Story and photos by DinaRella / Additional photos from Big Game and Vintage Bahamas
Part Two
Bimini – the slender strip of Bahamas real estate famed for fun, sun and phenomenal fishing a mere 50 miles from Miami, but a million away in character – takes its name from the Lucayan Indian word for “TWO islands.” Ironically, my biggest takeaway was 50 hours of downpours with 50-mph gusts, and TWO hotels with mysteriously miniscule boat counts in their marinas. (It seems I missed the memo boaters bail on Bimini the week before Easter.) Picking up where part one left off, Tuesday’s highlight was moving from the hip Hilton, flooded with vacationers on arrival and buckets of water on departure, to the long-established Bimini Big Game Club Resort and Marina for the final day and night – or so I thought!
Steeped in tranquility, tradition, fishing and follies, the Big Game has been in the game since 1936 when part businessman and part bon-vivant Neville Stuart opened the resort and established the elegant dinner club famed for hosting the tuxedo-and-tie affairs after the tournaments, during a period when post Prohibition era characters and kindred spirits conspired alongside the pioneers of sport fishing to put Bimini on the map as the “Big Game Fishing Capital of the World.”
The laid-back appeal and graceful pace of island life inspired all sorts, inclusive of esteemed author Ernest Hemingway (mentioned in part one) and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The soul-searching scribes came seeking stimulation to ignite their creative sparks for penning literary pieces and speeches, only to one day realize Bimini itself would become their motivational muse.
Two decades later the marina was built and the Big Game was relocated to where it currently stands, but according to the website, opening the main hotel in 1963 is what “firmly established Alice Town as a mecca for big-game fishing.” The Bacardi family then acquired the property and subsequent to two years of major renovations, reopened the resort in 1972 before it was sold again in 2000.
Nowadays, the world-acclaimed destination consists of 35 standard rooms, cottages and penthouse suites for anglers and adventurists, and the marina specializes in bonefishing packages to the traditional backcountry unspoiled flats, as well as offshore trips for local fresh catches like marlin, tuna, swordfish and snapper. For the non-angling aquatic aficionados, a full-scale scuba center organizes daily treks to the reefs and wrecks where wild dolphins, stingrays and sharks all call home.
On site is a convenient dive shop and liquor store just steps away from the covered outdoor game room and swimming pool bedecked by bright yellow and green walls covered with murals depicting days gone by in the passageways. On the other side sits the Hemingway Rum Bar where the aforementioned Caribbean rum-based follies from yesteryear continue. Doubling as an event space, the place carries enough brands to keep you sampling until you don’t remember your room number.
If favoring food with a view over the indoor adult elixirs, Sharkies Bar & Grill at the end of the pier takes the prize for breakfast or a late day Bahamian barbeque. No surprise, it was closed, so my biggest accomplishment was another RDP photo shoot; in this instance, it was a hat and not a dollar bill. Ultimately, the newly opened Bimini Seafood Company and Conch Bar upstairs overlooking the pool became my dry home base where I rotated between being a “party of one” seated at a table for four chatting with my sweet server Savannah Cooper; and chilling at the crowd-less bar covered with maps and chart plotters, while doing my own plotting what type of conch to feast on next.
Bimini’s enthusiasm for conch teeters on borderline obsessive. An apparent aphrodisiac, entrepreneurial Biminites do their best to cash in on the chewy, white-flesh marine snails even erecting signs to pimp the seductive seafood. Since my fritter consumption hit the 20-plus mark in 48 hours, on the last day, I decided on the cracked, albeit still deep-fried, version. The “King of Beer” Kaliks were also swapped for Sands, the home-grown light golden lager brewed with natural Grand Bahamas water, that is until I saw a promo on the wall for local beer brand number three. Thinking the name Bush Crack was a joke, to verify its legitimacy, one was added to the meal. Marketed to tight budget, hardcore beer guzzlers; a 16 ounce can costs less than a coffee, and I understand why.
From Bush Crack, my mind reverted back to boats. More specifically, why hadn’t the owners of the old school Carrera Racing, Aronow Marine and Avanti 30 center console I’d been watching bobble back and forth, come check on their boats? Like the invisible owner of the 45 Streamline at the first marina, all three were no-shows. In my effort to connect with the guys all in from Freeport (and left stranded due to the storm) to hear more about the boats, leaving a business card at the marina office also didn’t pay off.
(Funny enough, as if by fate, last weekend at the SoFlo Boat Show out on Virginia Key at Miami Marine Stadium, Carrera Powerboats had a massive display exhibiting its 210 CC Flat Cat and 320CC Classic models in the middle of the exhibition. In speaking with the manager Anthony Rosado, he explained that the company has since crossed over from its original performance racing hulls dating back to its inception in 1978, to the raging center console market.)
Ready to bust out of the Big Game and return home, the last bit of drama started on the Wednesday evening ferry while watching weather patterns play out in real-time FOR FIVE HOURS! First, the Fort Lauderdale airport closed down, then the United States would not clear vessels for entry due to tornado warnings; and the cherry on top, would be the power outage forcing the shutdown of the Port Everglades terminal.
Twirling around the upper and lower deck forging new friendships out of boredom with the help of some vodka sodas with mango puree, I basically met half the ship, beginning with a friendly New Jersey family escaping early from a week-long vacation in hell with the grandkids. The couple from Charlotte who booked Bimini after the wifey saw some TikTok clips and a party of five from Alabama temporarily working construction on the new Brightline inter-city train from Orlando to Miami followed. My ferry party finished with me gifting the last of my Xanax to some sea-sick chicks before conversing with a pair of Canadians in transit from Freeport, whose daughter writes for the biased NYT rag, and a handful of happy locals who recognized me as that crazy girl they saw walking the streets the day before in the storm.
The conclusion: At midnight, the crossing was officially canceled and 350 passengers disembarked with all their shit. One by one and family by family, all were paraded via multiple tram trips (think Key West conch train) back to the Hilton. The lobby line was like Easter Sunday on steroids, only it was 1:30 a.m. Finishing on a high note, three good things happened! Thanks to Balearia Caribbean, the room was comped. I woke to sunlight beaming down on some very NON high-performance watercraft called Pair-O-Dice… in paradise. And lastly, it’s clear why there’s a PPG paint named Bimini Blue – indeed the island is that wonderful under blue skies and worthy of a return!
For bookings check out www.biggameclubbimini.com or call 800-867-4764. The Balearia Caribbean ferry is also highly recommended and does the crossing in less than two hours, for reservations, please visit https://www.baleariacaribbean.com/en/fort-lauderdale-bimini.
Link to Part One https://www.riverdavesplace.com/for...or-bust-eating-conch-and-drinking-kalik.1081/
Part Two
Bimini – the slender strip of Bahamas real estate famed for fun, sun and phenomenal fishing a mere 50 miles from Miami, but a million away in character – takes its name from the Lucayan Indian word for “TWO islands.” Ironically, my biggest takeaway was 50 hours of downpours with 50-mph gusts, and TWO hotels with mysteriously miniscule boat counts in their marinas. (It seems I missed the memo boaters bail on Bimini the week before Easter.) Picking up where part one left off, Tuesday’s highlight was moving from the hip Hilton, flooded with vacationers on arrival and buckets of water on departure, to the long-established Bimini Big Game Club Resort and Marina for the final day and night – or so I thought!
Steeped in tranquility, tradition, fishing and follies, the Big Game has been in the game since 1936 when part businessman and part bon-vivant Neville Stuart opened the resort and established the elegant dinner club famed for hosting the tuxedo-and-tie affairs after the tournaments, during a period when post Prohibition era characters and kindred spirits conspired alongside the pioneers of sport fishing to put Bimini on the map as the “Big Game Fishing Capital of the World.”
The laid-back appeal and graceful pace of island life inspired all sorts, inclusive of esteemed author Ernest Hemingway (mentioned in part one) and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The soul-searching scribes came seeking stimulation to ignite their creative sparks for penning literary pieces and speeches, only to one day realize Bimini itself would become their motivational muse.
Two decades later the marina was built and the Big Game was relocated to where it currently stands, but according to the website, opening the main hotel in 1963 is what “firmly established Alice Town as a mecca for big-game fishing.” The Bacardi family then acquired the property and subsequent to two years of major renovations, reopened the resort in 1972 before it was sold again in 2000.
Nowadays, the world-acclaimed destination consists of 35 standard rooms, cottages and penthouse suites for anglers and adventurists, and the marina specializes in bonefishing packages to the traditional backcountry unspoiled flats, as well as offshore trips for local fresh catches like marlin, tuna, swordfish and snapper. For the non-angling aquatic aficionados, a full-scale scuba center organizes daily treks to the reefs and wrecks where wild dolphins, stingrays and sharks all call home.
On site is a convenient dive shop and liquor store just steps away from the covered outdoor game room and swimming pool bedecked by bright yellow and green walls covered with murals depicting days gone by in the passageways. On the other side sits the Hemingway Rum Bar where the aforementioned Caribbean rum-based follies from yesteryear continue. Doubling as an event space, the place carries enough brands to keep you sampling until you don’t remember your room number.
If favoring food with a view over the indoor adult elixirs, Sharkies Bar & Grill at the end of the pier takes the prize for breakfast or a late day Bahamian barbeque. No surprise, it was closed, so my biggest accomplishment was another RDP photo shoot; in this instance, it was a hat and not a dollar bill. Ultimately, the newly opened Bimini Seafood Company and Conch Bar upstairs overlooking the pool became my dry home base where I rotated between being a “party of one” seated at a table for four chatting with my sweet server Savannah Cooper; and chilling at the crowd-less bar covered with maps and chart plotters, while doing my own plotting what type of conch to feast on next.
Bimini’s enthusiasm for conch teeters on borderline obsessive. An apparent aphrodisiac, entrepreneurial Biminites do their best to cash in on the chewy, white-flesh marine snails even erecting signs to pimp the seductive seafood. Since my fritter consumption hit the 20-plus mark in 48 hours, on the last day, I decided on the cracked, albeit still deep-fried, version. The “King of Beer” Kaliks were also swapped for Sands, the home-grown light golden lager brewed with natural Grand Bahamas water, that is until I saw a promo on the wall for local beer brand number three. Thinking the name Bush Crack was a joke, to verify its legitimacy, one was added to the meal. Marketed to tight budget, hardcore beer guzzlers; a 16 ounce can costs less than a coffee, and I understand why.
From Bush Crack, my mind reverted back to boats. More specifically, why hadn’t the owners of the old school Carrera Racing, Aronow Marine and Avanti 30 center console I’d been watching bobble back and forth, come check on their boats? Like the invisible owner of the 45 Streamline at the first marina, all three were no-shows. In my effort to connect with the guys all in from Freeport (and left stranded due to the storm) to hear more about the boats, leaving a business card at the marina office also didn’t pay off.
(Funny enough, as if by fate, last weekend at the SoFlo Boat Show out on Virginia Key at Miami Marine Stadium, Carrera Powerboats had a massive display exhibiting its 210 CC Flat Cat and 320CC Classic models in the middle of the exhibition. In speaking with the manager Anthony Rosado, he explained that the company has since crossed over from its original performance racing hulls dating back to its inception in 1978, to the raging center console market.)
Ready to bust out of the Big Game and return home, the last bit of drama started on the Wednesday evening ferry while watching weather patterns play out in real-time FOR FIVE HOURS! First, the Fort Lauderdale airport closed down, then the United States would not clear vessels for entry due to tornado warnings; and the cherry on top, would be the power outage forcing the shutdown of the Port Everglades terminal.
Twirling around the upper and lower deck forging new friendships out of boredom with the help of some vodka sodas with mango puree, I basically met half the ship, beginning with a friendly New Jersey family escaping early from a week-long vacation in hell with the grandkids. The couple from Charlotte who booked Bimini after the wifey saw some TikTok clips and a party of five from Alabama temporarily working construction on the new Brightline inter-city train from Orlando to Miami followed. My ferry party finished with me gifting the last of my Xanax to some sea-sick chicks before conversing with a pair of Canadians in transit from Freeport, whose daughter writes for the biased NYT rag, and a handful of happy locals who recognized me as that crazy girl they saw walking the streets the day before in the storm.
The conclusion: At midnight, the crossing was officially canceled and 350 passengers disembarked with all their shit. One by one and family by family, all were paraded via multiple tram trips (think Key West conch train) back to the Hilton. The lobby line was like Easter Sunday on steroids, only it was 1:30 a.m. Finishing on a high note, three good things happened! Thanks to Balearia Caribbean, the room was comped. I woke to sunlight beaming down on some very NON high-performance watercraft called Pair-O-Dice… in paradise. And lastly, it’s clear why there’s a PPG paint named Bimini Blue – indeed the island is that wonderful under blue skies and worthy of a return!
For bookings check out www.biggameclubbimini.com or call 800-867-4764. The Balearia Caribbean ferry is also highly recommended and does the crossing in less than two hours, for reservations, please visit https://www.baleariacaribbean.com/en/fort-lauderdale-bimini.
Link to Part One https://www.riverdavesplace.com/for...or-bust-eating-conch-and-drinking-kalik.1081/
