Sailing Northward and Swimming in Fish

April 19 - 25, 2006

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas
By Tom

The west wind has finally gone back to the north east where it belongs, so we moved the big boat right off of the town at Staniel Cay. Don and Sandi moved too and their engine broke down twice in 15 minutes.

We think the problem is now isolated to the fuel pump and this afternoon, I swapped out their old one for a new. We had to make a trip into town for some extra fuel hose, but other than that it was a pretty easy installation. Will these damn engine problems ever stop?

Amy and I went in to the yacht club for a beer and free wi fi access. We exchanged email's and I uploaded two website updates. Just to give you an idea of what kind of fans we get on the website, I have included a recent fan mail submission. It follows now:

Hi guys.

So, my friend on a small Cape Dory says, "I'm gonna sell this and get a cat

to cruise on. Is that a good idea?"

I have a big fat mono hull schooner, so I think - 'don't waste anyone's time

with your opinions' - and instead think of you guys, so I say - "I know of a

young couple out there cruising on a sweet cat right now, and they run a

constant log! Let's check it out!"

You can see how excited I was.

Every day we check. No updates. He says to me, "Was there a storm over

there? Maybe they sank."

"No," I say, "no. The big ferret would make it to shore and update the log.

It must be pirates. We need to wait by the phone for a ransom demand. You

got any pieces of eight?"

"No," he says, "but I got these chocolate coins covered in gold foil."

So, here we wait, slowly eating your ransom and waiting for a call. We're

thinking of getting a phone but no one ever calls and they seem to fall in

the water a lot anyway.

Oh, a warning. . . . .Avoid seeing fat white Canadians in thongs - the image

that burns into your brain is seriously hard to erase and keeps re-entering

in busy city sidewalk traffic. It's a very bad thing and can result in neck

injury as you try to snap your face away from the offending apparition.

Good luck. Looking forward to updates. Will be out there myself in about

three months.

Ben (Hawkeye)

See the kind of following we attract? Amy says it's my fault and I might be chemically unbalanced, but I'm not so sure. Anyhow, thanks for the email Ben. Glad to see someone else has too much free time on their hands.

Dinner was another Amber Jack steak fiesta. This time it was served with barbecued potatoes and super secret fish sauce #3. Again, it was most delicious.

Thursday, April 20, 2006 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas
By Tom

Today was spent reprovisioning the fresh veggie selection on board Team Dream Catcher. Apparently and unbeknownst to me, we were running a serious shortage. We now have all manner of green type organic substance hanging en mass in our fruit hammock. The ferrets are most pleased.

In other news, the Anam Cara engine problems may be licked. They were able to motor the two miles around to the anchorage on the west side of Big Majors. Kick ass! Time will tell if the problem is truly fixed, but we are all hopeful.

After shopping this morning and a quick run in to the yacht club for internet and gas, we too moved around to the Big Majors anchorage. Around 4 pm or so, Don and I went ashore and gathered drift wood for a beach bonfire tonight.

After another dinner of, you guessed it Amber Jack, we all gathered on shore to watch the sun go down and then to we lit our bonfire. The wood burned out around 9 pm and we returned to our respective boats.

The weather is supposed to be good for sailing north tomorrow, so we are all prepared to head out at first light. Our tentative destination is somewhere near the Rocky Dundas's, a whopping 14 miles to the north

Friday, April 21, 2006 - Cambridge Cay, , Exumas
By Tom

We awoke at first light to grab the weather report and we were under way shortly there after. The Anam Cara's got a fifteen minute head start on us, but we quickly ran them down. We took some pictures of them as we passed.

We still have something like 18 meals of Amber Jack left, so I did not deploy the fish whackers today. We had about 15 knots of wind, but it was dead behind us. Our boat doesn't particularly like dead down wind and as such we ended up sailing under main sail alone.

With just the main sail out, we averaged a sedate 6.2 knots on our run up to the northern tip of Compass Cay. We anchored in the lee of the island, but we were very close to an ocean cut and as such, we had a considerable swell passing through the anchorage.

We had all decided last night that we wanted to dive the Rocky Dundas area, so we assembled our dinghies and dressed in our finest hunting attire. There was too much swell to really dive the area we wanted, but we did find a very pretty area of scrub coral that was well protected.

I saw several edible fish, but none were big enough to justify shooting while we still have a fridge full of fish. I did however find a slipper lobster hiding in about 25 feet and he is now residing in the frozen section on board the mother ship. Spiny lobsters are out of season, but the very rare Slipper is not. We've only had a Slipper once before and they taste even better than the normal Spiny Lobster.

Back from diving, both us and the Anam Cara's decided to move our boats two miles north to the more protected anchorage at Cambridge Cay. I'm glad we did as it was much less rolly. Don't forget, here at Team Dream Catcher, we are all about the comfort.

We had two different fish meals today. Lunch under way on the sail up here was broiled Amber Jack sandwiches and then dinner was Creole Blackened Jack on the grill with rice and pine apple wedges. Milo and Mila say they are getting tired of Jack. There are now only 6 meals left.

And finally, the Anam Cara engine worked for a combined 45 minutes today without any sign of failure. Don is too afraid to pronounce victory, but Sandi and I think we have beaten down the engine demons. Viva la engine!

Tomorrow we sail for Norman's Cay.

Saturday, April 22, 2006 - Normans Cay, West Anchorage, Exumas
By Tom

Another glorious sail. This is why we have sailboats. For an astonishing sixth day in a row, we had a great sail for the 29 miles up to Norman's Cay. As we are finally getting low on Amber Jack, I trolled both fish whackers all day, but all we caught were two barracudas. We aren't desperate enough to eat them right now.

Otto the autopilot drove the whole way today and we averaged 8.5 knots for the trip. We dropped the hook in four feet of water just off of Skipjack Point. Don and Sandi arrived about and hour after us. Around cocktail hour, they came over and together we polished off the last of Mr. Amber Jack in the form of 22, one inch square, flash seared, Caribbean "Tuna" bites. Most excellent.

We hung out together watching the sun set and darkness rise until around 9:30. It's nice having friends.

After they went home Amy and Mila went to bed and Milo and I sat in the cockpit and shared a double shot of 18 year old Scotch. FYI - We both take it on the straight on the rocks. Milo fell asleep in my lap hanging on to our drink and around midnight I put him to bed and turned in. Another day in paradise.

Sunday, April 23, 2006 - Normans Cay, West Anchorage, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to a beautiful calm morning without a cloud in the sky. Amy went into the beach to do her yoga thing while the ferrets and I had wrestle mania 43 in our bed room.

After a completely non-fish meal of breakfast tacos, I joined Don and Sandi to go hunting. Amy said she wasn't in the mood to kill anything and decided to stay home. You didn't hear it from me, but I think she is getting soft.

We hunted for about two hours and I ended up with four Nassau Groupers and one Lane Snapper, while Don got one Nassau and one Lane respectively. Back on our boat, Don assisted while I filleted our catch.

In the afternoon a few other boats showed up in our anchorage. One of them, The Saint, stopped by and invited us to a beach bonfire this evening. I'm not sure if we'll go or not.

In the afternoon, I tried to catch a shark with one of the fish carcasses from our earlier hunting expedition. I managed to hook one up, but after about five minutes of fighting, he shredded my steel leader.

I re-rigged and tried again. About an hour later I got another one on the line and after twenty five minutes of fighting I was able to land a six and a half foot, 90 pound Nurse Shark. We had hoped to get one in the three foot length so that we could keep him, but this guy was just too damn big and as such, I returned him to the wild after he admitted defeat. It was pretty cool just to catch something that size.

After the shark encounter, we had a dinner of pressure cooked lobster and barbecued potato wedges. Very tasty indeed. The lobster turned out to be so big that the two of us couldn't eat the whole thing, so we now have left over lobster for breakfast.

In the end, we did go in to the beach bonfire. We met four new cruising couples and we had an ok time. The people were a little weird and we ended up talking almost exclusively to Don and Sandi for the hour we were there. Oh well

Monday, April 24, 2006 - Normans Key, South Anchorage, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to another beautiful day with the winds out of the south at less then 10 knots. After the running of the ferrets, Amy and I joined Don and Sandi for a little spear fishing.

We dinghied out to the reef, then dropped our anchor. I was the first one into the water and no kidding before the others even got their fins on I scored two huge fish. The first was a four pound White Margate and the second was a four pound Nassau Grouper.

I think I had the rest of the group convinced that I am the expert fisherman. Amy, Don, and Sandi eventually got in the water, but we didn't shoot anything else for the remainder of the hunt.

I cleaned both of my fish when we returned to the boat and then both we and the Anam Cara's motored into the south anchorage here at Normans. By moving here, we are now positioned to jump out the cut at first light tomorrow for the sail over to Rock Sound in Eleuthera.

Later, Don and Sandi came over for a grilled Grouper dinner with fried potatoes and broccoli. I did not partake of the broccoli. Early to bed in anticipation of an early departure

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

We upped anchor with the rising sun and set out through the cut. Our destination today was Rock Sound over in Eleuthera, some 40 miles away.

We deployed both fish whackers and raised our sails. We made it about 200 feet when the bolt that holds the main sheet pulley to the traveler broke in two.

Shitty Death!

This allowed our mainsail to go flying out towards the side of the boat. I quickly lassoed said sail and spent the next half hour fixing the problem during which time Amy moved us onward with just the head sail.

Repair made we quickly passed the Anam Cara's and averaged six or seven knots across the Exuma Sound. Land appeared on the horizon just where it should have and we dropped anchor in five feet of water after a nice six hour sail.

As it was still early afternoon, I assembled the dinghy and raced in to town to score some beer. The ferrets are now much happier.

For those of you keeping score at home, we caught three barracuda today. We still have plenty of fish in the freezer so the barracuda were returned to the wild. Anam Cara showed up about two hours after us and they reported catching no fish. More to follow.