Island Life!
Feels like we have settled into Bahamian life quite OK at the moment. :) Can’t believe we are 5 weeks in already to our stay here! The first few weeks we stayed in a marina as Pete (taking Bethan and Oscar with him ) had some work in Europe, so we took advantage of the peace and Annabelle got certified as an Open Water Scuba Diver whilst in Bimini! She had a great, laid back instructor called Stefon who was excellent at calming her nerves the first day, but she came back absolutely buzzing afterwards! She dived Sapona, the wreck where we had snorkeled, Shark Reef, and then once qualified Heather went out and they dived together which was very special.
We started getting used to checking whether the supply ship had come in before we went to the grocery store, otherwise supplies were very limited some days, especially of vegetables. We experimented cooking with grits as the locals ate, and started relaxing our schedules a little to how the locals worked rather than being on tight deadlines all the time.
We visited the Dolphin House on Bimini (https://dolphin-house-museum.business.site/) , handbuilt by a local out of recycled stuff he had found all over the island. We went to the Shark Lab, (https://www.biminisharklab.com/) where the kids learnt about the habitats of the local Lemon Sharks, Nurse Sharks and Hammerheads, which people were coming from all over the world to dive with in this part of the Bahamas.
Once the family was back together, we headed with our buddy boat for a night at Honeymoon harbor, which looked pretty but was a nightmarish anchorage full of tide and waves, then made the 70 mile passage across the Grand Bahama Bank early one Sunday morning to the Berry Islands, a chain of Bahamian islands due east of Bimini, that were much more deserted than the Bimini area and just so beautiful. We didn’t see buildings or any infrastructure for several days. We visited a hidden Blue Hole just near the anchorage where we jumped from a 20ft high cliff into a salty, clear and 80ft deep hole. The kids got the Tiwal out (inflatable dinghy) and went for miles, we almost caught our first massive Mahi Mahi as we traveled at some speed, sadly losing it just as it got to the boat and it took the lure/ hook with him. We met a new family on a Leopard 46 with 4 kids and travelled with them to Nassau, when we needed to move on. It was great to meet some more kids enjoying the lifestyle! We then had a few days in the busy town of Nassau which was a real culture shock after the desert beaches of the Berry’s!
