So we’ll kayak instead!
When you are living in a place because of work, you often don’t do the “touristy” things that others come to the island to do. One of these things is a place called the “healing hole.” All of East Bimini is mangroves–this means that it is inhabitable, basically without solid ground. It is a buggy area, with murky water that is home to a variety of fish and insects. In this area, there is a small, fresh water, lithium spring. We don’t know the exact history behind the site, but people have traveled here, by kayak or flatboat, for decades because of its alleged healing properties. It is a place many of our passengers venture to during their stay, but somewhere we had just never found the time to see for ourselves. Today ended that!
You must time your trip with the tides; otherwise you’ll be doing much more work that you’d want. So, we launched our kayaks into the harbor, off Destiny’s stern, about an hour before high tide. This allowed us to paddle with the incoming tide as we traveled across the bay to East Bimini. It took about an hour and a half in the scorching heat to reach the channel that leads to the healing hole. Only Kathy had been to the site before, so she acted as our guide. We sprayed lots of bug spray on our bodies, tied up the kayaks and waded our through the slimy, cloudy, mangrove-lined channel. Once inside, it was hardly noteworthy. A slightly stinky, muddy circular area that is too deep for either of us to stand. But, we didn’t have to worry too much because someone before us has kindly and effectively strewn lines across from different mangrove roots. This allows a place to rest your feet or actually sit on (unfortunately, Kel’s just too short to sit!). We sat for a bit, laughing at ourselves for squealing as we waded to through to the spot and taking a few photos. After that, it was back to the kayaks and back home with the outgoing tide.
Throughout the journey we spotted a few southern sting rays, two young sharks and plenty of fish. It was nice to remind ourselves what a wonderful, diverse place we live in during our field season.
Tomorrow, since it will be another day without a boat trip, we’ll catch up on data entry and hopefully get some desperately needed grocery shopping done. The boat didn’t come in today, so shelves won’t be stocked until it does.
Until later,
Kel and Darcie