At 6:30 a.m. Tommy listened to Chris Parker’s (the weather guru) radio broadcast on the single sideband radio and Paula made coffee. It still looks like a Sunday or Monday departure. The morning was spent fixing 3 tiny leaks from the watermaker plumbing, rigging a rail mount for our old spare handheld anemometer (Tom), replenishing galley and head supplies from deeper storage compartments and reading about Bahamas geography, flora and fauna (Paula).

We then headed for an uninhabited stretch of beach. Tom swam, Paula waded and found what she believes to be a small tidal spray crab (deceased) on the sand.

We decided to walk by the Dolphin House again hoping that today it would be open. Sure enough Mr. Ashley Saunders (see feature photo) was there, and offered to take us on a tour for a donation of $5.00/person. This was fascinating. Ashley was clearly very smart and full of pride in his creation which he himself has been building for more than 25 years. The detail is stunning, composed of beach combing treasures, shells, stones, and construction debris from local construction projects. He even had to make his own “bedrock” on which to build the structure because of the enormous weight of the finished house. It is a true passion for him, having no certain end in sight. He is also an author of two Bimini history books (we bought one) and a teacher on the island.

On the way back we noticed rush-hour type activity on the King’s Highway. Cars and golf-carts dashed in either direction, groups of people in the street talked and shouted to each other. Many small pick-up trucks sped northward, each piled 6 feet high with cases of food goods, sundries, and beer, all lashed together with industrial Saran Wrap. Uniformly, a man stood in the bed to steady the load, and make sure it cleared the low-hanging power lines. We also saw a truck towing a 25-foot fishing boat on a trailer. A man stood on the bow of the boat and as they proceeded lifted power lines up to clear the boat’s cabin top. We found out that the excitement was generated by the arrival and unloading of “The Big Green Boat” aka the Cape Express, a supply ship that brings goods to the island at the government dock. We went there as we had heard that fishing boats had gone out today and might have fish or lobster for sale. Sure enough, one Captain picked out 3 beautiful, clear-eyed yellow tail snapper. The Captain’s price worked out to just under $7.00/lb. The crew offered to clean them for an additional fee, but Paula wants to do this herself, if only to practice doing it on the swim platform, which will be our fish cutting board for the remainder of this trip. Since we had conch salad prepared for tonight, the slippery ordeal is planned for tomorrow morning. Paula’s main worry- that she will accidentally lose a slippery fish off the platform while cleaning it-was superseded by Tommy’s suggestion that the cleaning might draw the bull sharks that we’ve seen swimming on the other side of the marina. Hmm.