About 2 weeks ago, my girlfriend and I spent about 6 days staying at Bimini Bay Resort and diving with Bill and Nowdla Keefe.
It was both of our first trips to Bimini - although we're veterans of the Bahamas and the out islands. All told, we had a beautiful time. One has to know what to expect - it's an out island, not a place to expect a plethora of gourmet food options plus happening clubs. But for pretty healthy reefs, and absolutely the most plentiful fish life I've seen almost anywhere, and somewhat unusual fish life, and plenty of big stuff, Bimini totally delivers. Couple this with a lot of convenience - a 50 mile flight on Continental Connection from Ft. Lauderdale - and I would definitely make this a regular destination. I would return again and again.
We dove every day we were there, including day of arrival, and spent one afternoon on the O'Keefe boat on the wild dolphin snorkel expedition. I also did a private charter with a bonefishing guide, Ebbie, to snorkel some shallow sites on the flats and in the mangroves.
As I did some research leading up to our trip, I was a bit nervous about a lack of information. Few folks here on the boards or in other spots had reviewed Bimini diving or the dive operator, and often that's a bad sign.
But there was nothing to be very concerned about for Bimini. In talking with Bill O'Keefe, about 70% of his guests are repeat customers - it's a destination that I don't think many know about, but those who discover it seem to really like.
There's not much draw to the island as a tourist or dive destination - most visitors come via private boat from Florida to partake of bill fishing or bonefishing. There's really only one major resort (Bimini Bay), and there's not much to this besides a large marina, a couple of restaurants, and what seems to me to be a very bad attempt at providing high-end shopping. You're getting a picture of what to expect - a somewhat sleepy out-island, a very interesting aquatic environment, and a chance for some unique encounters such as wild dolphins and flats creatures.
The diving
My diving unfortunately isn't accompanied by a lot of pictures as my camera housing had a small leak which greatly limited my chances to take pictures. I'll put in what I've got.
Bimini diving I would classify as somewhat different (not better or worse) than other Bahamas diving that I have done.
Virtually all of our dives were off the west side of North Bimini. This is itself an interesting feature of the diving - most places in the world, coral reefs grow off the eastern side of an island not the west. Bimini is situated with the Great Bahama Bank (a vast stretch of 20-30 feet of water) sitting to its east and north, and to its west, the Straits of Florida to depths of 3000 feet and the Gulf Stream current. Diving the west side, there are patch reefs that form in 35-85 feet of water with the reef line running north-south.
On all of the reefs, fish life is truly prolific - schools of snapper, grunts, schoolmasters, bermuda chub, jacks, barracuda, triggers.
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We also saw nurse sharks on just about every dive, and southern stingrays. On the deeper reefs, the coral and sponge life is quite nice and generally pristine. Pristine, except for lots of fishing line and leader and hooks, which I did my best to remove wherever I found it.
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Diving the deeper reefs, and including the wreck of the Bimini barge at 90 feet, things get interesting because blue water pelagics - some of which I've never seen before - show up looking for a meal. I saw on the deeper reefs unusual fish for on a reef including large jacks and horse-eye jacks, but also the Greater Amberjack, African Pompano, Cobia, Wahoo. Truly cool - I had two Pompano swim up within 10 feet of me to check me out.
On most of the deeper reefs and certainly at the barge, you get a Gulf Stream eddy current which generally brings in clear blue water plus the pelagic species.
The ride in and out of the harbor is also a fascinating opportunity to see cool things in the water. Tidal flows that bring nutrients out of the mangroves bring in large eagle rays and sometimes sharks.
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The Dolphin Trip
This trip is a must do - truly a fantastic chance to interact with a resident pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. What happens is pretty simple - Bill and Nowdla happened upon the dolphins 15 or 20 years ago. By running north onto the Great Bahama Bank, they can often find the pod. The only complication is finding whether the dolphins want to play. Usually this can be accomplished with the dive boat, as dolphins seem to love the wake.
They put you in the water on snorkel (and with camera) and circle the boat around you. The dolphins will dive underneath you and swim up in an underwater ballet that unfolds around you. We got to interact with 2 separate pods of 4-5 dolphins each - the pictures show how close they get.
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I've been at least a few times in destinations where wild dolphins have come to accompany the dive boat to or from the dive site. Some operators are reluctant to break out of the routine and interact with them, or try to put snorkelers in the water with them - which seems to me like a missed opportunity - as I think this is basically how the O'Keefe trip started in the first place.
The Mangrove Snorkel
My trip ended with a mangrove snorkel - chartered with Bonefish Ebbie (one of the local flats fishing guides). Went looking for juvenille sharks and other species in the tidal flow out of the mangroves. I'll need to do something like this again, as it was very interesting, but didn't have a lot of luck encountering the species - at least while I was in the water. However, from the surface I saw several rays, turtles, and a big hammerhead shark. No pictures of this unfortunately - as the hammerhead was really unhappy to see us and bolted. Ebbie was amazing in his ability to locate fish including the hammerhead from the surface. I guess this is the skill of having a fishing guide as your captain.
My best pictures from this were the giant orange starfish and the large southern stingray - who looked like he was dressed as a ghost.
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