Drowning Barracuda

December 26, 2006

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Merry Christmas and welcome to the holiday season!

The past week saw Team Dream Catcher actually leave the harbour. Of course it was for a whopping 28 hours, but at least we amassed enough energy to leave which is more than 98 percent of the other boats here do at Camp Georgetown.

The plan was to take a nice 4 day window of settled weather and head down to the Jumentos for some serious fishing and beach combing with Ollie and Pam on Dejarlo, George and Julie of Sequel and also Willis and Kathy on Whispering Winds.

We left anchor under sail and averaged a stately 5 knots as we worked our way down the harbour and out the south entrance. We got into open water and deployed our full fish whacking arsenal for the 14 mile ride down to the cut at Hog Cay.

Thirty minutes in to the trip we caught a nice 5 or 6 pound Jack, but we couldn't determine if it was the "excellent tasting" Yellow Jack or the "cigutera poison fish from hell" Horse Eyed Jack and faced with this uncertainty we returned said fish to the wild.

An hour later a different line started peeling off and I leapt up to fight the good fight while Amy slowed the boat down. The seas were rocking at solid 4 and 5 footers and it took quite a bit of effort to land the fish. It turned out to be a 6 foot plus, 20 pound barracuda.

It starts getting a little foggy at this point .....

The fish had at least 18 inches of teeth at the head of his body, so I wisely requested my needle nosed pliers from below. Unfortunately, as our auto pilot is in the between stages of repair, I had to drive the boat while Amy was searching below.

Then, suddenly out of no where a giant rogue wave appeared on the horizon! It was a huge, lumbering monster that blotted out the sun as it swept towards us. I knew escape was not possible, so I rounded up to take the wave head on. The wave roared closer! Thirty Feet! Twenty Feet! Ten FEET !!!!

"AAAHHHHHHH !!!!!" I cried. "Brace for impact! Full impulse power Scotty!"

The boat raced up the face of the rolling behemoth and plunged off the top into the chasm below! Down and down we fell until we re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the bottom of the next wave.

Sometime during this wild ride the barracuda (you remember him right?) managed to crawl up out of the cockpit, across the deck, out to the pulpit and then down the four stairs leading to water.

Doubtlessly, the fish thought he had secured his freedom with these cunning maneuvers, but unfortunately for him I had yet remove the lure from his mouth. The lure, in turn, was still connected to the fishing rod which up till now, had been laying on the cockpit table. Perhaps you are beginning to see his dilemma?

I watched the rod follow the escaping fish down into the water and I think both the fish and I realized at the same time that we were both going to come away losers on this deal. My beloved, 7 year old fish whacker entered the ocean with a splash and very quickly began to pull the panic stricken fish down towards the ocean floor.

The fish and I had only seconds to share a parting glimpse before he disappeared into the murky depths, lost forever ......

We now rejoin reality already in progress.....

Needless to say, this little fishing escapade left me less then pleased. Somehow "Shitty Death!" just didn't do the situation justice and sensing my foul mood, Amy wisely stayed below with the ferrets for the next 30 minutes.

We arrived at the cut to Hog Cay and the winds which were forecast to be 10 - 15 increased to 20 - 25. We shot through the cut and crossed over onto the bank side. With our forecast obviously in error, we decided to tuck up behind Hog Cay for the night and get a new forecast in the morning.

Dejarlo and Whistling Winds did likewise and Sequel decided to press on. As the sun went down, rain showers moved in and stayed with us all night with accompanying 25 - 30 knot winds. By morning the rain had stopped, but the latest forecast showed high winds for the next several days and the Jumentos are not a comfortable place to stay in anything over about 10 knots.

We decided to take the wind and sail back to Georgetown while our buddy boats decided to motor over to Long Island and rent a car to tour the island. We sailed back to the harbour averaging 8.5 knots dragging our remaining three fish whackers to no avail. We had our hook down off of Hamburger Beach by 3 pm.

Other than our brief trip out, things have been pretty quiet. Christmas Eve I got tricked in to going to a beach bonfire happy hour thing. I say tricked because I repeatedly asked the organizer's if it was going to be some kind of Christian sing along mumbo jumbo and they said no. When I got there, 150 people or so were standing around the fire singing Christ's Holiday Classics. I had indeed been had!

I stood a way from the group in the shadows of a palm tree and tried to think happy thoughts until the singing was over. It's not that I am anti-God or anything, it's just that I am anti-Organized religion.

Of course as I was standing under my palm tree I watched two python snakes (5 footers) work their way up another tree nearer the congregation. I couldn't help but think how funny it would be if one of them dropped down on some poor unsuspecting Christian worshiper, but it didn't happen.

Christmas day we had a potluck affair up at St. Francis that was well attended and went really smoothly until one of the cruisers tried to burn down the kitchen. I can safely assure you that I wasn't involved nor was I anywhere near the incident as I was working the beer stand at the front door. "Get your beer here!"

Other than some smoke damage and a burned out temperature regulator there was no permanent damage done. George and Jillian (the owners) were pretty decent about it and just kind of shrugged it off.

Santa did not bring me a replacement fish whacker despite the note I wrote and the landing lights I left on in the cockpit. Milo says if he sees a jolly, fat, red guy with a beard on the beach, he is gonna kick his large, over sized ass! Maybe an elf or two too!

Anyway, New Year's is just around the corner and we are planning some sort of get together, but as of yet I haven't figured out what. Thanks for checking in and stay tuned! Hope you and yours have a good holiday and we'll see you in the new year.

P.S. - Troy had Helen (of Troy - what a coincidence) and the face that launched a thousand ships. We here in Georgetown have Arlene, the face that has opened a million Kalik's. See Arlene, first picture, side right.