January 15, 2008.

We decided to see what all the fuss was about…….The Atlantis Resort. The resort is a marina and hotel complex with opulent grounds including more than a dozen swimming pools and an incredible aquarium.

We dinghied to a nearby dock to tie up and made the short walk to the Atlantis complex. You can only wander so much of the place without paying admission. It cost us $32 apiece to get the run of the grounds including the aquarium.

The aquarium is very cleverly designed and divided up into several areas. There was an underwater tube which let you walk through as the fish swam all about. The size and quality of the fish that live here are incredible. There’s a Manta Ray that has a 14 foot wing span and sharks of every shape and size.

It’s been a long time since I’ve wandered around someplace and felt lost the entire time. The staff was incredibly polite and eager to interact with us. The buildings, land and waterscaping were more beautiful than I expected.

People that choose to swim have their choice of several pools.
There’s huge water slides, a lazy river tube float, a lap pool and pools designed like grottos.

There’s also a world class golf course and a gorgeous casino. It really has something for everybody, including the mega rich. The hotel has an east tower and a west tower. About 15 stories up is a bridge that connects the 2 towers together. The special thing about this bridge is that it is actually a 5000 square foot private suite. The suite has its own elevator among other perks. The “room” goes for $25,000 a night. I can’t imagine.

On the way home from Atlantis we decided to run across the harbor and hit the grocery store. We had heard it was really nice and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was true. It rivaled either of the grocery stores in Marathon in both cleanliness and selection. The only difference was some of the fresh vegetables looked a little worse for wear. We were only after some vegetables and bread so we were quite pleased. Best of all was that the prices weren’t that high, it was actually a hell of a lot cheaper than Block Island, R.I.

After taking the groceries back to the boat we headed out to a bar that advertised both a happy hour and free WiFi. At the bar we ran into the crews of the 4 boats that had to adjust course and go north during our crossing. They’d been putting in long days and had just gotten in that afternoon and were planning to head out tomorrow.

We had been planning to head out ourselves, so now it looks as if we’ll have company. There are some big winds in the forecast later in the week so it looks as if we’ll be heading out to Norman Cay to hangout for a bit before continuing on south.