We are still in Bimini and having a great time.  We’ve met four couples who are at this small marina with us and are enjoying their company. We joined them for a potluck New Years Day and  last night we played Mexican Train with Mark and Joanne from Avalon and Bill and Joanne from Ultra.  Today we took a short water taxi ride to South Bimini with the same couples to visit a Shark Lab there.  Phil and Wanda from Amazing Grace joined us also.  We walked the length of the island and then got a ride back to a marina which had a restaurant.  We had conch chowder and conch sandwiches.  Huge amounts of conch are captured in The Bahamas, and they are prepared in a variety of dishes. 

After lunch we walked back to the Bimini Biological Field Station Shark Lab.  This is a world class lab which is researching sharks.  Above we are walking in low tide out to the fenced area where they had two lemon sharks.   They put a chip in each shark they capture to track where they travel.

We were going to have a barbecue tonight, but it was chilly outside and we were tired from our adventure, so we’ll have it tomorrow night.

We are having a problem with our wifi connection.  It appears there is a problem on the entire island.  I’ve been able to get excellent connections with several wifi’s here using our wifi extender, but for the past several days, we have had sporadic service.  Tomorrow, I am going to go to the local phone store and for $3 I can be online for a half hour.  I’m also going to buy some minutes for our Bahamas phone.

Yesterday, Mark and I rode our bikes the length of North Bimini.  At the end, there is a huge resort being built called Bimini Bay.  While it is beautiful, with condos, single family houses, several marinas including a “megayacht” marina, stores, beaches, etc, we found out today at the Shark Lab that it is destroying the ecosystem of Bimini.  There are mangroves all around that end of the island which have been torn down.  Since the Shark Lab has years of data showing that this will be a tragedy, they were able to stop some of the development.  Not only is the resort doing this, but they broke their promise to the Bimini community when they did not hire locals, but are bringing in people from other areas to work at the resort.  For more photos, click here.