March 10

March 10, 2015

This morning is very windy. There are a lot of boats coming in from “out there” looking for dock space. We’ll be giving up ours

Dolphin House - all from recycled material he found ...recycled buildings etc.

Ashley Saunders

Thomas Saunders

Thomas's turtle - feet made of conch feet

High ZZ's

Anchorage

today. We need to get out into the anchorage. Firstly because the wind is rubbing us against the dock and no matter how many fenders we put out, we roll off them and the deck joint is being stressed.

Secondly, ever freakin’ boat that goes by here is doing at least twice the posted limit and slams us against the dock even more. There are no cops to enforce this. Besides...small village of locals: it’s either his cousin driving a fishing /dive/taxi boat or a rich tourist in a big Sport fisher.

And thirdly, these people never go to bed!!! We listened to the bar music until 2:30 am...not horrible, mostly political but too loud to ignore!

On our way to the grocery store, e stopped by the “Turtle Man’s” place. He was working in his yard so we stopped to talk and drop off the shells we had collected on the State beach. He seemed please to have them because they were slightly different from his. We found out his name is Thomas Saunders and he is Ashley’s brother. He told us so much about the island!

He is 5^th generation from Scotland! His great great grandfather came over with two other brothers in a boat that they built in Scotland and brought whisky and cloth they were going to sell in the States. A storm put them onto Bimini and they never left. Well, his great, great grandfather went home to get the one thing they forgot t bring, since they were going to love there now, and that was a printing press... for printing money!

His great, great grandfather drowned in a storm off Bimini but his great grandfather went to the farm on south Bimini and tried to print some British 5-pound notes, but the Governor’s moustache ended up across his face so, Great grandfather got caught. He managed to weasel his way out of the charges somehow; it having to do with other charges that he could or should have been charged with being more important  or non-possession of the ‘tool” to print the money.

Another time Great Grandfather was charged with stealing a coconut and would have been sentenced to 1 month hard labour. In court he asked the judge how they knew it was real and the right coconut, so the judge ordered the coconut opened and passed around to the jurors so they could tell for themselves that it was real. When he tasted some great grandfather asked why they could eat it and not go to jail, but he had to go to jail for being charged with having it.  Case dismissed!

Thomas told us about the Lerner Cancer Research Station that was started here in 1947.  Scientists from all over the world came to do research n the waters, the wildlife and diseases relating to cancer research. The decided to open a school for kids who wanted to go beyond Grade 6 which was the end of school for the local kids. It was held at night from 5:30 pm to 11:00 pm and they were fed. Thomas said it was like going to university being taught by all those scientists and they even got to help with the research.

Thomas has been all over the world but never away from home for more than 2-3 weeks. “When you live on an island you need to get way for vacations, so I went to Egypt, Mexico, Australia, England, everywhere I could.”

He’s extremely interesting, great sense of humour and a fountain of knowledge. I could spend hours listening to him talk!

So we got off the dock at 4:00 pm. And motored up the very end of the island inside the harbour. We are as far as you can possible go without going ashore. And unfortunately we are parked in front of a row of cottages attached to the casino/hotel. And also unfortunately this is spring break for the USA and it only costs $150.00 for return ticket on the fast ferry so guess what?!! We are going to be likening to raucous annoying yuppie college students until the wind dies down and we can actually leave!! Crap! I don’t care that they are running around naked, swearing and being stupid but I don’t want to have to be a witness to a drowning or some other stupid accident because they are too immature to stay sober! 

We also found out where all the sport fishers live. This end of the island might as well be Fort Lauderdale. The boats are as big and the houses are as rich looking. It's really obscene that all these rich people.... ok, off the soapbox.

On the other hand we are looking at  a huge pile of marl being dredged up from the harbour floor to build an extension to the island so the Carpetbaggers can build more casinos and rental cottages so more ignorant rich people can come over and exploit the island and its people. OK...off the soap box! 

I think I'll do some laundry and hang it out on the back deck.

But we are not alone. High ZZ's [Deb and Shep fromVirginia] and Jake and Carol [Off Line] are anchored here as well. So we visited yesterday after we anchored.  We all met in Florida.

So here are the pics from today assuming I can upload them. Enjoy!!