AMAZINGLY the BAHAMAS

To better appreciate the enigma of aircraft and boat disappearances, it is necessary to understand the sea over which they so inexplicably vanished. Largely, this area is the Bahamas, itself one of the most exotic places on this globe. This tour is to give you some idea of what it is like to be flying in the most popular area of the Bermuda Triangle.  

   The choice of our departure is a common one– the vacation Mecca of Miami, Florida. Miami is one corner of the infamous Triangle. Our destination is San Juan, Puerto Rico, another corner or nodal point in the Triangle’s notorious waters. Since we will be making several stops, some between short distances, and many  island runways are small, we will be flying on a Piper Chieftain, a 10 seater, 6 window executive shuttle. They are noisy and not so glamorous, but one’s attention is directed to the breathtaking sights below anyway.    Our first view is the antithesis of mystery: the condominiums, casinos, hotels and bustling sands of Miami Beach. Advancing lines of breaking surf soon fade to the deep blue Gulf Stream, dotted with any imaginable type of vessel. This is a veritable seagoing freeway. The Gulf Stream flows about close to 5 mph here, sweeping the warm waters of the tropical Gulf into the cold and tumultuous Atlantic. Here off Florida’s warm waters, the Gulf Stream is manageable, but nevertheless many pleasure boaters like to head south and then catch the Gulf Stream as though it was a conveyor belt northward. Then they glide off at the Bahamas, onto its peaceful, shallow azure waters.       By aircraft, it is just 20 minutes or so. Our first stop, Bimini, is actually 2 islands: North and, naturally, South Bimini. It’s only about 56 miles away from Miami.  A small plane like ours is only briefly at its cruise altitude, which is often very low. This allows a breathtaking glimpse of whatOne of the greatest vacation Meccas in the world.     Bimini is hardly a palm-fringed paradise. Abundant casuarina trees and older homes give it a summer camp look. And the rustic bars and hotels that cater to the loads of game fishermen, divers & snorkelers lend Bimini a slightly honky-tonk atmosphere.    But the exotic of the tropics is never far from her coasts. Divers are all over the shallow turquoise waters, and glass bottom boats load up passengers to view “Atlantis” off North Bimini’s Paradise Point. See Quasar’s drawing of the Bimini Road   The main settlements are Alice Town and Bailey Town, which are right next to each other. They are always busy with entering and exiting fishing excursions and diving tours. Overhead, the drone of airplanes passing over Bimini reminds one the island is only the gateway to the Bahamas. Beyond lies the exotic heart of the archipelago, and for many unsolved mystery in the Bermuda Triangle.     Alice Town & Baily Town. Cruises leave past Pigeon Cay, (right of picture) to exit between South Bimini and North Bimini.   Mystery does not just haunt the “drop off” of nearby Moselle Reef (seen right on the Nasa photo as the long wake of breakers south of Bimini), where greenish phosphorescent lights scurry about underneath and where compasses are said to spin more frequently. Russian authorities have now confessed that during the cold war their submarines more frequently encountered the fabled USOs— Unidentified Submersible Objects— the undersea cousins of the irascible UFOs we hear so much about. They are another unsolved enigma that haunts these alluring   Heading southeast we see that the ocean barely covers the Great Bahama Bank. For an hour or more one is dazzled by a kaleidoscope of changing colors: blues, jades, and turquoise, as the currents scour the bottom like wind does the dunes of the desert. It is hard to imagine that scores of planes could have vanished over these same beautiful waters Yet a Lake Amphibian was in this exact region in 1973 and left no trace, carrying 3 people. It was an amphibious plane; it could land and float on water. But what happened? In 1997 a plane temporarily  vanished. It was later found only 5 miles southeast of Bimini in only     Everything seems normal in our flight. We seem secure. The engines drone on, and one anxiously awaits seeing yachts schooning with a brisk trade wind below. One can’t help but wonder what strikes along this routine sky highway so fast as to change such an exotic, surreal scene.     A twin Beech passed over here in 1976 bound for Caicos; a Piper Cherokee in May 1978; another Cherokee in April 1979; yet again, in September 1979 an Aero Commander 500; A Cessna 402B charter 1984; a big B-25 in 1966 . . . Oh, well, many others.     Casual conversations on such small planes are common. When the topic of the Triangle comes up . . .if it does . . . I must bite my tongue. I best not mention it to the others. To have figures and facts won’t get you any kudos. Other passengers will  just dig their fingers into the upholstery and demand a bathroom.  Let’s continue: skirting Andros Island; flying over the “Tongue” . . .Nassau!The Bahamaslocals dub the “drop-off”– the dividing line between the very shallow Great Bahama Bank around Bimini, seen as light blue and jade waters, and the blue ocean over the abyssal Florida Straits.  tropical waters. The Russian confession merely adds more enigma to the background of vanishing ships and planes that passed this island, as we must now, and were never seen again.      We takeoff now to toward Andros Island and then New Providence Island, the administrative center of the Bahamas.  The beauty of off-shore Bimini.7 feet of water. Yet it took a week to find it. As it stands now, rumors have it the plane was found empty, even the key was removed from the ignition.    These are but minor mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Sportsmen, divers, pleasure boaters, and conch fisherman, are familiar with the enigmatic wrecks. But mystery delves deeper than casual and passing acquaintance. Greg and Laura Little have frequently wreck-hunted in the area, finding small aircraft and even a DC-3! I was called upon to examine and investigate a couple of these recently (2009) to see if either could be linked with a missing in the Triangle. History Channel did a big show around one found 55 miles east of Bimini at the “Eye.”      The “Eye” is not unique, but for our purposes a few chords of those old 1970s docudrama music are not out of place. In the shallow waters of the Bahamas, wrecks eventually attract turtle grass. The “Eye” is the result of an as-yet untraced wreck, perhaps a Cessna 310, that crashed sometime in the 1970s. The “Eye” looks like a marled area from overhead, some mottled dark green blemish in the cool azure underwater silky sands of the Bahamas. But where are the dozens of others? Where are the “eyes” that should have been created by all the missing aircraft and vessels that vanished over these shallow waters and left no trace? Even if undiscovered at the time of the initial searches, each should have formed a mottled area which all locals would be familiar with. Yet the Triangle swallows all clues, even after decades.     I didn’t seek the dubious reputation I’ve acquired. I didn’t set out to be the “world’s expert on the Bermuda Triangle.” It was something that pondered over with my fellow Generation X. We enjoyed documentaries as a kid. we loved the vignettes in the age of “docudramas.” We loved the narration and the chords of mystery music resonating as yet another ship of plane was said to have vanished without trace. The theories enchanted and excited us. When I started investigating in 1990 I had no idea I would confirm that so many continued to vanish. I can never prove or disprove the major theories, but one thing is certain disappearances do happen here more frequently than other seas. And on top of this, given the topography of the Bahamas, mystery clutches greedily to the Triangle disappearances more than elsewhere. Why indeed have none
 left no trace? Even “eyes” have remained closed to the many missing in the Triangle.      As haunting as it seems, this chilling aura of mystery draws adventures and sportsmen. It is a sidelight of the exotic in an already fun-filled trip. Will something truly “triangle-esque” happen to us? Will our compass spin? Will we really see the “electronic fog?” Will those mysterious green lights and glowing waters surface? Will we even see those mysterious USOs reported by both US and Soviet ships?     Perhaps all the ships and planes didn’t truly vanish along here anyway. Did they all go down, conveniently, in deep water? The only real deep water coming up on the horizon is an ominous sight and itself a mystery.