Spreading Fish Love or Conch on the Clothesline

March 9 - 15, 2008

Sunday, March 09, 2008 - Fishermans Anchorage, Water Cay, Jumentos
By Tom

I was up and online utilizing my almost finished Flotsam Weather Center 2.5 to pull down the latest published GFS weather model. Close analysis of said model revealed that the front predicted by weather dude stalled out last night about 50 miles north of here.

With the front stalling, I expected that the due east winds at 5 - 8 knots would continue through out the day so we quickly upped anchor, threw up the spinnaker, set the newly repaired auto pilot and took off towards Water Cay in the Jumentos.

We made our way west and then south at a heart stopping 4 knot average. Boo yaa!

The entire daylight portion of today (11.5 hours) was spent working our way to Water Cay in the northern Jumentos. We ran 4 fish whackers the whole way, but all we caught was a bunch of sea weed and a small 24 inch bar jack which was returned to the wild. Normally, I would have kept the aforementioned jack, but he hit right before we made the anchorage and I didn't want to bother trying to clean such a small fish while we were also trying to get the hook down. Color me lame.

Anyhow, the boat was safe and secure by 6:15 and by 7 we had some left overs for dinner. The wind backed to the north east by 9 pm the anchorage became a total roll fest. No sleep for Team Dream Catcher tonight.

Monday, March 10, 2008 - Buena Vista Cay, Jumentos
By Tom

Around midnight the wind went due north and built to 15 knots, which turned our anchorage quite rough. As soon as it was light enough to see, we upped anchor and set the main and genoa and screamed our way south.

We had 46 miles to cover today and we averaged an impressive 8.1 knots on the way down with a top speed of 9.6. I suspect we would have done a little better if we hadn't had to stop 8 times to deal with fish.

Of the 8 strikes, 1 got away and was never identified, 2 barracudas and 2 medium sized bar jacks were landed and then given their freedom and 2 mutton snappers (8 pound and 13 pound) and 1 yellow tail snapper (3 pounds) were added to the freezer.

We chased a 50 foot monohull all the way down, but never caught up to him. In all fareness, he had an hour head start on us and we arrived about 45 minutes behind him. Not too shabby considering we are only 36 feet long and our 8 pitstops on the way down.

We arrived off of Buena Vista Cay around 3:30 and we were both surprised to see not one, but two other PDQ 36's anchored here. Tisha Baby and Next Exit arrived earlier this morning from Ragged Island.

We had trouble getting the hook to hold and had to anchor three separate times to finally get it right, but eventually we got the boat settled in 10 feet of water several hundred yards off the beach. I donned my bozo deluxe outfit and swam out to inspect the anchor and a nearby reef.

The anchor was set fine and I was also able to procure two medium sized lobsters for dinner on the way back to the boat. So dinner was obviously grilled lobster, this time served with butter and a glass of house white wine. As soon as we finished dinner, we retired to our cabin to read and sleep. I made it to almost 7 pm before fading. How lame is that?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - Buena Vista Cay, Jumentos
By Tom

We launched the dinghy this morning and I took Amy in to the beach so she could do yoga. I then took the dinghy around the anchorage checking out the various coral heads scattered through out the harbour here.

Over the next 90 minutes, I shot three lobsters, one five pound Margate and one Yellow Jack. The last head I dove was near Tisha Baby and when I got back in to my dinghy Pam waved me over.

Amy and I met Pam and her husband last year in Georgetown. They have the same kind of boat as us although it is a number of years older than ours. Anyhow, Jupiter's Smile was also over at Tisha Baby and when they saw my catch, they started dropping subtle hints as to how much they would like some fresh fish.

I declined an offer of payment and instead decided to try and rack up some karma points by giving each boat a lobster tail and splitting the Margate between them. Amy tells me my place in heaven is now secure.

I picked up Amy from the beach and returned to the boat where we stowed our remaining fish and lobster tail. Amy made us a late breakfast of bacon, egg and cheesies. I spent the rest of the morning working in the cockpit doing minor boat repairs while Amy cleaned the kitchen.

In the early afternoon Amy took a nap and I read my book. Around 3 I decided to take a swim off the back of the boat. Just in case, I took my spear and lo and behold I found two more lobsters hanging out in 12 feet of water. I selected the larger of the two and made him my own.

Back on the mother ship I cleaned the lobster and started the grill. We had Tequila Lime Mutton Snapper with garlic crisps and half a lobster tail each. For the first time in a long while, dinner was a vegetable free affair. Oh yeah, doing the carnivore dance! Rock on carnivores.

After dinner we cleaned some dishes and watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back before turning in by 8:30

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Pass Cay, Duncantown, Ragged Island
By Tom

The anchorage got mega rolly over night and by first light (6:19), I had the engines running, the anchor up and the boat under way.

Our destination today was a whopping 12 miles to the south at the far end of Hog Cay. About an hour into our journey, George from Sequel called us on the VHF to tell us that they too were heading to Hog Cay.

We made plans to meet up for drinks and appetizers on Sequel at 6 this evening. By 10 am, we were in the southern anchorage at Hog and a few minutes later we had the hook down in 4 feet of water. We spent twenty minutes putting the boat to bed and then Amy opted to read to the weasels while I took my spear and patrolled the perimeter.

I swam a grid pattern about 500 yards in each direction before returning to the boat. I saw plenty of life, but opted not to shoot at anything as the median size was pretty small.

We hung out on the boat doing very little until 5:30 when we loaded up and headed over to Sequel. We were joined on Sequel by George and (wife) from Trumpeter (Bristol 45) along with our hosts George and Julie.

George off of Trumpeter is a UNC alumn while Amy is a Duke grad and they immediately fell into the UNC versus Duke debate while the rest of us munched down some delicious appetizers. George (Sequel) and I made plans to go hunting tomorrow at a couple of spots that have been productive for him in the past.

We had a good time sitting around and telling stories but by 8 pm we were ready to head home. We said our good byes and returned to the mother ship. We packed away the weasels and turned in by 8:45 without bothering with dinner

Thursday, March 13, 2008 - Pass Cay, Duncantown, Ragged Island
By Tom

This morning I was up at 5 am and playing with the weasels shortly there after. Today is Thursday, so in the ferret world it's hide stuff in Tom's wet suit day. True to form by 7 am the weasels had all of their toys spaced evenly inside my neoprene dive suit.

Unfortunately for them, I had to evict said toys shortly before 8 as George and I had a date out on the reef. I picked him up and we were in the water by 8:15. We started out on the north end of Hog Cay. The water was cold, but the seas were flat calm and the visibility was easily 100 feet if not more.

The first site we dove had impressive coral formations and lots of life. In thirty minutes of hunting I snagged two medium lobsters, a Hogfish and a conch. George added two lobsters of his own before we upped anchor and headed out the cut to do some ocean side hunting.

Our second site was in 20 - 25 feet of water and was mostly rocky outcrops as opposed to coral. In my experience, the rocky environs are almost always more conducive to lobstering than coral, so we dove in with high expectations.

We swam around for twenty minutes trying to find a suitable location. We covered a lot of ground but finally found where we wanted to be. Right off the bat I nailed a mega sized lobster that I had to shoot three times before he finally surrendered (don't ask). George swam back to the dinghy and moved it closer to our dive site. After re-anchoring us we both proceeded to score another two lobsters a piece.

As we were wrapping up and about to call it a day, I crossed paths with a nice sized Black Margate. I dove down and had him say hello to my little friend before George helped me load him into the dinghy. He ended up weighing in at an impressive 6.5 pounds and yielding 10 single servings. Final tally on the days hunt was 9 lobsters, 1 hogfish, 1 margate and 1 conch in three hours. Not too shabby.

I dropped George off and then returned home. Amy helped me process our catch and store it away for later use. After I cleaned up, we upped anchor and motored 1 mile around the end of Hog Cay and anchored just off the main harbour area outside of Duncantown.

Duncantown is the only inhabited place in the Ragged Islands. Town is sort of a stretch as there are fewer than 60 adults living full time on the island. The area is extremely poor and the people here have very little, but they are still welcoming of visiting boaters and treat us very well.

We dinghied in to the town dock with George and Julie from Sequel. They have been here several times and as such have a pretty good lay of the land. They introduced us to most of the islands inhabitants and we got invited in to several peoples homes.

One of those people was Pauline who is the island nurse. She greeted George and Julie as long time friends and immediately invited us all in to her living room to see her 12 hour old baby puppy dogs. They were born this morning between 6 and 8 am and there were 7 in all. Amy took several pictures of them as we spent the better part of an hour playing with them.

After dog visits, we met up with the island's water guy named Myron. Myron is in charge of turning on the faucet at the top of the hill that releases the islands RO water supply into the patch work system of pipes that connect the 40 or so structures on the island. The pipes are pretty old and have lots of holes, so they only turn the water on sporadically.

When it's on, everyone fills there cisterns or water tanks and then Myron shuts it back off. Both Sequel and us brought containers to grab some of the water and Myron was only to happy to help us fill up. We ended up scoring 30 gallons a piece which will go along way towards insuring we have plenty of water to make the trip back north. Thanks again Myron.

After water duty, we stopped at Maxine's which is the island grocery here. George had told us to bring a spoon with us an when we got to Maxine's we found out why. Maxine sells pints of strawberry ice cream and for the first time in like year, Amy and I scarfed some up. Mmmmm sweet nectar of life! (said in that shitty Australian accent)

We did a quick walk around the only road in town and saw the sites. Amy took several pictures along the way, including the one of all the conch hung out on the clothes line to dry. Apparently, this is what they do to the conch that are bound for resturaunts in Nassau and the U.S. that serve conch fritters. By dehyrating the ugly beasties this way, they can be stacked and boxed and they need no refrigeration to reach their destination. Of course now that I know this, I will never again order conch in any resturaunt. Ever.

We returned to the dinghy and began the long ride back to the big boat. I forgot to mention that the town is only accessible by dinghy and the ride from the anchorage is like 3 miles each way through a man made canal in the mangroves. It was kind of like the water ride at Disney world and I kept waiting on a fake Hippopotamus to pop out of the water or maybe a thirty foot alligator to jump from the nearby shore, but it was not to be.

Back on board the mother ship, we added our water to the big ship water tank and then fired up the grill to cook barbecued, bacon wrapped Mutton Snapper steaks for dinner. It was most excellent and there were no leftovers. After the sunset, we did some dishes and then retired to our cabin to read until 8 pm and bed time

Friday, March 14, 2008 - Hog Cay (south), Hog Cay, Jumentos
By Tom

This morning the weasels were up at 6 am begging for breakfast. I got them a couple of pieces of dried apricots and we settled in to the salon to listen to the weather dude. If your interested, today is supposed to be a light and variable wind day with lots of sunshine.

After some breakfast hash browns, Amy got her underwater camera out and we went out the cut into the ocean to do some diving. The first location we stopped out was very pretty, but before Amy could even get in the water, a large 6 foot reef shark came by to visit. I got out of the water and waited ten minutes or so and jumped back in, but again before Amy was even in the water he was back. Needless to say we decided to move on.

Spot number two turned out to be shark free and we spent an hour chasing lobsters and fish and generally just sort of screwing around. I found a Queen Trigger fish that wanted to play tag and proceeded to spend ten minutes alternately chasing and running from said fish and it was kind of funny.

So as not to make the trip out to the reef a total waste, I shot two large lobsters and picked up a huge 8 pound Mutton Snapper that Amy pointed out as it passed us by. Nice work team! See associated seafood pictures side right.

Back on the boat we cleaned out catch and showered off. Around noon we loaded up all our accumulated trash and headed in to town. Yesterday when we were in here we saw a community trash bin and asked if it was ok for us to use it. Pauline said it was and so we did.

While in town we were going to stop by Maxine's and score some ice cream, but George from Sequel beat us to it and he and Julie ate the last pint! Damn you George! We settled instead for a cold beer from the Ponderosa Restaurant and Bone Fishing Lodge.

We walked the main drag through town and up to the Batelco office where we stopped to admire the view. Twenty minutes later we returned to the dinghy dock and headed back to the mother ship. Once there, we upped anchor and motored the mile or so back up to Hog Cay. We dropped the hook in the same spot we were in two days ago and by 2 pm the boat was settled.

We whiled away the afternoon reading books and listening to the satellite radio and around 5 pm I lit the grill and cooked a lobster tail to go with the linguine Amy made and we had lobster linguine with bruschetta and fresh grated parmesian cheese for dinner. We were both hungry and there were no leftovers.

After dinner we shared a rum drink and played a best of five series of both Farkle (dice game) and Texas Hold-em poker. Amy won at dice 3-2 and I won at poker 3-2. To bed at the astonishingly late hour of 8:45

Saturday, March 15, 2008 - Hog Cay (south), Hog Cay, Jumentos
By Tom

George called just after the weather dude went off the air this morning to see if I would go hunting with him. We really didn't need the meat, but his wife doesn't like him to hunt alone (neither does mine), so I said I would go. He picked me up at 7:30 and by 7:45 we were out on the reef.

There was quite a bit of swell today which seems odd given the relative lack of wind we've had over the last couple of days. It was lumpy but not dangerous so we went out the cut and anchored the dinghy over some coral heads on the north east side of Hog Cay in about thirty feet of water.

Right off the bat I spotted a lobster while I was checking the set on our anchor. The anchor set was fine, so I changed direction to the right, added 5 degrees to the down planes, gave a quick flick of the fins and then whammo! One dive, one lobster. Who's your daddy? (Steve knows, I assure you).

We hunted for the better part of two hours moving the boat a couple of time to try different places. I ended the day with two lobsters, one 4 pound margate, one 2 pound hog fish, one 6 pound tiger grouper and one 1 pound yellow tail snapper. George scored two lobsters as well and also a small hog fish and a really nice 4 pound nassau grouper.

On the way back to my boat, we stopped by a sailboat that came in to the harbour late last night. George knew the people from this past summer when he and Julie sailed up the Saint Johns river in north eastern Canada. We spread a little fish love and the couple on the boat readily accepted my Margate. After a few minutes of chatting, George dropped me off on my boat and I set to cleaning the remainder of my catch.

The two lobsters were processed and stowed in the freezer along with the grouper and the hog fish. The yellow tail I gutted and scaled and the removed the head. We put him in the fridge just long enough to cool down and then cooked him up as a whole on the grill for lunch.

After lunch, I made three loaves of bread with help from the Amy unit. The bread was done by 4:30 and around 5 we took one loaf and headed into the beach where an impromptu pot luck was organized by one of the boats anchored here with us.

All seven boats attended and we made several new friends. After sunset we had a nice bonfire and cooked some hot dogs on sticks. We returned home around 8 and turned in shortly there after