Sailing Buddies or Ciguatera Toxin Testers

April 26 - May 2, 2006

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

We stayed in Rock Sound today. Around noon, we went into town to get groceries and rum. The Anam Cara's also needed groceries and rum.

While we were in town we hiked out to the Ocean Hole, which looks just like a pond to me, but is supposed to be way cooler. After the Hole experience, we stopped at the Batelco office and made calls back to our parents in the U.S.

We mostly just hung out on the boat reading this afternoon. Around happy hour Don and Sandi came over and so did Neil and Elizabeth (Act III) for cocktails and snacks. I made soft pretzels and Neil made Mahi fingers. Don was lame and only made popcorn.

Happy hour lasted three and every left around 8 pm. Amy and I played with the ferrets and then went to bed

Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

The wind picked up during the night and moved around to the north west, leaving us exposed and in a rolly anchorage. We picked up the anchor at first light and motored over to the other side of the harbour.

We had good protection, but we didn't really have good feelings about the anchor holding as we were anchored in and among rock and hard packed marl. In the end, we spent the daylight hours anchored on the west side and then moved back to where we started before the sun went down.

Other than that, there wasn't a lot to report. The weather forecast looks like we will be stuck here for several days if we want to sail. As neither we, nor Anam Cara has (A) enough fuel to motor to Spanish Wells, or (B) any reason to hurry home, we will be waiting for more favorables winds.

I spent most of the day watching movies and playing with the ferrets. Amy worked with her computer. For dinner I fixed pan seared, Italian style Mahi-Mahi (fish) steaks.

Man what I wouldn't give for a cow

Friday, April 28, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

The wind went away over night and we awoke to a flat calm. After breakfast waffles and the running of the ferrets, we took our computers and went into Dingles all in one gas station, grocery store, car rental and wi-fi cafe to get our email's and update our website.

Done computing, we hiked out of town to Sam's Place. We had intended to have a burger or something, but the only food they were cooking today was three different kinds of fish. No thanks.

Instead, we sat at the counter and had a couple of beers and people watched. Later, we headed back into town and hit the grocery store for various items. We also swung by the liquor store and replenished our supply of rum.

Back on the boat, we checked the weather broadcast and decided to move our boat up into the northern end of the anchorage in anticipation of the wind blowing 25 tonight and tomorrow. We were the only boat out of seven to do this, so maybe the weather isn't going to be too bad.

We spent the rest of the day reading books and doing odd chores around the boat. I had Amy help me replace the line on both fish whackers. I have found that our line is only good for about 3 months down here before it starts to rot in the sun. I find this odd considering that I have covers for both rods and reels and we religiously put them on. Hmm.

For dinner we cooked up the last of our Mahi Mahi. I may not have mentioned it, but Neal off of Act III dropped of some Mahi fillets that he said they were not going to be able to eat before they went bad. We in turn split these with the Anam Cara's so it would all get eaten. Anyhow, for desert Amy made brownies

Saturday, April 29, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

The wind showed up as advertised last night around midnight. In light of our preemptive move to better protection, we now look like rock stars while the other six boats in the harbour are rocking and rolling all over the place. Who's your daddy?

The wind kept us boat bound for the day. I washed the cockpit out and Amy cleaned both the kitchen and the bathroom. I think we are both getting bored here in Rock Sound. Don't get me wrong, its very nice and the people are super friendly, but there isn't anything to do. The beaches are really inaccessible and since we've been here the water hasn't had more than three feet of visibility. Kind of weird.

Chris the weather dude says maybe Monday we will have winds from somewhere other than north so maybe we can leave

Sunday, April 30, 2006 - Rock Sound, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
By Tom

No such luck, we're still here! Let my people go free!

Ok, today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. It was too rough to get to the pseudo dinghy dock and the Anam Cara's are anchored too far away to visit, so here we sit.

I was so bored today that I read three books. Amy read one and Milo ate two.

We are anchored right off the runway of the airport here and for those interested I can confirm all three flights arrived and departed on time today. The Bahamas Air airplane sounds like its running a little rich on engine number two though. Someone call the FAA.

We actually had a dinner tonight which involved no fish or any other creature that may have inhabited a marine environment at some point in its life, spaghetti. For those of you counting along at home, that's fifteen meals in a row of fish. Yum.

I tried to listen to the Nascar race from Talladega today, but it was rained out. We listened to the Philadelphia versus Buffalo hockey play off game. The Buffaloes (?) won. Damn you herd animals!

It sounds like we can get out of here tomorrow. I think if the window is even remotely open, we'll jump

Monday, May 01, 2006 - Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera, Eleuthera
By Tom

Greetings and welcome to May.

We left in the company of Anam Cara and Act III this morning around 7:30. The wind isn't perfect for sailing northward today, but I think I might have killed someone if we had to stay in Rock Sound any longer.

Act III decided to go on to Current Island, some 35 miles away. We opted to stick with Governor's Harbour because we could sail there and Anam Cara stopped short for the night at the Pelican Cays. Oh well, we'll catch up with them tomorrow.

We ran under full sail and tacked our way in to the anchorage. There was a pretty nasty swell running today, but when we tucked in behind Cupid's Cay we were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice and calm anchorage with excellent protection for the prevailing weather.

On the trip up here we caught five barracuda, all of which were returned to the wild. The barracuda managed to destroy three of my fish lures in the process. Damn you Barry! (Barries?)

The town here is very nice. We dinghied in and dropped off trash as well as picked up a nice bottle of wine for dinner. Shopping completed, we went over to the local bar hang out and I got to watch the rain delayed race from yesterday which was kind of cool.

Afterwards, we walked around a little more before returning to the boat. Around 6 pm or so, Dick and Jane (no kidding) off of Cheetah II invited us to hang out with them and two other boats for happy hour. We went over and met the people off of Nonlinear and Barefootin'.

Happy hour lasted til 10:30 pm and we went to bed without any supper

Tuesday, May 02, 2006 - Current Settlement, Current Settlement, Eleuthra
By Tom

What a sail! We left out of Governor's Harbour and sailed the thirty miles up to Current Settlement which is oddly enough on Current Island. Go figure.

We had a great run across the banks of Eleuthera and got in to the anchorage around 2 pm. We anchored behind a large sand bank right off of the town. There is a monster current running through here, but the holding is excellent and we had no problem getting tucked in.

On the trip up here, we had seven different fish strikes. We only landed four of those, three were Barracudas and one was half of a Cero Mackerel. We suspect a shark got the other half as fish generally do not come without a tail, but neither one of us saw it so we can only hypothesize.

We ended up keeping one four pound, thirty inch barracuda as we are currently fishless in the frozen section of our onboard grocery.

The Anam Cara's joined us in the anchorage around 4 pm and we all got together for happy hour on board Dream Catcher. I was lame and made no appetizer, but Don brought this pepperoni stick stuff that he got down in the Dominican Republic. It was very good and reminded me of Venison Sausage.

I pawned off half of the barracuda fillets to Don and Sandi. They think it's because I was being nice, but secretly I was using them as Ciguatera Toxin Testers. I figure if they die over night, I won't eat the other half, but if Don shows up in the morning I'll know it's safe to eat. It's nice to have friends.

Tomorrow we head through the cut here and sail the whopping seven miles up to Royal Island