A Week in Bimini

The Marina

We stayed at the Bimini Blue Waters Marina. It was a bargain at $1.25/ft per night plus $15 per day for 50 amp power. Any daily rate starting with a 1 was a treat after spending the last couple months in Florida! The marina itself was fine. We were welcomed by a friendly dockhand who was fantastic and got us all set up for customs and immigration.

The marina has a nice pool area, but the water was cloudy so we didn’t go in. There is a night guard who is there all night long. The bathrooms are plentiful and relatively clean. There are showers in each one-seater restroom. Six, maybe? We had sharks and rays swimming around our boat the whole time we were there, particularly during the week when boat traffic was not so busy.

We were on the southern dock, where smaller boats were whizzing in and out to get gas. We were waked quite often during the day, particularly on weekend days. Our friends on the northern side of the marina were treated to the music of the bar across the street into the wee hours of the weekend mornings. We could hear and feel the beat of the music in our boat. Those on the other side were involuntary attendees to a loud concert of music. We walked by the bar a few times, and there were very few people there. The music was just sooooo loud! Very annoying. I don’t know that any of the other marinas would be different.

Food

We went to a few restaurants around town. Joe’s Conch Shack was very good and had great French fries. We had dinner at Conch Fu Shack Bar and Grill. The food was okay, I didn’t think my cocktail was very good. They did have fried lobster, which looked good.

Our dinner at Hemingway’s was nice. The cocktails were good and our food was great! Owen had a grilled cheese with bacon on Bahamian bread, and I had a flatbread. The bacon was fantastic. I don’t know if it’s just been a long time since I had bacon (I really don’t want the mess of cooking bacon on the boat) or if it was just that good, but when I was done with my flatbread, I picked the bacon off the remaining pieces because it was just so good.

We also went to the Thirsty Turtle on South Bimini. We had a seafood pizza that took forever but tasted really good.

To Do

I kept myself busy while Owen worked. I took a walk with another Looper from our marina to the beach on the end of the island in “Resort World.” It was about a 6-mile round trip walk.

Owen and I walked the other direction to the south end of the island and then along the west side beach. We also made the short walk across the island to watch the sunset several evenings.

I visited the Dolphin House. On one of my walks, a man stopped me and asked where I was from. When I said Wisconsin, he told me he LOVES Wisconsin! He told me the man who built the Dolphin House is the town philosopher who earned his PhD at UW. The man also told me that there are no tourists in Bimini. People arrive as friends and leave as family. The Dolphin House was nice to walk through. I enjoyed it.

One morning, I walked to the ferry and rode it over to South Bimini ($3 each way). I walked to the Fountain of Youth (I don’t know how Ponce de Leon missed it—there’s a sign pointing right to it!) and then over to a beach that had the most beautiful water color I had ever seen! I ran into a group with one person wearing a Wisconsin hat and one wearing a Packers hat. I was with my people! It turns out they were from near our home in Wisconsin and near our home in Texas! I’m telling you, MY PEOPLE! I spent a little time staring at the water before heading back to the ferry. This was just under 7 miles.

There’s a Shark Lab on South Bimini that has been closed since Covid started. It’s a shame because the website makes it look like a neat place to visit.

Another morning, I walked toward the Resort World area and then back along the back streets of Bimini. I stopped to read some headstones at the cemetery and went to a bakery for some Bahamian bread ($8 a loaf).

We went to Resort World for a short trip to the casino, which is not really our thing, and dinner at the Hilton Hemingway’s.

On our last day, Owen and I took the ferry over to South Bimini to see if there was anything we missed. Nope. We walked a little over 7 miles and had a great lunch at the Thirsty Turtle. Good thing we love each other because it was hot and we bit off maybe a little more than we could chew with this walk in the sun. We must have looked pretty worn at the restaurant. The bartender closed all the doors and turned on the air conditioner for us!

If it wasn’t so dang windy, which is what kept us from moving on sooner, we would have taken advantage of the great snorkeling sites available around Bimini. Next time…

There were cruise ships at Bimini almost every day we were there. Many people rented golf carts to explore the island. There was a lot of traffic on those days. It seemed like the Carnival passengers were more adventurous in this way than the Virgin passengers. There are trams on those days that take people back and forth to their private beach, so a lot of the passengers never even leave the resort area. That end of the island seems to be newly built up and has more of the amenities American travelers seem to expect. On cruise ship days, Biminites are eager to pick up walkers with cars or golf carts and take them where they want to go.