Casablanca is Still Casablanca in Spanish

March 3, 2005

Friday, February 25, 2005 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas
By Tom

We motored the 3 miles back down to Staniel Cay this morning. We dropped the hook right off the beach in about 4 feet of water.

Once settled, we motored into town to get propane and take care of a few phone calls. The buddy Fred is still trying to work out the details of getting down here to visit us. Right now it sounds like he may not be able to make it, but I'm not sure. We should know something in a day or two and then we can plan the remainder of our trip.

Speaking of our trip, we are going back to the U.S. this year. I think we'll probably stay in the Bahamas until end of April or so and then cross back over. We hope to get back up to the Chesapeake and see our family some before returning here next fall. At least thats the current plan.

We spent the remainder of the day doing boat chores and then in the evening, you guessed it, it was Hogfish for dinner. This time it was grilled butter and garlic hogfish with pineapples and rice. It was most excellent and by far our best hogfish recipe to date. I think there is only one meal left, so I may resume hunting tomorrow.

Tonight I watched Hackers for like the 10 th time and Amy read books. A swell started rolling through the anchorage after sundown and it is currently rocking us pretty bad. Looks like a long night for Team Dream Catcher.

Saturday, February 26, 2005 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas
By Tom

The swell from last night was pretty bad by this morning, so we upped anchor early and motored a whopping 1.5 miles in between Big and Little Majors Cay's. We found a nice settled place and dropped the hook in 10 feet of water.

After putting the boat back to bed, we had breakfast and did odd chores until about 11 when I decided to go snorkeling. Amy did not want to go, so I ended up going solo. I took my sling with me just in case, but I ended up not shooting at anything. Just as well, we are still trying to finish the hogfish from last week.

In the afternoon, we went into Staniel Cay Yacht Club to play pool and have a beer. The pool table turned out to be broken, so we only had beers. After some pleasant conversation with another cruiser, we returned to the boat for (surprise, uprise) a dinner of grilled Hogfish. It was a garlic and butter sauce mix this evening and it too was quite good

Sunday, February 27, 2005 - Pipe Creek, Rat Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to another swell filled anchorage this morning and for the second day in a row we were under way by 8 am. Amy didn't sleep well last night, so after we got the anchor up she retired her cabin to sleep while the ferret and I sailed.

Maggie drove while I navigated and trimmed the sails. She steers quite well for an 18 inch tall quadra-ped.

We had heard some people on the VHF radio this morning saying how nice and protected it was up in Pipe Creek, so we thought we'd give it a try. It took us about and hour and a half to get there under head sail alone. I could have made it in 30 minutes if I'd put up the main sail, but I am lame. Besides, it was nice just to get out and sail.

We arrived at the entrance to Pipe Creek, which is not a creek at all, but rather a series of smallish channels in between about 20 barrier islands and bank side islands. We picked a nice looking spot and anchored in 14 feet behind a Block Island 40 named Chessel.

We have met the Chessel's on a few occasions and we have some of the same friends. I took Ginny off of Chessel spear fishing one time with Liz off of Remedy. We didn't even shoot at a fish that day, so I felt kind of lame.

Once safely secured, Amy and I went out in search of seafood. Once we found a place without a 3 knot current, we jumped in and started shooting. I ended up with 6 fish, 2 Schoolmasters, 1 Red Hind, 1 Nassau Grouper and 2 Pigfish. Since we had plenty, we stopped by Chessel on the way back to our boat and gave them our largest Schoolmaster. They seemed grateful.

After cleaning the rest of the fish and indulging in our bi weekly shower event, we had the running of the ferrets. Maggie lost interest pretty quickly and spent most of her time either in the spinnaker bag or in the kitchen sink. While she was in the sink she accidentally turned on the water faucet and gave herself a bath, so she is now clean too.

Dinner tonight was a surf and turf combo of grilled garlic and butter Grouper fillets with a petite portion of rare sirloin served with fresh home made bread. After dinner Amy read and I surfed the internet. I may have failed to mention I was able to find another unprotected WI-FI spot here and have been making much use of it.

At 8:30 pm I had an internet chat with my family back home. It was good to hear from you all. Post chat I wasn't ready for bed so the ferret and I popped in the Casablanca DVD and for a change of pace listened to it in Spanish.

P.S. - Ingrid Bergman is not believable as a Spaniard

Monday, February 28, 2005 - Pipe Creek, Rat Cay, Exumas
By Tom

Another day hiding in Pipe Creek. The wind is coming out of the west now and there are very few anchorages with western protection, so we will be sitting right here until the weather comes around.

We spent the day on the boat doing various odds and ends and both of us put in a good three hours surfing the internet. Its funny how much you miss reliable internet access.

At some point today I got bored and took the dinghy to go spear fishing. I was reserving my shots for lobsters, but a nice looking Mutton Snapper happened by and I couldn't resist. Consequently, dinner tonight was grilled Mutton Snapper. I think Mutton Snappers might be Maggie's favorite.

We also had the Chessel's over for happy hour. Ginny and Jerry are retired artists and they are in their second year of cruising. Happy hour was interrupted when a large thunderstorm swept in. This is the first time it has thundered and lightninged since we have been in the Bahamas.

We battened down the hatches and went to bed early

Tuesday, March 01, 2005 - Pipe Creek, Rat Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The wind continues to blow from the wrong direction. I am told it never does this, but here we are in day 3 of west winds.

Let's see, today was pretty much like the last several days. Amy read. The ferret terrorized. I surfed the web. We went hunting.

Todays dinner menu includes Grilled Bar Jack with assorted fried fish fritters as an appetizer and your choice of canned pineapples or, well, canned pineapples. There is also fresh bread with fine New Zealand butter.

We almost had lobster for dinner. I say almost because when I tried to procure said lobster I was only able to get his antlers. Bastard! Score one for the crustaceans.

The wind is settling down and tomorrow we may try and run to Staniel Cay for a change of scenery and some supplies.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - Pipe Creek, Rat Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The weather finally let up enough to allow us to sail south 6 miles back to Staniel Cay. Staniel is the only place with supplies between here and Nassau and we needed to stock up.

We sailed from Pipe Creek down to Staniel under head sail alone at a stately pace of 4 knots. We ended up dropping the hook in between the Majors as it was still too rough to do so off of town. This made for a nice long and wet dinghy ride.

The mail boat came this morning so Isle's General had fresh veggies. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but shopping becomes a contact sport on the days that the supply ship comes in. We waded right into the melee and scored several colorful looking veggies and a few green leafy things as well.

After the grocery madness, Amy returned to the mother ship while I set about finding gas. Usually, it takes an act of god to get gas here, so I was shocked when it only took 30 minutes to fill up my two jerry cans. If anyone is interested, gasoline is now $3.85 a gallon.

Amy returned shortly and we retired to the bar for a beer and some bottles of gin before heading back to the boat. Once we had everything stored, we picked up the anchor and sailed back to the protection of Pipe Creek.

This evening we went over to the Chessel's for happy hour and dinner. The dinner was a mac and cheese type bread that I couldn't bring myself to eat although Amy said was very good. We enjoyed Ginny and Jerry's company and we didn't get home til almost 10.

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - Pipe Creek, Rat Cay, Exumas
By Tom

Today is supposed to be the calm before the storm. All radio sources are predicting doom and gloom for tomorrow.

We read and surfed the net this morning and then at noon we picked up Ginny and took her spear fishing with us. Suffice it to say that today was not her day. Truthfully none of us did great. I got one 20 inch Bar Jack and that was about it. I think the fish took today off.

We returned Ginny to her boat and since our fridge is still full of fish, we gave her the Bar Jack. Back on board we tied everything down and got the boat ready for a storm. Dinner was a relaxed affair of grissini's (bread sticks) and martini's. Hey, that rhymes.

Early to bed in order to be ready for the impending doom