamas charts with Clark.
Bob's tour of the Bahamas one island at a time took over two hours as he went island-by-island and anchorage-by-anchorage. Clark took copious notes on where to go, what to see, and how to get there. I am particularly interested in seeing "Gilligan's Island" which is the island shown at the beginning of the TV series. Another point of interest is one island where filming for the movie Thunderball took place.
A late dinner, dishes cleanup and working on the blog closed out a day filled with an assortment of activities.
Food for thought, a quote from Ernest Hemingway displayed in the Dolphin House Museum:
Every man's life ends the same way.
It is only the details of how he lived
and how he died that distinguish
one man from another.
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