Blossom in the north anchorage at Conception Island
Conception Island is an uninhabited island due east of
Georgetown, south of Cat Island. It’s a part of the Bahamas Nation Trust (BNT),
a marine sanctury and a sanctuary for migratory birds. As a protected area, we
are supposed to “tread lightly…not leaving trash and not harming live creatures
or the ecosystem” (per our Explorer Chartbook). I would hope that all these
cays and islands would be treated with such respect, whether or not they are part of the BNT!
There are tons of coral heads and creeks – it’s an area meant for exploration
and snorkeling…
Blossom and Stellina at anchor
We left Cat just after sunrise. It was a gorgeous day and
since we’d be running along the ridge, we put both fishing poles out. Yup, this
is a story about the one that got away! Just as we were rounding the tip of the
island we hooked a 3-foot Wahoo. At the same time that we slowed down for the
fish, we hit current coming from around the island and Blossom started to
crazy-Ivan on No Drift mode. Fishing reel clicking, alarms sounding - it was
quite an adventure! Jim put Blossom in Auto mode and Martin fought the fish. It
put up a massive fight and managed to slip the hook as he was being pulled up. So
the fish lived to tell the story… Lesson learned, have to keep that line
taught!
Martin fishing
Oops, now he’s Really
fishing!
Who was more worn
out, Martin or the fish?
I’m writing this blog as we’re underway, real time. So now,
here’s the story of the one that didn’t get away! We had another hit, less of a
fighter this time. Martin reeled her in and it was a big Mahi! (The first one
really must have been huge, of course, being that it’s the one that got away ;)
Wow, we really did
get a fish!
[Note that I say this fish was “not as difficult”. I tried
to take over reeling the “easy” one in without a belt on and I couldn’t do it.
I didn’t realize what hard work it is!] It’s a little embarrassing, but we
weren’t really prepared to land such a big fish, I don’t think we thought we
really could. We did have cheap vodka but we hadn’t gotten a fish box (I know,
Rick & Michelle, you told us to get one!!) We managed with a gaff, vodka
and large garbage bag filled with ice. We
brought the lines in afterward, one big fish was plenty for us. We’ll be more
prepared on the trip back to the Exumas, just in case!
We had 3 sailboats pass us in the afternoon, obviously
heading to Cat from Conception. As we approached Conception we were shocked to
see at several masts in the anchorage and 2 sailboats heading in. Our friend
Sharron and said that “more than 4 boats in the bay at Cat is a party” and we’d
assumed that it would be equally quiet at Conception. Not so! The first night
we were anchored with 12 other boats, all sailing cats or monohulls.
We found a nice spot in fairly deep water (10 feet) and
settled in. Interestingly, we anchored right over an “X” which shows a large
coral head there. The water was so clear it was obvious that there was no
coral, there was however, an enormous (300lb?) sea anchor and chain lying
there. Someone lost some serious ground tackle. A large nurse shark came over
and welcomed us to the anchorage right away. Our first order of business was to
clean the fish - she was 40 inches long and weighted 16.5 lbs. Cleaning it took
a while but we ended up with several meals.
Bounty from the sea
We put the carcass overboard to see what we’d find. The nurse
shark returned and was joined by a very large Great Barracuda. This was no “Fern”!
Barracuda enjoying
the mahi carcass
It was getting later in the afternoon so we went out for a quick
snorkel on the north side of the bay. The reef was deep, about 15 feet and
there were a several large coral heads. We saw a lot of parrot fish and tangs.
It had been a long day and we weren’t up for any more adventures so we stayed
in after that and Martin cooked a dinner of amazingly fresh and tasty fish!
Sailboat in the
sunset
We woke up in the morning serenaded by the squeaks of the
tropic birds flying overhead. They’re beautiful birds with 2 long
trailing tail feathers. I couldn't get a photo of them but found this one on line:
(Photo from http://www.geometer.org/gal01/tropicbird/tropicgroup.jpg)
We called Stellina, the beautiful sailboat in the sunset
above, and asked if they’d like pics of the boat (both Jim and I had taken some
nice photos of them). They said they’d love them so Martin ran over a thumb
drive and invited them over for drinks later that day.
By late morning all but 6 of the sailboats had taken off and
a large motorboat had come in. We took
off in the morning on the dinghy with goal to circumnavigate the island and
snorkel along the way. We were a bit disappointed in the snorkeling. It seemed
like there should have been more fish. It may be a better place to dive. Here
are some pics from that outing.
The island
Martin snorkeling
Such beautiful water
The coral head below.
These are in about 15 feet of water
Jim snorkeling
Trunk fish hiding
Trunk fish in full view
Flamingo tongue (nudibranch)
Another Queen Triggerfish. We've seen one on every snorkel!
As we drove around the northeast side of the island we were
amazed at the number of coral heads. Even in 25 feet of water they can rise up
to just a foot below the waterline. We had to slow down and pick our way for a
couple of miles for fear that we’d hit rock, it was a bit like driving through
a mine field! This would be an amazing place to dive – it’s a bit too deep to
snorkel.
After lunch we went to the beach and walked over to the east
side. Wow, the colors are amazing. Here are pictures of the beach.
Blossom from the west side beach
East side beach shots
Martin enjoying the beach
When it was high tide we went down the river entrance on the
west side. Steve Pavlidis said that you could go up at high tide and there would
be lots of turtles. Boy were there! They look like black shapes in the water
and then once in a while a head will pop up as they breathe. We also saw a very
large barracuda, maybe the same one that had been at our boat the day before?
They do seem to follow you around.
The water really was
this color in the creek
Turtle in the water
Bird fishing
Friday evening with had a lovely happy hour with Steve and
Angela from Stellina. They brought their charming first mate, Guinness, a very
sweet yorkie. They’re accomplished
sailors recently moved aboard. I hope that our paths will cross again some day!
The island is so beautiful and there’s so much to see that
we contemplated staying there through the storm that was coming over the
weekend. Because we only had NOAA weather to go by (no cell reception), I
called our weather guy, Chris Parker. We used him last year and I had updated
our info with him before we headed out to Cat, just in case. I was surprised
when he answered the phone (I expected to leave a message and call back for a
forecast). He confirmed there would be no westerly component to the wind but
that there would be very significant swells. He suggested that if we stayed, we
would be smart not to travel back west until at least Tuesday, if not Wednesday.
The anchorage here isn’t very protected and there’s a small amount of surge
even in the light ENE winds we had on Thurs/Fri. So we decided that it could be
too uncomfortable for too many days and we would head back to Georgetown on
Saturday to wait it out, reprovision fresh produce and drop off some garbage. We’ll
be going back to Conception, It's made our favorites list for sure!
Saturday morning we headed out around 7:30. We had a gentle
breeze and gentle swells and it was a nice sail. Jim hooked a small (3 foot)
sail fish that we released. Martin got the controls worked out on the fly
bridge and drove from there. One of our goals was to use the fly bridge a bit
more for driving. We have two starboard docking stations (one forward and one
aft), and Martin prefers docking from them rather than the pilot house or fly
bridge. As a result, we haven’t been driving from the fly bridge much. Today
was a gorgeous to day to get it worked out.
Martin driving from
the fly bridge
We entered Georgetown via the southern entrance which we
hadn’t done before and snugged back in to Sand Dollar beach, right next to our
friends on Silver Spray. Now that we
were in range of a cell tower again we checked the weather and it seems the
storm is not going to be as bad as they thought but it’s going to be windy for
the next several days. So when weather permits, we’ll be heading north to sneak
into some new anchorages in the Exumas and run over to Eleuthera, a new island
for us. We’d like to see Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.
Seasick update. On the trip to Conception I wore a patch on
my upper arm rather than my neck. It didn’t fall off and it didn’t itch so that’s
a much better place. I still felt a bit ill in the rolling 3-foot beam swells
though when I tried to fold and put away laundry. On the way to Georgetown I
wore a patch again. We had very gentle following seas and I was in the pilot
house or fly bridge most of the time. I never felt sick which is a good thing given
the conditions we were in. I can’t imagine how much more productive I would be,
not to mention how much more pleasant an experience, if I didn’t get sea sick.
It makes me a bit jealous of more hardy folks who don’t have to deal with it!
Quilt update. I finished a project! This is a topper for the
guest room bedside table. I wanted to get it done before our guests come in
May.
Fish table topper
In place…
Boat Business:
- Engine hours. On our trip to Conception we tipped over 1000 hours on our main engine.
- 20 Generator alternator belt. Martin looked the gen during his pre-departure check at Conception and found the alternator belt was shredding. It’s the original belt so it lasted a long time - 832 hours. He replaced it before we left the anchorage.
- Addition to “must have” list for Bahamas: Glass bottom bucket. We made a small one and Jim brought a bigger one that he made. The bigger the better as you get a better view below. It’s a must have for searching snorkel spots in the dinghy.
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