Bimini is difficult to leave. The idyllic spit of sand just east of Florida may only be a 20-minute flight from Miami, but in character it’s a world away. Glass-clear water replete with marine life, elephantine yachts and a deep history make Bimini an inspiring place.

So inspiring in fact, that the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. used to visit and write famous speeches aboard a tiny boat deep in the mangroves. Ernest Hemingway used to hole up here too, penning alcohol-driven musings at the then-bustling Big Game Club.

It’s a special place, one where you can imagine stepping back in time to an era that was less complicated in some ways, more so in others.

We came to Bimini, the closest Bahamian island to the United States, to fly-fish and explore, but also to understand the island and its past, present and future.

Things are changing on Bimini, and as the island balances the scales of its genuine persona and history with the need to expand tourism and add more luxurious offerings, we realized that this special place may have struck a healthy balance.

Searching for bonefish Bonefish Ebbie David is an animated character. He’s a tenured fly-fishing guide and Bimini native who took us angling for bonefish, a laser-fast, missile-shaped fish that roams the shallow “flats” that surround Bimini.

As he pushed his skiff in the skinny water, his voice resonated in the salty air as he bellowed “Amazing Grace” in an attempt to entice the higher deity of all things fishy to present bonefish to our water. It worked.

A few minutes later, knees shaking from the pressure, I laid a fly onto the dinner plate of a hungry bonefish. And in a flash, my line tugged and began to run off toward the horizon.

Although fishing is a major facet of life on Bimini, this island is not all things piscatorial. Bimini boasts world-class diving and snorkeling, in both open water and amid shipwrecks.

The half-submerged SS Sapona, for example, is a concrete-hulled cargo steamer that ran aground off Bimini during a hurricane in 1926. Today it’s a popular dive destination with vibrant reef fish and sharks.

Bimini holds a healthy population of sharks. So many that a tour operator offers a hammerhead dive, where hammerheads are fed and photographed by clients.

Likewise, there is a population of somewhat habituated porpoises with which you can dive.

Then there’s the Bimini Road, a series of submerged structures that some believe may be a link to the Lost City of Atlantis.

Road to Alicetown

Getting around on Bimini is part of the fun. Golf carts are the primary form of transportation. Within 10 minutes you can drive one from a new, refined resort to the sleepy streets of Alicetown.

Here, tiny colorful homes dot the avenue abutting the lagoon. Small restaurants stand on stilts in the water; guests dine on conch ceviche, made fresh to order.

On the other side of the street the ocean laps at soft, flour-like sand beaches. These beaches stretch for miles along the coast and in some sections are so deserted that you’d think you were on an island all your own.

Bimini is comprised of two main islands, north and south. On the tip of North Bimini an expansive resort rests, rich in amenities, beaches and restaurants. Once a landfill, this section of Bimini has been excavated and converted into a luxurious vacation spot with private homes and cabanas, infinity pools and even a small casino.

We enjoyed outstanding gastronomy at a unique sushi restaurant, a raw bar and harborside restaurant. After a day of fishing in Bimini’s blazing sun, the opulent spa was a welcome offering.

Separating North Bimini and South Bimini is a broad estuary, a lagoon with clear, clean water and miles of hard sand flats. Through this estuary slices a channel that allows for gigantic yachts to enter and tie up at the marinas that flank our resort, Resorts World Bimini, and other private marinas including those alongside the Bimini Big Game Club.

‘Look at all this life’

It was in this estuary that Ansil Saunders toured us around. Saunders is 84 and has been bonefishing since age 18. He’s been fly fishing for more than 50 years.

As we idled through the water, he spoke. “There, just off those mangroves,” he said and pointed. “That’s where it happened.”

He was referring to the day in 1971 that his client caught the world record bonefish, a record that stands today: 16 pounds, 3 ounces.

He powered up his boat, a 15 1 /2-foot wooden piece of art that he built by hand. He’s been building and selling fishing boats his entire adult life. He slowly motored into a narrow causeway that wound through the mangrove trees until we came upon a statue of King that rests upon a pillar driven into the mud.

“This is where the doctor wrote [his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech] in 1964.

I sat and waited,” he said.

“When he was done, he spoke to me. He said, looking at the snappers in the water and birds on the branches, ‘Look at all this life. How can there be so much life and some still do not believe in God?’”

King returned four years later and again, aboard Sauders’ boat, wrote a speech in support of the sanitation workers’ strike. “He was getting death threats. He knew he was going to die. So he closed his speech with his own eulogy,” Saunders said.

On April 3, 1968, three days after leaving Saunders, King gave the famous speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

The next day, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

But in Bimini, where his ghost haunts the flats and the mangroves, and where the birds sing his song, King is still very much alive.

Brian Irwin is a freelance travel writer and photographer in New Hampshire.

If you go

Getting there: Fly from Dallas to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Silver Airlines provides service daily to South Bimini; a ferry will take you to the marina of your choice. Or take a seaplane from Miami on Tropic Ocean Airways. Book through Resorts World Bimini at rwbimini.com.

Lodging: The Hilton, on the property of Resorts World Bimini, puts you closest to the comforts of contemporary resort life. Rates from $249 per night. From here, rent a golf cart and explore the entire island. Carts cost $60 per day.

Stay busy: For fishing, snorkeling and other activities, Resorts World Bimini can arrange any tour.