Treasure Trove (eBook)

FREEPORT & BIMINI

After three days of visiting friends and officials from the Grand Bahama and Abaco islands and seeing the dramatic recovery of the region with much help from people worldwide, Diane and her family were sitting outside the Manta Ray Beach Club restaurant overlooking the beach and turquoise waters. They had just finished their dinners and were sitting back, waiting for their desserts to arrive, when Tom Kingston walked up.

“Hi everyone.”

“Hi Tom,” said Sam, Diane, Suzanne, and Bronwyn, one after the other.

“Please sit down and join us while we watch the sunset over this fabulous beach,” Sam said.

“Tom, pull up a seat. Would you like something to eat or drink?” Suzanne asked.

“I would like to splurge and get a Bahama Mama. Yes, no local drinks it. It is only for tourists, but I like it,” said Tom.

Drinks were brought for Tom and Sam, while various island deserts were brought for Suzanne and the kids.

“Diane,” Tom asked, “were you able to meet everyone you wanted to?”

“Yes, I met almost everyone and saw how the reconstruction was going. I must say that things were repaired much faster than with Hurricane Katrina. I saw news clips of that disaster. Some places still have not recovered. Shameful! You would think that a country as rich as the United States could quickly wipe out all the traces of a hurricane in a year or two, but no.”

“So, what now?” Asked Tom.

Sam replied, “We are off to Bimini tomorrow to relax in the sun, swim a little, and dive on the Bimini Road.”

“That is a fun dive. Many big rocks are aligned, making it look like a road,” said Tom. “The Bimini Road is not far from where my search is for the San Juan wreck.”

Tom continued discussing the San Juan and hoped to find it just south of Bimini Island. Over the next hour, they discussed the 1622 Spanish fleet, treasure, swashbuckling, pirates, and hangings. Then Tom redirected the conversation to the search of the Nuestra Seńora de la Santisima San Juan.

“Tom, you make all this sound like a wonderful adventure. We really wish you well in your search,” said Sam.

Tom paused momentarily, looking out thoughtfully as the moon rose in the east.

“Now that’s beautiful,” said Diane.

“Yes, indeed it is,” Tom said as the others agreed, silently watching the moon.

Suddenly, Tom asked: “How about you join me for a few days in my search? I will get a few more provisions on board, and we can make it a wonderful and adventurous vacation you will not forget. There is enough room on the boat.”

Over the next hour, Diane and her family discussed his offer. Already intrigued by his adventure stories, they decide to join him in his quest for the San Juan, at least for a few days. The next morning, they caught a small plane flying from Freeport to South Bimini Island Airport via Fort Lauderdale, where they caught one of the few taxis on the island to the Bimini Sands Resort, where Tom kept his boat. The Jones rented two rooms—the larger one with a kitchen and a sitting room.

The smell of fresh paint was throughout the resort. There were new appliances, new furniture, and new beds. Everything was redone from the ground up. Once they had settled in, Tom invited them to dinner on his boat, the Jenny, at 7 p.m. Tom had a total of three boats, the 71-foot Jenny, the Janet, which was off of Melbourne Beach, Florida, making an archaeological recovery of a Spanish ship, and the Jerry, which was off Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, searching for the Roman ship directed by James Lynch. Yes, the wreck Tom had mentioned on the cruise to the Bahamas. It was only lunchtime, so they wandered around and finally found a beautiful, peaceful beach with a small restaurant and rental shack. The sign-out front said, ‘Love Yourself Rentals - conch fritters - excellent Bohemian food, Kalik beer.’ On the beach, a sign read ‘Radio Beach.’

They sat down for lunch, swam a bit, tried to windsurf, which didn’t go very well, and relaxed on lounge chairs with ice-cold drinks. They discussed this and that and everything: whether they should visit the Bimini Healing Hole, which is a freshwater pond that is only accessible by boat because it sits within saltwater mangrove swamps, the coral reefs, the shipwrecks in the area, global warming, the Bimini Road, drug lords, Florida Tech, Dr. Wood, Romans, AUVS, hurricanes, the FEMA box, and scuba diving.

They then returned to the hotel to freshen up, take showers, and dress for dinner on Tom’s boat. He had strung lights around the boat to give it a cozy feeling. They had conversations about shipwreck hunting, technology, treasure, and pirates. There were also wild stories of getting bitten by sharks, riding sea turtles, watching manta rays fly by, and fending off pirates who tried to steal what they had brought up.

During the talk, Tom confessed he only had Mike, his first mate, and did not have enough crew for the search and excavation, so he would like them to join him for the rest of their vacation searching for the San Juan. At this point, Diane got the idea to invite Zack, one of her best adventure buddies, a great diver who knows about boats, engines, and all types of nautical stuff. Diane called him that night after they returned to their hotel room and invited him on the adventure. Then Zack, true to his word, arrived later the next day.

That evening, after they had picked Zack up from the airport, they caught the shuttle water taxi to Alice Town on Bimini Island for dinner at Sherry’s Place. The view at sunset from the outdoor patio was positively fantastic. Tom had mentioned that Sherry’s Place has the best seafood on the island and fabulous cocktails – “just the way I like them.” Diane had the conch salad, and as she took her first bite, she smiled and said, “Wonderful!”. The others had various fish and lobster dishes. They continued their discussions, followed by dancing under the festive lights, a full moon, and shining stars. Sam and Suzanne did a slow close dance while Diane dragged Zack onto the floor to teach him some of the ballroom dance moves she had learned over the last year.

They caught the last ride back to South Bimini Island at midnight, where they all jumped into bed.

Ψ

“Wake up, Bronwyn, time for breakfast,” Diane said, shaking Bronwyn's bed.

Bronwyn the Pirate Captain“No! No! I was having this wonderful dream about pirates. I was a pirate captain, and we had just discovered a treasure chest in a cave. We were lugging it to the boat to take to my pirate ship! And there you went and woke me up!” Bronwyn rolled over and covered her head with her pillow.

“Well, now you can start the day with a big smile, and everyone will think you are up to something.” Diane laughed.

“Hey, are you kids going to come and have some scrambled eggs, pancakes, and hash browns on the terrace with us?” Suzanne asked.

A few minutes later, while enjoying their breakfast, Tom came striding up to them on the terrace and said, “Hi everyone. Did you all get a good night’s sleep?”

“Yes … yes … yes …” were heard all around.

“Excellent! So, is it agreed that you will help me search for the San Juan?”

“Yes,” Diane and Bronwyn said simultaneously, then laughed.

Suzanne promptly said: “Yes, it looks that way. Sam and I will take turns staying here with little Ben while you all go on your quest to find the Holy Grail. The pool looks wonderful, and from what we all saw last night, the beaches are wonderful.”

“Well, only if you want to. But I think Ben would love to be out there with us on the open ocean. Wouldn’t you, Ben?” Asked Tom.

Ben pushed out his chest and loudly proclaimed that he wanted to go, too!

Sam looked at his wife, “Ben is going to sea. I’m sure he will have his sea legs before we do.”

“OK, then that’s settled. Ben will also come. I have purchased enough food for everyone for a week or two. We need to go through the checklist again to ensure I got everything,” said Tom.

They all reviewed the checklist for what would be needed next week. Sam was happy that Tom had the DAN first aid kit, plenty of pure oxygen in case of a diving accident, and the DAN phone number printed boldly in a few prominent locations on the boat. They also checked the scuba tank refill station and the 15 scuba tanks that were on board.

Then Sam saw the heavily built dive bench. “Talk about a sturdy dive bench. Where did you get it?”

Tom replied. “To make a long story short, I won it from Dr. Wood. We were on a research cruise around Puerto Rico. I bet we would find a giant squid before the end of the cruise. I put up a Lego research ship Oceanus out of Woods Hole, and he put up his dive bench that he had built himself.”

“Why would you expect to find a giant squid? Aren't they very rare?” Asked Diane.

“Oh, very rare, extremely rare, in fact, but we heard from a Puerto Rican fisherman that he had spotted one in a specific area three times in the previous week. It came to the surface each time between 1 and 4 a.m. Dr. Wood doubted that we would find anything,” said Tom. Tom paused for a minute and continued: “So, we were on station with everything a giant squid would want: lots of food. We only had five days before we had to head to Venezuela and then to Honduras. It was the night before we had to leave; Dr. Wood told me, ‘Tom, we are at the wrong...