Young Adventures: The Rest Of Our Bimini Trip Part 2 Of 3

We left Honeymoon Harbor first thing the next morning, headed south for Dollar Harbor. First we had to navigate the cut at Gun Cay (Key). We were told to approach far to the right, staying near the dock and lighthouse. The current was tearing through the cut and the waves were confused and the cross current tossed us around a bit. Thankfully Thin Line is a heavy boat and she held the course as we passed through the cut.

We had a great day sail down, passing Cat Cay ( A private Island with huge homes and it's own airport) then down around south cat point and back up into Dollar Harbor. What makes dollar harbor so special is it's complete protection. Flats cover 180 degrees and the island covers the other 180. You have protection from surge and no matter what the wind there is no fetch (waves) that can build. During low tide there is land visible for almost as far as the eye can see. We followed the channel in, never seeing less than 8 to 9 ft of water, even at low tide. I anchored in the middle of the fattest part of the harbor and my anchor fell on mostly sand with a smattering of grass, the Rocna digging in right away. I let out about 100 ft of solid chain rode, applied the snubber and got ready to make a cocktail, after all it was almost noon!

We made a little lunch, enjoyed some fresh ice drinks courtesy of our Engel and prepared to head to shore. The refrigeration on our boat consists of two units. We have our main Engel that is a double fridge and the largest unit Engel sells. It's power draw as a fridge averages a little over an amp per hour, 3.5amps when running, but it normally only runs 20 minutes out of the hour. These units are really efficient and rock solid. Our second Engel fridge is half the size, it's actually the one we bought new for Kainoa and we got it back from them when they upgraded. We decided to run this as a hard freezer, and I had it packed to the hilt with frozen beef, bacon, sausage, lunch meats as well as some frozen fruits for smoothies. The best part was the ice trays where we managed to make trays every single day, at one point we had to stop making ice because we had too much in the fridge and no room.

We landed the dinghy, secured it and set out to explore the island that we had all to ourselves. Not a single building, person or soul in sight. There were signs of the presence of people, conch shells hung from trees, stones were piled in odd shapes and formations, but we were totally alone.

We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach and headed back to the boat just before dark, already planning to light a bonfire the following night and stay later next time.

The next day we enjoyed a large breakfast, did a little snorkeling, straightened out the boat, enjoyed a large lunch and then packed up for an extended stay and some more exploring.

As the sun hung a little lower in the sky, we gathered firewood ( it was everywhere!) formed a pile and used one of the many expired flares I keep on the boat for moments just like this! The fire was started in seconds with the quick snap of the flares cap and the dry wood ignited instantly.

We enjoyed the time spent just talking around the fire, it's times like these most people don't get enough of. Making our way back to the dinghy the tide had risen substantially and it was now anchored in chest deep water, water we had seen several predators in during the day including several small sharks, barracuda etc. What happened next I'll never forget and I'm pretty sure I pissed my pants laughing, Jess on the other hand was a little panicked and not amused when Colby yelled "YOLO!" (You only live once) and took off for the dinghy, leaving Jess behind.

Of course nothing happened and we went back to the boat for a movie, some popcorn and of course another ice cold beverage.

Later that night I awoke to gale force winds gusting over 40 kts, but the amazing thing is how smooth the ride was. The boat was turning and felt the strain of the winds, but there was no chop, no rolling and after a quick check of the anchor alarm and systems I fell back asleep. (UNlike Honeymoon Harbor where I was up almost the entire night biting my nails off)

The next day was more of the same, exploring our very own island.

We stayed in Dollar harbor for a few days, explored all there was to explore and we had our fill of total isolation. The last night a conch fishing boat did anchor about 200 yds away from us, waving as they went by. We could hear the gentle tapping of them popping a hole and forcing the conch out as they cleaned their catch.

After spending those few days in isolation we were craving something with a few more accommodations and I had scoped out a promising marina/resort that was reasonably priced at around 50 bucks, for us to spend the next couple days preparing for our crossing back to the states. The resort was called Bimini Sands.

We sailed all the way north back to Bimini, however this was on south Bimini instead of north Bimini where Alicetown is. The entrance was clearly marked and I never saw less than 11ft going in. We weren't quite prepared for what we saw when we got there, we had pulled into paradise. This didn't feel like a Bahamas marina, this felt like a 5 star marina! Infinity pool, ships store with Bimini bread freshly baked, a free shuttle and we were informed that tonight was a special night, it was Karaoke night at the Island Club down the road. We enjoyed the pool and then settled in for some Internet time reconnecting with family via Skype and letting everyone know we were safe.