Tao

They're out there somewhere...

We’ve tried, without success, to contract the dolphins to show up regularly at a set time and place, we’ve offered them unlimited fish and squid, but they obviously value their freedom higher than that. And so we have to head out to the ocean every day in search of one of the pods, armed only with binoculars and a lot of patience. We, as humans, tend to sail above the surface of the sea. Dolphins are more at home beneath the surface. This obviously introduces some difficulties to the process of finding a small group of dolphins in a very large ocean.
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ajara and veit

In the society I come from, talking to others while wearing sunglasses is kind of frowned upon, usually the preserve of teenagers with an attitude problem. But here in Bimini, where the sun is bright for most of the day, sunglasses are normal. It’s taken me a long while to get used to this, having whole conversations with people and not being able to see their eyes. And myself talking to others while wearing the things. I’m most comfortable with a light shade that can be seen through. I notice it often with newly arrived guests, they feel a bit disconcerted at first, whereas I think most of the crew here are not aware of it as it is normal when living here. Read more…

Diving deep

A mixed and varied week of breathless days and storms, hot sun and torrential rain. A fresh influx of Germans replace the outgoing group (except for the dozen that have stayed over for a second week) and a full and juicy group it is. I try my hand at freediving and we all play with the dolphins and go snorkelling at Turtle Rocks.
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short dive!

This is the second of four weeks of the Life Trust peoples and half of the previous weeks people have stayed over and some leave and some new ones arrive. It’s like being back in Germany with the sound of German around me. We’ve got a young lad, Leo, who decides to shave his head while here. So in minutes he goes from angelic blond hair to shaved cranium, which is a pretty courageous thing to do on holiday. He is now the Man of the Month for September on the Wildquest calendar! Read more…

Stormy days

The week started off with a couple of tropical storms passing by. Tropical Storm Ana, the first of the season, didn’t quite make it as far as the Bahamas but disintegrated somewhere off the coast of Cuba. The local Bimini weather wasn’t unaffected though and we had the first couple of days with a fair bit of wind and rough seas outside of the shelter of the island. Later in the week we were expecting Hurricane Bill to appear, but he veered north and we got the tail end of him over the next weekend.
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We're watching...

In which we are descended upon by a miscellaneous selection of people, who by the end of the week are all best friends. And then the following week we have the pleasure of Aneeta and Peter Makena (spiritual singers from US/Germany), a couple that I’ve had contact with at various times over the past 30 years. We’ve also got the pleasure of Nipun and Sukhi who are staying on for an extra week to help out with running things, as one of the team has to head back to the mainland for personal reasons.
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Cassie and Ruby

Well, that was a fun week I said. Wait till next week, it’s family week said the others… and so it was with a certain amount of dread that I helped unload half a dozen families on the next Monday. But by the end of the week I’d fallen in love with them all, a great set of families and children and we’d all had a wonderful time and the kids are all spaced out from being with dolphins…

I’m so busy I’m not finding time to keep the blog up to date, so I’ll settle with some pictures for now.

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Tropi Rock Resort

I’m sick. Fever and aches and pains. And I’d so much wanted to arrive here and hit the ground running and instead I’m kind of stumbling around… We arrive at about 09:30, have some welcome hugs and catch up on gossip, then go to the room to unpack. I lay down on the bed and pass out, burning hot. At some point in the afternoon the fever breaks and I emerge from the room in time for the 5pm meeting. Saturday’s are a day of cleaning up after the previous weeks participants, and meetings to discuss what needs to happen and how we’re all getting on. So I’ve missed the practical meeting and in the sharing meeting I’m kind of subdued and not a little spaced out. But I’m present enough to get that my jobs will be preparing the lunch buffet and helping out on the boat and in the water to make sure all the participants are happy and safe. And Monday is, if I want, a day that I can have off of the boat. It all sounds pretty easy, even in my post fever state and I look forward to Sunday, which is a general day off for everyone and I intend to spend much of it sleeping and recovering.
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The Bimini Blog series of posts are about the summer of 2009, when my partner, Ajara, and I take three months to hangout and help in the Bahamas at a resort called Wildquest. Wildquest is a place run by Amlas and Atmo, two old friends of ours who had taken over the business about 6-7 years ago. We’d gone to visit them in 2007 and discussed coming back to be part of the team for a summer. And this year we’ve managed to free ourselves up for three months to be there.
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