2005 - The Year of the Lobster

January 6, 2005
By Tom

Friday, December 31, 2004 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas

Yet another day of weather imprisonment. We may never be able to leave.

There was suppose to be three local races today, but all we got was a half assed procession of four boats, one which broke before the start, one that actually sank during the race, and just one that was able to complete the two(yes two) grueling laps.

The other two races were postponed, officially due to weather concers, but secretly I think they were worried at having lost half of their racing teams in less than 4 miles.

We did manage to catch a few pictures of the racing fiasco from the bridge deck of the motor yacht Eldridge C. Jack and Evy were kind enough to allow us to watch from their boat, because they were much closer to the action.

This afternoon we went into the public beach where the locals were having a beach barbeque. Amy and I split a plate of ribs, peas, corn and rice as well as two Kalik's (pronounced ca-lick) which is the locally brewed beer.

Later in the evening was the Captains Happy Hour. This is suppose to be for the crews and captains of the boats racing in tommorow's cruising regatta, but everyone comes regardless. I think it may have something to do with the free rum punch that they serve.

Speaking of the regatta, we have entered the luxury yacht in the race. Unfortunately, we are the only multihull entered and we will be racing in a division by ourselves. Those keel boat weenies will piss and moan about how unfair it is if we go head to head. I like that they live under this delusion, because between you and me I don't know if we can beat some of them running around a race course.

Anyway, our entry is contingent on the wind dying down some. It's still blowing over 25 knots and thats too much to go out just for fun in. Even if we don't race, we got two tickets to the beach pig roast tommorow night and Amy got a t-shirt.

We were in bed by 8 pm, but we set the alarm for 11:45 pm so that we could get up and watch the fireworks display from the beach. All in all, I was pretty impressed. The Bahamians just disperse with those pesky rules we have back in the states as to where and when you can fire high explosives.

As a result, the leeward side of the anchorage came under a barrage of charred firework particles during the show. I don't think any permenant damage was done

Saturday, January 01, 2005 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas

Happy New Years!

Today was to be the day of the big race. I got the boat race ready and then joined the mass pre-race dinghy rush to Isles General Grocery, when we heard they had fresh veggies available from 8 - 10 am. There were more participants in this Veggie Race than there were in the actual sailing race. Hmm.

Post veggie gathering, our other crew member, Liz from Remedy showed up and we went out to the race course. We practiced tacking back and forth, just trying to get in synch with one another.

We had a full reef in the main and about 50% of the jib out and we were flying. The boat regularly went over 10 knots. In the end I decided there was too much wind for us to have any fun and we retired from the race before the start.

My racing resume does not look impressive, but at least my boat is in one piece.

The 6 other hull impaired vessels (monohulls) raced twice around a 5 miles course and Bruce on Distant Drummer was the big wiener.

Post race, several of the other boats secretly confessed that they broke various pieces of gear and I felt a little less like a wimp for pulling our entry. At the awards banquet, we still recieved our trophy bag full of goodies, so all in all we made out ok.

The weather is still not forcast to change from the howling winds we currently have, so tommorow we are going to move back over to Big Majors where we can at least fish on the banks and play on the beach.

Sunday, January 02, 2005 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas

I was up by 5 am this morning. Sun followed shortly and while Amy and the ferret dozed, I upped anchor, unfurled the head sail, and sailed out of the anchorage. My edstination was a whopping 3 miles away, back at Big Majors Cay.

30 minutes later I set the hook just off the northern most(and pig free) beach in time to catch the weather report from Blue Yonder. It sounds like we have a brief window of sub 25 knot opening up tommorow.

After the weather I made cinnamon muffins and started some bread. I am trying the bagget recipe and it takes like 8 hours of rising time, so it became an all day project. Once the bread was rising merrily on its own, I donned my wet suit and headed out to the shallow reef we fished the other day.

I found the usual cast of characters lounging about. I selected a tasty little morsel from the herd and began following him around. Just like Dorey in Finding Nemo, he eventually turned around right in my face as if to say "Hey! You want some of me? Leave me a lone bozo!". So I shot him in the head.

After boarding my new best friend, I went back to the fishing grounds and was able to lose two more fish off the end of my spear. I've had it with this spear tip.

Back on the mothership I filleted up my School Master and worked round two with my bread. Amy and the ferret were verticle by this time, so we hung out in the salon reading books and listening to the last day of football season.

Around 1 pm Amy decided we could go back out to the reef I was fishing and try again and if nothing else maybe get in a little swimming. Back into the wetsuit and out we went.

This time around I managed to shoot a fair sized Queen Trigger Fish as well as a large Margate. While we were swimming around, I saw a lobster hiding down near the bottom under a little rock.

I swam down to the space alien looking creature, crept to within 3 feet and then BLAMMO! I shot him too in the head. He wiggled and wiggled while I tried to pull and pull. Wiggle wiggle, pull, pull. Then SNAP!.

My spear broke loose and I was left with a little bit of lobster shell and one 18 inch long antenna. Damn you lobster! We kept searching for him and eventually Amy found him. I went down and stabbed him again only to repeat the afore mentioned struggle. This time he went so far back under the rock ledge, there was no getting to him.

Score one for the crustaceons. On the way back to the luxury yacht, I ran into Randy off of Procyon and he and Cherry and their dog Pepper are heading back to Miami tommorow, so he was willing to sell me his new, never used spear tip. Fish better start running.

After the brief trading session I filleted our two new friends and added them to the dinner menu. We cleaned up, cooked the bread and headed over to Eldridge C for cocktails and to look at their computer. Apparently, word has gotten out that I might know something about computers and this is the third one I've looked at now in as many days.

Computer work took about three hours, during which time we were snacking at the Eldridge C's, so the fish stayed in the refrigerator and we went to bed.

Monday, January 03, 2005 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas

We finally left Staniel Cay this morning. I broke down the dinghy while Amy tidyied up below. Once complete, we raised the sails and took off for Black Point Settlement, a whopping 12 miles away.

We had a brisk, but fast sail down and we were safely re-anchored by noon. After putting the boat to bed, we launched the dinghy and headed in to check out the town. Blackpoint is very much a real people town, as opposed to the some of the touristy towns that seem to be made soley for the purpose of entertaining Americans.

Blackpoint offers free trash as well as free RO water! My kind of town. We did a little shopping in the town store bringing home 6 potatoes and a 6 pack of 7 up.

Back on the mothership, we made potatoe skins with bacon in anticipation of our card game rematch with the Remedies. It was a much better game this time, mostly because Amy and I stomped the Remedies pretty badly :)

I am a sore winner.

The game ran long, so we decided to pass on dinner and we turned in by 9 pm. A very busy day indeed

Tuesday, January 04, 2005 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas

Today started with a run to town to get dish soap and more free water. The free water must be extricated from a tap who's sole purpose in life is to frustrate the people trying to get said water.

Once the water is forced out of its hidey hole, it is gathered in 5 gallon jerry jugs, which in turn must be dragged, pulled and floated down to the dinghy dock.

From the dinghy dock, it's a perilous 10 foot drop by rope down to the bobbing dinghy below. Upon completion of the dinghy loading process, it's a high speed ride through 3 foot chop back to the relative safety of the mothership and her 85 gallon main water tank.

All in all, it takes just over an hour to get 10 gallons safely stowed on board, but free is good and we like free.

After our morning water exercise, we loaded up the dinghy and collected one half of the Remedies (Liz only) to go spear fishing around the point of the little island we are currently on. We dropped the dinghy anchor in about 15 feet of water and commenced the hunt.

Liz and I hunted while Amy played forward observation post and called in the artillery strikes. We still only have one spear in our family. After about 10 minutes or so, I spied a large Schoolmaster hiding in some coral. I crept up on him and then BLAMMO! A direct hit. I did in fact sink his battleship.

The new spear tip I got from Randy has little side fins that open up after the spear part of the warhead passes through the fish, trapping the fishy bastard and preventing his escape. Those of you who have been reading a while may recall my struggles with the three pronged, pitch fork style tip that I have been using of late.

Anyway, the tip worked as advertised and I snagged a good 26 inch, 4 pound Schoolmaster. See supporting picture evidence, side right.

About 30 minutes later I took another, smaller Schoolmaster. Liz and I also chased around a flounder that Amy had spotted. He was much smarter than the average Schoolmaster and as such, he managed to elude us.

We got tired and cold, so we went back to our respective mother ships. We felt bad that Liz did not get any fish, so we took over some small Schoolmaster fillets. I hope they ate them.

Dinner consisted of mega-sized Schoolmaster on the grill and a fresh side salad. In bed before 8 pm, remember, we are lame.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005 - Rudder Cut Cay, , Exumas - By Amy

Blackpoint was filling up with migrants from Staniel Cay. I was almost glad a two-day weather window opened to head for George Town. I had a good time at Staniel, but it felt good to put some miles under the keel again. As nice a place a Blackpoint was, I couldn't imagine sitting there for two weeks while the coming weather front pushes through. Fleeing Blackpoint seemed particularly well-timed because we saw our nemesis (whom I will call "Shrek" due to his striking resemblence to an ogre) put his anchor down just as we were pulling ours up. I'm eager to get out of radio range so I don't need to listen to his pompous voice on the VHF all f&^$ing day long.

It was a good sail down to Big Farmer's, and then a short motor through a shallow path to Rudder Cut Cay. On the fishing front, the only thing we caught was ourselves. We forgot to wind in our lines before anchoring. Our new (and only) neighbors, Patti and John on Panacea, came by just in time to catch us trying to untangle ourselves. We were successful in saving our lures and in getting Panacea to stop by for cocktails. We have to rush around a bit to get the boat cleaned up and a munchie made before they come back

Thursday, January 06, 2005 - Lee Stocking Island, , Exumas - By Amy

Last night's happy hour with Patti and John off Panacea was good. They've been cruising the Caribbean for a long time, so they had good info and stories. We considered going hiking with them today, but the anchorage got rolly by morning, making us less willing to spend another night there.

We got underway toward Lee Stocking Island to stage for our brief jump outside to George Town tomorrow, when the winds are forecast to be 10 knots or below for the first time in like a month. It was a winding motor through the shallows. The big excitment came from hooking a long, skinny fish that fought like a tiger on the line. He was a Houndfish about three feet long and all teeth, so we threw him back. Simply too ugly to eat, no matter what the fish book says.

Bruce on Different Drummer, the big weiner at the Staniel Cay Cruising Regatta and lobster spearfisherman extraordinaire, gave us a call on the VHF to see if we wanted to go bug hunting. You mean, do we want to learn from the master and get a near guarantee of lobster dinner? Well duh.

We met up with Bruce at Leaf Cay. Since I remain spearless, I sent Thomas out alone. The boys were only gone about an hour or so and came back with four honkin' lobsters. Thomas scored the biggest lobster and was a partner in shooting another, so that makes a lobster for each of us!

We're now anchored at Lee Stocking Island, where the afternoon will be spent reliving the lobster-spearing glory. At five, we headed to Bruce's boat for a mega-lobster cook out and gorged ourselves on succelent garlic buttered lobster with rice and Thomas's fresh baked bread.

It doesn't get any better than this

Editors Note - Does anyone know if 2005 is the Chinese Year of the Lobster?