Lessons In Patience

Day 288  |  South Bimini

We awoke this morning to find half the boats had departed. Feeling that we had missed our weather window put me in a bit of a funk. Bimini is nice, but I am very anxious to cross the Bank and turn south toward the Exumas. There are places I want to visit and people I need to see. I don't want to cut my time short later. We decided to go back over to North Bimini for a few hours. As is usually the case, taking a good walk helped to change the mood. Just off the stern of Crossroads, I spotted this large starfish. On the road to the ferry was another gorgeous bougainvillea hedge. Once on "the other side" we walked up Queen's Highway, once again marveling at the blues of the ocean. The wind was blowing from the west today, so the surf was a bit heavier. The white of the breaking waves seemed only to make the blues more vivid.

We met up with Melissa and Jeff (Flip Flop) for a tour of Dolphin House. Ashley Saunders has been building Dolphin House since 1993 from recycled, salvaged, collected or donated materials. He is currently working on a third floor which he'll rent out when completed. Concrete walls are adorned with a variety of materials. Large ornamental features are done first and then surrounded with shells, tiles, glass and coral.

Intricate designs crafted from shells hang alongside simple collections of nature's treasures. The second floor has been completed as living quarters. Welcome signs in a multitude of languages are displayed in front of a massive mosaic underwater scene. Ashley is equally proud of his garden and his house. Cabbage, broccoli, beets, Romaine lettuce and lemongrass filled raised beds that were surrounded by banana and papaya trees. A giant cistern collects rainwater and stores it for future use. There is no natural source of fresh water on the island.

The bottom floor houses a museum and gift shop. Hundreds of business cards have been left behind and both we and Flip Flop added our boat cards to his collection. We found these sculptures from conch shells to be very interesting. Melissa and Jeff continued north on their bicycles. Barry and I walked back along Blister and Radio Beaches. The view never gets old. It was a warm day -- around 90 degrees -- which seemingly justified stopping for ice cream. We enjoyed it while sitting on a street corner wall watching the kids file out of school. On the way back to the ferry, we stopped at the liquor store to pick up a case of my favorite Bahamian beverage. We split the case in half and each carried bags to share the load on the walk back to the marina. At 6:00 we headed to the beachside pool to watch the sunset. This is now a well-traveled path for us and we always see little curly-tailed lizards sunning themselves on the concrete walls. Tonight I saw my first nurse shark swimming along the marina rip rap. We watched the sun disappear below the horizon as another day came to an end.

We will be here a few more days as a slow-moving cold front creeps through. We need two pretty good days to make the largely open run to the top of the Exumas. I'm counting on the fact that good things come to those who wait. Today, our tour of Ashley's Dolphin House provided proof of that.