Run Aground

We have reached Bimini and I read a novel on the way, Hemingway. It was once a popular tourist town, but now the economy brings less tourists from Miami. The town struggles and many windows are boarded up. The locals are nice. Despite Grant's warnings, we walked through the ghetto and back in the dark.

There were lots of people in the street, black people, and nice enough. One approached us.

"Heya mon, howya doin?"
"Word. How's it go?"

They lived on an island, and had the accent easily associated.

"Could be betta mon, just tryin to get my buzz.. been dry all day.
You eva tried real coconut rum?"
"Bacardi or Captain Morgans?"
"hah no mon, I'll show you. You bring the rum and I'll bring the coconuts."

Clearly this man wanted us to get him drunk. That was okay because we wanted to learn how to get coconut juice. Deal.

The drink was good. Rum is cheap in Bimini.



After the rum we found a dock party. The white people with expensive yachts were having a BBQ. The natives were playing drums that looked home-made. The white people were dancing around them.

The black drummers were smiling and good at drumming. The white people were awkward dancers.

"Eat! Eat!" an older woman said in broken english and pushed us towards the food table. We ate grilled lobster and veggies and the drummers played and the people danced.

The older woman came and made me dance with her and I pretended to like dancing. I am not good at pretending that so I stopped shortly.

When the dancers went back to the resort on motor carts we made friends with the drummers and walked back through the ghetto with them. I asked to play their drums and we jammed.

I thought it sounded quite good. They took our picture and I am sure that we looked ridiculous. They laughed at us and I smiled. It was the best smile I've smiled for a year.

We returned to the shoreline and saw that Grant had rowed back to the boat and he had the dingy and we were stuck on the shore for the night.

The resort was nearby so we walked through the gate. We are white and the guard did not ask us any questions. We found a section of the resort under construction. The houses were finished, unfurnished, and unlocked so we went inside. I used a real bathroom and they had a bode. Dimitri is French and had used one before.

We slept on the porch and Alex took some nice photos of the lightning storm. It rained and we had shelter. In the morning I swam out to the boat to get the dingy.

Sail on.