Bimini is the closest island of The Bahamas from Florida. It’s about a ~10hr trip in the right conditions with a sailboat making about 6 knots. The biggest challenge in getting there is crossing the Gulf Stream which I won’t really cover because frankly, having only made the trip once, I’m far from an expert. Suffice it to say, the strong South to North flow on the average of 2.5 knots pushes you north quite a bit. Generally, you want to start farther south in Florida than we did (Like the Keys). We started in Fort Lauderdale and left around 10pm at night because we had been waiting for a weather window for a while and another window was predicted for weeks. We had to go.
Generally, we’ve come to learn to avoid transiting harbors at night but since we’ve been through the Port Everglades Channel a few times, we felt comfortable enough to tackle it at dark. Since we were leaving Harbour Towne Marina, the biggest unknown was the Dania Cut-off Canal which is quite narrow, has a lot of traffic and is shallow. It turned out to be OK, obviously, but it was a little nerve racking.
We pushed off from the fuel dock around 10:30pm and arrived at Bimini around 5am and put up our quarantine flag. We anchored in the so-called Bimini Road anchorage which is just north of the Cruise Ship Jetty. We needed some rest and definitely wanted daylight before transiting the entrance up the Bimini channel which has a lot of shallow shoals.
We checked in at Bimini Blue Water Resort since other websites suggested that we should see it and was convenient. However, we were ultimately staying up at Fisherman’s Village marina and we later came to find out they had customs and immigration clearance there. Only one person is allow to disembark the vessel and after collecting all paperwork, I proceeded to find Immigration and Customs. When first getting off the dock, I was questioned if whether I needed to clear immigration and they shuttled me to an office window whereby they asked for $56…being ignorant, I paid the fee but I’ve long since learned after speaking with other cruisers, this was a a snow job.
Clearing Immigration was a short walk north. Customs was right on Bimini Blue Water Resort. All and all, is was non eventful.
Due to our travel needs and the fact that it was just prior to Christmas, we had stayed in Bimini for just over a Month, discontinuously. It’s a very small island with a few very small grocery stores for provisioning. Produce is very limited. There’s a small (very small) Marine Hardware store at the south end of the island but we were unable to find what we needed. I was told the Hardware Store on Island also had some Marine Hardware but we didn’t check it out.
Fisherman’s Village is very close to the Cruise Ship Jetty and comes alive when there are cruisers touring the island. As soon as they leave, things get real quiet. The Village is also close to the Hilton Hotel and Casino. We didn’t go to the Casino but did eat there a few times and enjoy the lobby bar. Overall, I’d rate it as just OK but being our first time in The Bahamas and without any expectations, it was good to not have to cook.
The marina was quite empty generally, but it did pick up during New Years weekend. The floating docks are very nice. Water is about $0.45/gallon. I can’t remember how much electricity was, but I think it was quite reasonable. We don’t use that much anyways, unless we run air conditioning. As a resident of the marina, you get access to the “resort”. There’s a nice infinity pool a short walk from the marina.
Outside of the Hilton, the other three places we at were at Bimini Blue Water Resort, Eddie and Pat’s Conch Bar, Smitty’s Beach Bar and Restaurant. We stopped at Eddie and Pat’s a few times and our recommendation is to make sure you know the price of what you’re ordering before you order…what we paid always seemed entirely too much for what we ordered.
Speaking of prices. Most of the grocery stores did not have prices on the items and you definitely do not get an itemized receipt at checkout. By the end of our stay at Bimini, we were convinced there were two prices for everything. If you’re local you get one price, if you’re a tourist you get another price…but, we have no proof of this nor did we question any of it. We were just happy to have finally made it to The Bahamas and were still trying to figure stuff out.
There is seemingly only one fuel dock in Bimini and we were not comfortable trying to maneuver our boat into it. So, we decided to empty our Jerry Cans and then fill them out. We rented a golf cart for about 5 hours one day to do laundry, pick up groceries, get propane and get fuel. The golf cart was $80 which we frankly thought was entirely too much. There’s a few folks that rent them and there’s slightly different prices between the companies and even between who you speak with. The lack of transparency was frustrating.
There’s a propane truck parked at the far south end of Bimini. Propane was quite reasonable. The gas station, being the only gas station on the island, had a line. Fuel was not cheap…but I don’t think it was too much higher than what we paid in the States.
There is one laundromat and it’s not cheap…About $12, I seem to remember, for a large load of laundry. I can’t say enough about how friendly everybody is on the island. At no time did we feel unsafe or unwelcome. The people are great.