Bahamian Groupies and The Cost of Education

December 9, 2004
By Me

Friday, December 03, 2004 - Little Harbour, Abacos, Bahamas

Today, I got a close look at the "other side of cruising." Thomas and I always laugh at how perfect everyone assumes our lives must be. And in many ways, they are. But as we always tell people, there are negatives.

Like washing essentially every piece of clothing I own by hand. I know Thomas did his a couple days ago with little fuss. But even if I'm a cruiser, I am still a girl; therefore 1) I own more clothes than he does; and 2) I'm fussier about how clean they are. My adventure in hand washing took about two hours. I found that I actually own more items than we have clothes pins, so I impressed our neighbors by tossing all my soggy fashions all over the front deck. After I'd finished, the bright, sunny day that had inspired me faded to dark cloudiness, and nothing dried by sundown.

Having no other options, I wore a soggy pair of pants to Pete's pub for drinks. We met an American doctor there who now works out of Marsh Harbour. It was crazy to hear about how the health system works here. Not too many U.S. doctors could order a chest X-ray, set up the machine, take the X-ray, and read it without any help. Or personally negotiate with air traffic control to get a patient flown out in an emergency.

Thomas wants it on record that he caught fish today. Fishing with leftover bacon from breakfast, he caught a Saucereye Porgy of a small variety, which gave its life to the cause of fishing. His parts yielded a Margate, also small, which was chopped up for fish fingers. We did not eat them today; instead we went with leftover steak, leftover bread made into garlic crisps, and scary veggies (zucchini) that only I would touch.

There literally is nothing in Little Harbour but Pete's Pub. No grocery store, no trash facilities, no other bar or restaurant, nothing but some private homes and an amazing beach. Thomas seems bored, so we'll probably head out soon

Saturday, December 04, 2004 - Royal Island, Eleuthra, Bahamas

The day had an exciting start with a near-catching of a very large bill fish. We had exited Little Harbour and made it through the cut out into the ocean without incident. Our selected lures were pink squid, which had been recommended by an old dude in Ocean City, MD, and the "whore lure," a fuchsia and black squid lure that boasts a matching fuchsia feather-thingy that looks like a feather boa. Thus the name. (I guess if we find a scantily clad woman of loose morals dangling from it, we'll know it works.)

The bill fish selected the pink squid, and was very determined in catching it. We heard something strike, but nothing was on the line. That happened twice, and we noticed the fish was speeding after our boat. Finally, he downed the pink squid. In our excitement and general lack of bill fish catching experience, Thomas tightened the drag down too far and the bill fish snapped the line with ease. Still, he continued thrashing about, probably trying to get the hook out of his lip. He was huge, and really angry. It's too bad he got away, because he very well have been a swordfish. He kinda looked like the picture in the book.

The rest of the day was not nearly as exciting. We motored and motor-sailed with the jib out until we got to Royal Island off Eleuthra. The anchorage here is pretty cool. You go through a very narrow cut into a nice lagoon. We are now tucked in safely, munching on mini fish nugget appetizer from the little fishy Thomas caught yesterday, and debating the merits of our dinner options. Tacos usually wins out with Thomas

Sunday, December 05, 2004 - Spanish Wells, St Georges Cay, Bahamas

Motored the six miles from the Royal Island anchorage to Spanish Wells. The book marked numerous anchorages but there weren't any boats around. Closest to the town is a small mooring field. The book marks it as an anchorage, but there isn't really room to cram a boat in here among the moorings. We decided to grab a mooring and check out the area.

We dinghied over to meet our neighbors, Mike, Brigitte, and their four year-old daughter, Amy. They actually left their boat anchored here through hurricane season and it actually made it through unscathed. Pretty amazing given how much damage was done in the area. Word is there were 100+ MPH winds for 30 hours here. We were pleased to meet someone in our general age bracket and invited them for happy hour this evening.

It's Sunday and nearly nothing is open, but we ventured into town anyway. It's a cute, with the usual assortment of brightly colored houses. They seem to be really into Christmas, judging by the lawn displays. Mike had recommended GAP as a little cafe that actually stays open on Sunday. Church must have let out right after we got in there because it got packed. Food wasn't amazing, but it's been a little while since we've had chicken wings and cheesy fries.

We returned to prepare for happy hour. Tom and Jean stopped by. They have a trawler in the mooring field and also own a house on the island. Having been cruisers themselves, they are the informal welcoming committee for the island and wanted to see if we needed anything.

We invited Tom and Jean to stay, and Mike, Brigitte, and Amy soon showed up. Red wine all around, except for Amy, who had orange juice. Thomas served quesadillas. Amy alternately watched Tom cook and watched Maggie in her hammock. The ferret is a big hit with children. Amy was among the most adorable, well-behaved four year-olds I've ever met. We really enjoyed hanging out with her parents, too. He's English, she's a Kiwi, and they have a house in Spain and a boat in the Bahamas. Cool.

Monday, December 06, 2004 - Spanish Wells, St Georges Cay, Bahamas

It was a pretty quiet morning. Thomas made blueberry muffins, but they didn't turn out right. We had to throw them away. The SSB project went better; we successfully tuned in the 11 AM weather forecast.

The afternoon goal was fish. Spanish Wells is near "the Devil's Backbone," an array of reefs. It was rough, but we selected a nearby reef and went in for recon. There were plenty of fish, so we returned to the dinghy to get the spears. Unfortunately, I cut my knee open climbing back into the dinghy. We didn't want the scent of blood to draw predators, so it was time-out for the Amies. Thomas hunted by himself while I had his six from the dinghy. Several shots yielded no direct hits, and the fish soon became wise to our presence. They wouldn't come out to play anymore.

Fishless, we headed back to the mother ship to change and then into town. We swapped books at Tom and Jean's house (they run their own book swap for cruisers) then on to the GAP to get our quota of grease. Today was onion rings and cheese stix. We had homemade pizza for dinner, so it was a junk food kinda day followed by a quiet evening reading books and listening to Monday night football on the satellite radio

Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - Current Settlement, Eleuthra, Bahamas

The wind was blowing hard enough that it would likely be too rough to take the dinghy out to the reef, so we decided to head south while we could sail. We did an 11 mile jump under head sail alone and made good speed down to current cut.

The evil catamaran (people who ran their generator all night for two nights in a row back in Little Harbour) was trailing us, and I was very relieved to see that they went through the cut and out to the other side.

We won't have to listen to their generator. Unfortunately for them, the winds coming from the southeast should give them a rough ride tonight, while we'll be happy with our east protection. Maggie says they are morons. We don't like morons.

We had mega-excitement on the fishing front today. While sailing down here we had a good strike on green squid. We doused the sail and I got up to fight the fish. After about 10 minutes of battling, we landed a 22 inches, 2 pounds Bar Jack which is a new species for us.

I will call him my squishy and he will be my swishy. (Nemo reference). I gave him the knife to the forehead, and now he will make a good meal or two.

We have been out of VHF weather range since the Abacos and today was the second day in a row out of the 100+ we have been gone that I actually got up and snagged the weather broadcast off of the single side band radio.

Remember, I am lame.

Any way, after getting the anchor down in Current Settlement, we went in to town. It was very quiet and we saw only two living souls in the entire place, one of which was a chicken. Wish I had brought my pole spear.

The only store in town was closed. Without much to keep us occupied there, we headed back to the mother ship for (and without spearing a free range chicken) our last bourbon chicken with rice dinner. E gads!!! We are out of frozen hens!!!! Send more chicken mom

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - Ship Channel Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

The whore lure (red and black rubber squid wearing gold mascara and a pink feather boa) strikes again. It was a good day of fishing, beginning almost immediately with a 24-inch Yellow Jack, about 1.5 pounds, who yielded some pretty white fillets. We lost fish #2, which bit on a white bucktail lure, then caught another Jack (a Bar Jack), but smaller, again on the whore lure. With ample fish in the larder, he was returned to the wild.

Later in the day, we began wrestling with barracudas. The first one was the worst. A good four-foot monster, at least 25 pounds in weight. I swear 5 pounds of that was teeth. He had hold of the whore lure, and we didn't want the evil bastard to keep such a high-performing piece of our fish whacking equipment.

Thomas got the honors of heaving the ugly thing on deck, covering him with a towel, and wrestling our lure free with a long set of channel locks. It took about 5 minutes, but the lure was recovered and the fish was dumped back in. It was good to see him swim off despite our some what unkind treatment of him.

We went on to catch 2 more Barry's (barracudas) both about 3 feet in length and between 10 and 15 pounds. The last of which thrashed the white bucktail lure ("bucky" - all of our lures have names) so badly that Thomas has had to be put it in the garage for repairs. It is nearly bent in half.

The sailing was almost as exciting as the fishing. We motored through Current Channel, and true to its name, there was quite a current running, plus some submerged rocks to avoid for good measure. It reminded me of being in Alaska. After that though, it was a great sial the whole way down.

Later, we got to play war games, dodging land mines across the edge of the yellow banks. Ok, they were really coral heads, but the end result of hitting one would be similar to a land mine. It wasn't quite as sunny a day as we had hoped for spotting these little mounds, but we managed to get by them and drove in zigzags for 10-15 miles.

We made it to the Exumas when a slight rain shower was rolling in, so we ducked in to Ship Channel Cay for the evening. We'll be sailing the last 5 miles to Allans Cay tomorrow morning, where I will be spending my birthday trying to make friends with the iguanas there.

Thomas made dinner of fresh grilled Bar Jack steaks with rice and pineapples and then it was early to bed

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - Allens Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

We got up early this morning because the boat was rolling pretty hard. Our anchorage for last night was pretty exposed and by sun up, large swells were sneaking around the island we were hiding behind.

We sailed off of our anchor and averaged something like 8.5 knots for our 6 miles journey down to Allen's Cay. Allens is supposed to be a well protected, deserted island that is home to an indigenous population of large lizards.

Today is also Amy's birthday. Happy birthday to her. You didn't hear it form me, but she is now officially in her 30's.

I made birthday breakfast once we got the hook down. It was fried eggs, toast and hash browns. There are about 10 other boats anchored here and we were visited by several of them during the day.

Around noon or so, we piled into the dinghy and headed out onto the grassy banks about 2 miles away. We donned our snorkeling gear and headed in.

The usual cast of fishy characters were present. Amy spotted a Grouper hiding in a rock and I moved in for the kill. Our less blood thirsty readers may want to skip the next several paragraphs.

The fish in question, we will call him Bob, appeared to be an 18 inch,1 - 1 1/2 pound Nassau Grouper. Weeks ago Amy and I both committed to memory the stats on the most edible of reef fishes, and Bob is 2nd highest on the list. (Behind the Hogfish)

Bob was holding position warily and trying to be as small as possible. No doubt he was trying to find his happy place. Stealthily as possible I glided past Bob's cave like house, once, twice, three times trying to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. This seemed to relax him, and he inched closer to the door.

On the fourth pass, I rolled over onto my back, cocked my pole spear and shot at Bob from a range of 6 feet. Much to Bob and mines' surprise the spear tip blew right through poor old Bob's head. I don't think he was as impressed as I was.

YAHOO ! FIRST BLOOD!

I surfaced next to the dinghy with Bob hanging limply on the end of my spear and Amy put him in our anchor bag for transport. We swam around a bit longer and I got another shot off at a Yellowtail Snapper, but he was much faster on the draw and thus he will not be joining us for dinner.

Back on the mother ship I was cleaning Bob when a Bahamian in a 20 foot whaler came by trying to sell some lobsters he had caught early in the day. It being Amy's birthday and all, I got suckered in to buying a huge honking lobster. It cost $20 (ouch), but the guy was nice enough to show me how to clean the things so that when we shoot our own, we will be prepared.

Apparently, the price of education is pretty steep here as it is in the U.S.

With dinner secured, we stopped over at our neighbors (name here) for a happy hour get together they had invited us to. I brought some Grissini's (bread sticks) that I made earlier and they were a big hit.

Afterwards it was back to the mother ship for a steamed lobster dinner and then bed.

P.S. - The birthday lobster was 3 1/2 feet long and the tail section was probably 2 pounds. We have leftover's