Bimini

Today Eric, Bill and Mike finished up checking into the Bahamas at Immigration. The we pondered out fate as Bill still has a pretty good chest cold, meaning that he really should not be diving. So... we are not diving. Because we are not going to be diving for at least a few days we decided to head out and make our way further east, either Chub Cay or Fresh Creek (Andros).

I got my Bahamian cell phone upgraded to the new GSM service and called over to Chub Cay. They don't have a dive outfit there so we strached that idea. We're heading to Fresh Creek where we can dive with Small Hope Bay Lodge. I had Mike's cell phone in my old Bahamas phone so I called him to make sure that they have room for us on the dive boat. "Should not be a problem," he said. So, we're heading to Fresh Creek.

We decided that in the morning and figured that the best time to leave would be between 4 and 6 PM. That left us with five hours to kill. After much coaxing and discussion Bill and Mike agreed to setup the Windsurfer at the beach that is at the entrance to the harbor. We setup the windsurfer in the shade near the pool. It was no big deal after all. Then I rented a golf cart and we strapped the windsurfer on the top, grabbed out cooler of beers and headed to the beach.

It took a while but we figured out how to put the sail and mast and boom together at the beach. The sail is a hideous pink color. Hey, I got a good deal on it. Bill went first, trying to keep his balance on basically a surf board with a 16' mast and sail on it. He went pretty good after a few wipe outs. However, he did not want to get back on after people on a boat fishing pointed out the shark that was going right by us. We waited for the shark to leave and then went back at it.

Then I gave it a try and managed to sail for a bit. We had a long rope tied to the back of the windsurfer so that we could pull it back to the beach. Until you know how to do it well its hard to turn around...

Mike was last to try and since he got to watch Bill and I he ended up getting the hang of it the fastest. He tried to sail away but we pulled him back to shore. Then we all tried again and did better the second and even the third time. Finally we loaded the board back on the golf cart, grabbed our beers and stayed in the water talking about our exploits.

Now we are packed up and getting ready to head to Fresh Creek. It will take about 20 hours. There is no wind to speak of so we'll be motoring. It's also pretty warm....

Eric