saleens7

Anyone ever been to bimini? (small bahamian islands about 50 miles off the coast of florida....literally in the middle of nowhere, as besides florida, the closest landmass in cuba (90 miles away)....)....ill be leaving there for a couple of days with my dad and some of his family and a few friends........

ive been there twice before, first time to fix up a little fishing house and the 2nd time to go diving, fishing, boating, just enjoying being in the middle of nowhere....really good place to go actually, it hasent been overrun by tourism (yet....theyll get there eventually:thumbs: ) so its a calming place to be as there arent cruise ships docking every 5 minutes and hundreds by hundreds of tourists unloading and take pics of every single moving object....they probably wouldnt fit anyway, its basically two small islands with a trail of other smaller islands....most people get around in a golf cart its so small....you could pretty much circle one whole island in one day just walking....its also a great fishing spot, instead of the ocean steadly dropping around the island, just a mile or so off the coast it goes from 30-40 feet down to hundreds or even thousands of feet deep...so you can deep sea fish without having to go that far out....great place to catch trigger fish, yellow fin snappers (i think thats what there called), small grouper, the occasional barracuda (ok, truthfully about 1/2 the fish caught were cuda...it sucks though as you cant just take em off the hook without having a finger or two bitten off, so you have to cut the line and give em the hook).............
on time when we were reeling in a fish, the line suddenly got real tight and then slacked out like the fish got off the hook....we were reeling it in and it still had a litthe weight to it though....as it broke the surface it turned out we caught a trigger fish....but it was mising half the body...it had a perfect crescent bit right out of it....turns out a 6-7 foot tiger was spotted around the area we were fishing and we guessed it took half of the fish....

besides fishing, there are some great dive locations off the island....victory reef is a good location....its a reef right on the drop off from where it goes to around 50 feet to a couple hundred feet....i didnt go diving that time, but my dad and a few others did...they said its was large schools of fish and a whole bunch of colorful coral formations......theres also the Sapona shipwreck....its this old 350 foot concrete freighter that ran aground way back in the early 1900's......it was used as a rum running vessel and then when it hit aground on a sandbar, it was left there....over the years much of the concrete was worn away from the waves and hurricanes and even by some bombs dropped on it when the military used it as a target practice vessel...much of what is left it just steet re-bar and the remaning concrete.....today its atually a good dive loaction....alot of fish like to hang around it as its deflects some of the currents there....its also in only 15-20 feet of water, so you can see all the way to the bottom...the back part of the ship broke off and sank during a hurricane so now there is an giant chunk of concrete on the seafloor and the props are now sticking up close to the surface.....since it was abandoned and not stripped for parts, alot of the steel gears and other parts are scattered on the floor...

here are some pics of it(some of the pics still show how the stern of the ship looked like before it sank due to a hurricane...)

http://www.diveandglideinc.com/photo...0waterline.jpg

http://www.biminicruisingguide.com/sapona-IL.jpg

http://www.scubabimini.com/images/propunderwater.jpg

http://mermaiddivecharters.com/image...na%20wreck.jpg

on the very tip of the bow, there is a raised section that you can jump off of (your not supposed to, but no one listens:yeah: )........

theres also this place called honeymoon harbor.....its a crescent shaped island a few miles off the coat of the main island.....there are hundreds of stingrays there, and the occasional shark....they are very tame though, as many people come there and feed them chum or extra bait from fishing trips....you just kneel in the sand and theyllcome right up to your hand and suck the fish up from it.....really fun place to go....there are some fairly large stingrays there too (maybe 4 feet aross one i saw)

Anyone else been to bimini? care to share your experiences?

Flabum

Say hi to Bill and Nowdla Keefe for me

saleens7

who? where would i find them on bimini?

Flabum

If you don't know, then you have never "Really" been to Bimini. They own Bimini UnderSea and He manages the Big Game Club.

BUDMAN27

I have never been there but it sounds great. I live down here in Texas on an island named Galveston. We don,t have blue water here ,but we do have one of those ship wrecks. When I get hungry for fish I usely just go to Krogers food store

saleens7

when we get hungry for fish, we catch em

youd be surprised how good bonita tastest with the right seasoning....

i have some pics of bimini, they are just taking forever to load....they are 2000x3000 pixels, so i might have to downsize them so you can view the pic without having to scrool all over it...

saleens7

ok, here are the downsized pics\

more to come

saleens7

more pics.....





strange looking fish....and the colorful trigger fish next to it



here i am with my crazy hair



mmmmm....bonita



another boat we came over with

saleens7

here are the last few

Custom Trendz Inc.

i read about the sapona before, and wasnt it supposed to be turned into a hotel/casino and then the hurricane came and broke the ship? I remember reading about concrete ships when i saw one on the jersey shore.

saleens7

ive never heard of that.....(not the sapona, but the hotel/casino)....even so, it wouldnt be a stable enough base for one......i think they were planning on making a casino/hotel in the island ( i think maybe on the site of the old "complete angler" bar since it burned down..i hope they dont, theyle have cruise ships and big planes and tons of tourists coming in and they will ruin the clear water and pollute everywhere...the people who live there are kind of poor, and a little more income would definately help, but a casino would ruin the place....it would take up 1/2 of one of the islands as well and many people would be forced to move.....

Flabum

I couldn't be worse than what all the drug money did.....

I see you stayed in South Bimini, the heart of drug money redevelopment. I could tell you some harrowing stories of over there. One such story was I had to go over there for a job (I am a boat mechanic), it turned out the fella I was there for had some shady deals going on. One night on our way back to North Bimini from South Bimini, one of the guys on the boat began pointing me out as a DEA agent. That was one long boat ride.

The fella I went there for, Shawny Rolle, is now in prison along with a few of his best men.

I have worked for several people there and have gone over there numerous times for emergency repairs. I know almost all the customs and immigrations guys and gals by first name.

It's a cool place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

saleens7

ive been to the north island before too....its basically thr main "city" of the two islands...i kind of figured there was alot of drug use there...lots of people in dark corners exchanging cash and drugs....notice the "no pot smoking" sign i took a pic of....

Custom Trendz Inc.

i was thinking of a different ship, heres some info on the sepona http://www.concreteships.org/ships/ww1/sapona/

Believe It

been a time or two. Some of us from the old boat club (LSBC - Lauderdale Small Boat Club) use to take fishing trips out the way. Never caught a fish...but sure did catch a buzz [:-]

saleens7

so did everyone else who went that was over 21....(next morning)[:'(]

Believe It

good times the big boating days in FL.


Im sure youve had to of been to "Beer Can Island" a time or two

saleens7

no? beer can island.....there was a beer can lagoon in the boats trash, but thats about it....

Flabum

Have some fond memories of Bercan Island...... where all the girls are natural