Conquering Fears in Bimini: Swimming with Reef Sharks!

After completing an offshore passage from Mexico and Cuba across to the Bahamas, Connor and the family aboard Sailing Big Lost pulled into a marina in Bimini to assess serious passage damage. During rough swells on the run from Mexico, their secondary anchor chain rope had slipped when the windlass lock released, dropping the anchor several feet and gouging the gel coat before punching a small hole through the fiberglass into the anchor locker. Upon arriving in Bimini, Connor discovered an even larger loss: the pin and swivel on their Delta anchor had worked completely free, dropping the anchor to the seabed and damaging the bridle.

Passage Damage and a Lost Anchor

The passage across rough seas exposed severe wear on the ground tackle. The crew had relied on secondary lashings to restrain the anchor chain, but cyclic motion through the swells caused the windlass lock to slip. With the anchor dropping unexpectedly, the swinging metal chewed into the bow fiberglass. Connor took stock of the missing hardware as the catamaran pulled into the dock, exclaiming, “we’re coming into Bimini and no anchor the pin broke so luckily our chain’s still there”. The shank and flukes were gone, leaving only bare chain secured at the bow roller.

Bimini Rendezvous with David Langlois

Bimini sits roughly 80 km off the coast of Florida adjacent to the Gulf Stream, making it the westernmost island in the Bahamas chain. The island’s proximity to deep oceanic currents supports abundant marine life and clear water. To explore the settlement and continue their dive education, the crew met up with longtime friend David Langlois. Having spent 15 years living in the Bahamas and diving across Bimini, David stepped in as local guide, helping the family navigate the harbor and continue the PADI free diver certification course they had started in Varadero, Cuba.

Foraging and Preparing Fresh Coconuts

David guided the family ashore to gather wild coconuts, explaining how to inspect the husks and tell mature nuts from younger fruit. Stripping the fibrous outer husk down to the hard core required patient machete work. As Connor chopped away at the husk under the watchful eyes of the group, David laughed at the performance pressure, remarking, “just because everyone is watching more time than usual”. Once the nut was split open, extracting the firm white meat from the curved inner shell presented another challenge. David demonstrated a simple technique to pop the flesh free, instructing the crew, “the trick is vibration want to grab a spoon”. Back in the galley, the crew combined the sweet coconut water and scraped coconut meat inside a blender, adding sugar and cinnamon to produce rich homemade coconut milk.

Swimming with Reef Sharks and Conch Seawalls

A major objective of the stopover was venturing out into the open water to swim alongside wild Caribbean reef sharks. While Finn remained resting aboard because he was not feeling well, Maddie showed no hesitation. She leaped straight into the water beside Connor, comfortably sharing the shallow depths with sharks that stretched longer than she was tall. Back along the perimeter of the island, the family marveled at massive mounds of discarded conch shells lining the waterfront. With conch fritters serving as a staple across the Bahamas, generations of fishermen had piled empty shells so high that locals built functional seawalls entirely out of conch shells to hold back the tide.

PADI Free Diving and Mainsail Repairs

The crew returned to the water to complete their PADI free diver certification drills under David’s instruction. Practicing duck dives down the vertical shot line tested their breath-hold endurance at the end of a demanding day. When fatigue led to form breakdown, David used an underwater grouper call to catch attention, signaling to keep the chin tucked straight toward the descent line rather than craning downward. Although Finn could not complete the course due to ear congestion, Connor and Kelly both passed their free diving evaluation.

Between training sessions, Maddie looked ahead to the catamaran’s next destination, sharing her joy about visiting Nassau to reunite with her childhood best friend: “she’s my best friend ever since I was a baby and I’ve known her my whole life”. Before slipping the dock lines, Connor turned his attention back to the rig to fix a mainsail slide that had pulled away from the mast. Having previously patched a similar slug while in Guatemala, Connor elected to replace the failed fitting with a flexible Dyneema shackle, securing the mainsail luff before sailing toward Nassau.

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