It took us a day or two to get into the “swing” of the
Bahamas. To take it down a notch, get used to wearing a bathing suit every day,
swim off the boat, dingy commute over turquoise water, relax into island time -
yup it’s a tough adjustment (kidding!)
Martin enjoying a
swim off the boat
Wednesday morning we woke to a strange sight in the cockpit.
Somehow, a squid managed to jump in and die in there. I had no idea they could
jump so high – what a leap to have gotten that far in. The poor
thing squirted it’s ink in distress and it was a mess to clean up. Using it as
bait, Jim did manage to catch (and release) a little jack.
Squid on deck
Catch of the day
That day I aborted my dinghy training (priorities?)
when Gail called and asked if I’d like to go shelling with her, Brittany and Sharron.
We met on the beach and walked over to the east side of the island. They taught
me the ins and outs of sea glass hunting and introduced me to “sea beans”. Who
knew?
East side of Stocking Island
Sharron, Gail and me
Brittany enjoying a
beach swing
Approximate view from
the swing – not bad!
Martin coming to pick up the gals
Sharron even found a cool sea bean she calls a “hamburger”
and gave it to me along with 3 hearts. I have an impressive collection already!
I’m looking forward to my new hobby - it’s a great motivation for getting off
the boat, exploring and walking the gorgeous beaches.
Thursday afternoon we followed the Ivanhoe and Imagine crews
over to Splash on Great Exuma Island. It’s a great restaurant/bar that we’d
never been to before. There we met Andrew, a friend of Gail and Tokkie’s who
runs a business taking folks out snorkeling and adventuring in the Exumas.
On our way to Splash
I don’t think it
could be any more beautiful here
Ed also went over our guide book with Martin and Jim and
showed us their anchoring spots at Cat, Conception and Long Islands. Ed and
Sharron’s sailboat, Imagine, has a 6’6” draft which is just shy of ours, and they’ve
been traveling the Bahamas for several years. They know of some places where the
charts are off and the water is actually much deeper than charted. We’re so
grateful for their help. It’s always so much fun to make new friends and we
seem to meet the greatest folks cruising!
Imagine in the
morning
After lunch we stopped in town to pick up some bits for the
broken drawer, tried to find a 20amp breaker (see below) but failed to find
one, and picked up a few fresh food groceries. Then Martin and I had a swim
around the boat. I love it here so much…
Friday was an amazing day from start to finish. In the
morning we contacted Gayle & Bill on Spirosurpula. They had just arrived
back in Georgetown on Wednesday. We met them here last year and snorkeled with
them in Georgetown and up on Black Point. We set off late morning to go
snorkeling down near Foul Cay where there are mooring balls for the dinghys. We
hadn’t been in the water for more than 15 minutes when Gayle announced that
there was a very large, about 10-foot, hammerhead shark swimming with us. This
was a bit shocking because though we were at a cut, we hadn’t expected a fish
of that size to come onto the bank, over such a shallow reef. Well, we exited
the water pretty damn fast. At least I did – in a very calm,
non-splashing-please-don’t-eat-me kind of way. Jim decided to try to take a
photo and he got an amazing shot as it passed Right under him and was staring
at him as it did so. Eek!
Hammerhead eyeball “Hello
Jim” (photo by Jim)
Large fish! (photo by
Jim)
I actually never saw it, which is a good thing as I’m
terrified of sharks. I respect them and don’t want them harmed, I just don’t
want to swim with them…
So needless to say we headed back to another reef deeper
into the harbor where the fish were pretty and small.
File Fish
Spade Fish
Can you find the
puffer fish?
The colors are
beautiful
That afternoon Ed drove Sharron and I up to the north end of
Stocking Island and Sharron and I went beach combing. I now have a very
significant collection!
Shoe Tree
Sharron on the beach
Gratuitous gorgeous
beach shot
Osprey
We were happily surprised that afternoon when we saw our
friends Nigel & Hilary arrive on their N63, Silver Spray. It was a warm,
calm evening – perfect for a party - and we were thrilled to have everyone over
for happy hour aboard Blossom. This was our best day yet in the Bahamas.
Ed, Sharron, Bill,
Gayle, Nigel, Hilary, Martin
With so many friends in the harbor it was difficult to pick
up and head out on Saturday. The weather, however, was leaving us little
choice. Cold fronts are coming through about every week, bringing very high
winds with them. If we didn’t leave on Saturday we would have been weathered
into Georgetown until at least next Thursday and we want to explore new places
this month. So we headed out at 7am on for Cat Island to get there well before
the forecasted 25-30knot winds descended upon us. As soon as we set out we put
up our fishing lines and crossed our fingers we’d snag a mahi on the way across
the sound!
Sun rising over
Elizabeth Harbour - goodbye!
We left the harbor and entered the sound on very gentle
rolling swells. The sea had calmed down immensely from the big winds earlier in
the week. This trip I tried another new medicine to see my reaction. Now I can
confidently state that Dramamine, Bonine, Stugeron and Kwell all knock me on my
butt and are fabulous sleep aids. They are not, however, very useful if I want
to drive the boat. Next up is taking the drug the night before to see if I
sleep it off and am less tired the following day with the next dose (as
suggested by a Nordy owner who says this works for her).
The 51-mile trip to Cat Island was smooth and fairly uneventful
(especially for me – I slept through most of it). Our excitement came a few
miles from Cat Island when our fishing reel began to spin. Our first fish!!
Martin reeled in a gorgeous tuna with brilliant yellow fins. I wish I’d gotten a
better picture of the bright finlets but we wanted to release him as fast as we
could. Using our book, we think it was a yellow fin or big eye tuna. It was
pretty small, maybe 20 inches at most. So we threw him back to grow and spawn
many more tunas… I think I only have the heart to kill lionfish, the tuna
looked so scared I felt badly for it.
Martin workin’ it
Our first catch
We arrived around 2:30pm. There are two other boats in the
bay, a very small power boat and a sail boat. We crept in as close as we dare,
with 1.5 feet under us at almost low tide. We can’t get much more shallow than
this! We’re still about a quarter of a mile east of shore but the big winds will
be coming from the ENE so I think we’ll be snug. We even put the floppers down –
no easy feat with only a foot under your keel.
So here we are and here we’ll be for at least 4 days as the
front blows through and the seas calm down. From what we’ve heard, Cat Island is
very pretty and there are some interesting things to see on the island. If we’re in the lee close enough and it’s
calm enough we’d like to drop the dinghy and explore the island on the windy
days. This is about as far out as we’ve been on Blossom and as remote. Maybe
this means lots of sea glass and sea beans. Hm, I’m wondering if that means
there are lots of lion fish that need culling?
Boat Business:
- Drawer fix. Jim found some metal pieces in town and was able to properly fix the drawer so it’s usable once again without fear of it popping open.
- Fenders. Jim and I scrubbed off the billion dead critters on the bottom of our fenders. I had them too low in Key West so they were just in the water an inch or so. As our 18-foot beam was smooshed into a 19-foot wide slip, those fenders weren’t getting pulled up for love or money.
- Galley work around. We love Blossom but there is a very minor thing that has been bugging us from the get-go: you can’t make toast and tea/coffee at the same time without blowing a breaker. The guys came up with a plan to change out a breaker but alas, we can’t find one in Georgetown so it’ll have to wait. Until then, we’ll continue to forget and trip the breaker at least every other day. We seem to be extremely slow learners (in our defense, it does happen pre-coffee/tea, first thing in the morning).
- Marriage savers. One of our new Sena bluetooth headsets has died. Luckily we bought a spare pair of the Eartech headsets as well. We’ll have to return the broken one, it’s less than 3 months old so should be under warranty.
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