"It was cool and almost dark after
the glare of the coral road and (he) had a gin
So said Ernest Hemingway in his novel, Islands in the Stream,
describing quasi-fictional adventures in Bimini.
Now, here I was 65 years later drinking a
Kalik beer in the same bar with my new dive buddy Paul. It was
still dim and cool and pleasant, but Mr. Bobby was long gone
and no one, not even those of politically incorrect
appellation, were shooting pool. Yet the spirit of Hemingway
still seemed to prevail in the Compleat Angler bar. I felt I
had stepped through a time warp, as if the 50 miles between
Bimini and Miami were a portal to the past instead of an easy
seaplane flight to modern-day dive adventure.
Outside, in Alice Town, the golf carts and
mopeds plied the colorful King's Highway (obviously not a very
powerful king to have so short and insignificant a road named
in his honor) while fishing yachts lined the docks at the
Bimini Big Game Fishing Club and Weech's Marina. Here, inside
the bar, the CNN broadcast sort of spoiled the illusion of
yesteryear. But at least they had the volume turned down
making it possible for us to easily carry on about the wonders
of the day's dive holiday. "Did you see how many fish
there were on that wreck!" "The sponges on the wall
were awesome!" "Can you even believe the vis we had
today!?" "I'm amazed that nurse shark just stayed
there and let me take his picture!". The pictures on the
bar's walls showed men and fish, each long dead by now, ghosts
from a time when the sea was deemed an inexhaustible resource
for the pure pleasure of manly men. But this day, our
conversation was about the glory that still remains Š the
beauty that defines the Bimini underwater world.
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The Biminis represent the closest Bahamian
islands to the U.S. mainland, and as such get significant
visitation by pleasure yachts, as well as tourists who arrive
by air. While North and South Bimini are the best known of the
islands, the string of islands extends 28 miles and includes
Turtle Rocks, Piquet Rocks, Holm Cay, Gun Cay, North and South
Cat Cays, Sandy Cay, and Ocean Cay. Aside from an exclusive
private enclave on Cat Cay, the population of the Biminis is
concentrated on North and South Bimini.
Ponce de Leon searched for his Fountain of
Youth here, and the famed sunken road of Atlantis supposedly
lies just offshore. But despite the mythical symbolism
attached to these islands, the Bimini that most tourists will
experience is the quiet relaxation of South Bimini, or perhaps
the casual commerce of the small bars and restaurants nestled
between the King's and Queen's Highway on North Bimini. Mostly
though, it's about the sea. For sportfishing or for diving, in
our times as in Hemingway's, Bimini is about the sea.
My Bimini expedition began aboard a Chalk's
Ocean Airways flight departing from Miami's Watson Island.
After so many overcrowded and frenetic airports in my life,
the Chalks' experience has always been a bit of a relief. Just
a short cab ride from Miami International (or in my case, an
hour's drive from Key Largo), the small terminal has easy
parking right outside and no-hassle check-in procedures. Of
course, these 17-passenger Gruman Mallard seaplanes are a bit
light on cargo capacity, so I had an excess baggage charge for
traveling with both camera and dive gear. But less
equipment-intensive divers should have no trouble, especially
since there is little need to pack lots of clothes when
traveling to Bimini. Casual is definitely the style of both
the clothing and the life of this particular Island in the
(Gulf) Stream.
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