Our first experience with shipping things to Bimini is a success.
We spent this morning setting up a nice display featuring DCP and our Adopt-A-Dolphin program. This display will hopefully remain in the Bimini Undersea dive shop; however, will probably be moved around a few times before everyone agrees on where it can stay. But, we think it looks great and hope that it will not only advertise the adoption program, but let other tourists (not just the ones who come on the dolphin boat) know about the research that is being done here and Bimini Undersea’s involvement with that research.
Then came the big adventure of getting our bikes off the boat! The Bimini Cat, a ship that comes in on Thursdays from Miami, brings the island lots of groceries and other goodies. This week, those goodies included two bikes- one for each of us. It is an all afternoon affair. First, you have to find the lovely woman to pay your shipping charges (a whopping $15 for both bikes). Then, you wait around for your bikes to come off the ship. Once you find them, you get a slip to tell you how much duty you owe Bahamian customs for bringing something in from the United States (for bikes, it is nearly 30% tax). Today, our friends were nice enough to bring our bikes home on their golf cart, so we didn’t have to pay for a taxi. Once home, it was assembly time, which, for the first bike, was, well, an adventure in-and-of-itself. But, with a little help from our neighbor Leslie, it was done. Then we were able to put the second bike together in about a quarter of the time! So Bimini, we’ve arrived! We have bikes!
Tomorrow will be the big grocery shopping day since everyone’s shelves will be stocked with those goodies that came in on the boat today. And, hopefully our propane tank was also on the boat, so maybe we can actually cook. After all, we’ve only been here for 12 days…. The microwave is getting old.
Until later,
Kel and Darcie