...a lot of what happens in Bimini, stays in Bimini

Let's talk about Bimini. We took about 20 kids who just graduated from High School for one last trip as Youth Groupers. We drove to Ft. Lauderdale and loaded up 2 catamarans and siled to Bimini during the night. It's one of my favorite parts of the trip. You sail out from the marina through some magnificent houses and boats. Then you hit open water. Once the lights of shore have faded, you can see the stars. With no other light to compete with, it's amazing how many you see.

We got to Bimini around 11. The captains do the customs paperwork while we wait on the boat. Then we do our paperwork and we're good. While Don went to rent some Scuba tanks (showoff) I took the rest 100yars to the other side of the island to the beach.
The deal with Bimini is it might be the clearest water on the planet. Describing it is hard because it's just too beautiful.

Then the plan is to leave and anchor out at a deserted island some miles away. We'll spend the next day and a half there, swimming , snorkeling, laying out,....pretty much doing whatever we want whenever we want. Reakfast and lunch are basically individual choices on the boats, but we tie the boats together at night for supper. We ate great this year thanks to McCall and Abby. They planned them and did the inside prep. Me and whoever did the outside grilling, but no real skill involved there. Cavemen did that,so....

We caught some fish and a guyy paddled up and gave us some so one night we put them on the grill. Way,way delicioso.

Snorkeling this year was outstanding. Sharks, rays, turtles, barracudas, and eels, were in abundance, in addition to the multitude of other fish we saw. We saw enough sharks that one day we were playing "Catch and Eat" on the port side of the boat when someone saw a big shark on the front starboard side, we didn't even get out of the water, nebver mind going to look at it.

What's "Catch and Eat"?
It's where I take a life preserver and straddle it like a horse in the water towards the back port side of the boat. We take a pan of left over hot dog weiners from the night before and put them on top of a float cushion beside me.then we open a section of rails on the side so people can jump off the side of the boat.
I throw weiners and they jump and try to catch one and take a bite before they hit the water.
"Catch and Eat" Hasn't everyone played it?
Funny thing. Nobody was catching them UNTIL...I started taking a good luck bite of the weiner, then throwing it. Every single one I took a good luck bite of got caught. The power of suggestion, maybe.
We also throw the football and let them catch it.

After 3 days out we sail back to Bimini and spend 2 nights in a marina. This year we went to the ultra swanky Bimini Bay Marina. It's part of the resort which is gated and very nice. We had access to the pools(crazy nice).
We take them down to this semi-outdoor dive called Big John's to dance and blow their ya-ya's out. We started later and stayed longer this year. In the past it was usually just us and random fishermen and tourists. Usually a small #. With the new resort open, it's like the movie Dirty Dancing. The resort people wanna go local and cut loose. The place was packed.
Of course our crowd gets in the middle and starts going to town.
Thet always dress for it, so the girls always look great. That means I spend my time on P and P patrol. Pervs and Purses. Looking after their purses and making sure all the Skeevy Steves and Pervy Mervs keep their distance. It's always been cool with no problems, but you never know.
Then we sail back out for a few more days out on the water of snorkeling and fun.

The last night on the water is the water balloon fight. We anchor the boats about 75-100 yds apart. We each have water balloons and water balloon launchers (the surgical tubing kind that takes 3 people to operate) and a handheld spotlight.
We yell and talk junk at each other, seeing who'll be the first to shoot. Once someone does, it's on!
I always tell my boat "there's going to come a point when you hear one go right by your head that you never saw. Your knees will buckle and you'll want to hide. Fight it "
It's scary as crap but fun.
The deal with the spotlight is that you can light up their boat for aiming AND it blinds them, affecting thr aim.

They busted our spotlight with just the 8th balloon they shot.
Are you kidding me?
BUSTED it?
We've hit the person holding it a couple of times.
We've knocked it out of their hands, but they just picked it up and kept using it.
BUSTED it? Broke the glass and everything.

We got smoked like a cheap cigar after that. Now they could see us and blind us. All we could see on their boat was the light, which blinded us. We got lucky a couple of. Times but they had bulls-eyes on us. I got tagged on top of the head, square in the hip, and dead in the back. Everybody on the boat got hit at least once.
One of the reasons it's so much fun is because everyone gets so jacked up once it starts. Balloons are zooming by, hitting right beside you, there' yelling and junk talking .....it's very adrenaline inducing. The hour or two after it's over is always a blast. Everyone is still amped up. We raid the kitchen, crank the iPods and play cards. Great night.

Then we get up and sail to Miami and spend the night in the Bayside Marina, then head back to Ft. Laud the next day.
Unload the boats, load the bus and drive to Cocoa Beach. Eat supper, visit Ron-Jon and crash. Next morning we roll all the way back to Wilmywood. Obviously some of things change a little every year.
And I can't tell u everything, because .....