Big Daddy Bozo and the Hogs

May 17 - 23, 2006

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

Still stuck in White Sound. The rain only came by two or three times to visit today and then only for fifteen minutes at a time. Thats better than it has been.

The weather dude says tomorrow it will be nice and calm, so we are planning to move out to the north end of the island here and take the dinghies around to the ocean to spear fish. After eating the mackerel last night, we are out of fresh fish. I may not of mentioned it, but we put most of the mahi mahi we caught into the cryogenic preservation unit (freezer) to save until we get home.

With mostly dry conditions, we were able to get out and about some. We dinghied over to town with the Anam Cara's to score some fresh veggies and rum. Later, I made up three new trolling lures for the fish whackers and Amy worked on her web site.

In the late afternoon we went into the Bluff House Yacht Club to have a six dollar beer and use their wi-fi connection. I finished up and emailed a small consultancy project for a guy I used to know and we are now celebrating our first positive cash inflow in something like three years.

Man, when you put it that way we sound lame.

Dinner consisted of grilled bacon cheeseburgers served on English muffins. Sounds strange, but they were quite good. We had an evening showing of Casa Blanca and then retired for the evening

Thursday, May 18, 2006 - North End, Green Turtle, Abacos
By Tom

We moved the boat out of White Sound early this morning. We anchored temporarily off of New Plymouth so we could dinghy in and dispose of trash and make a last run at the grocery.

We returned shortly and stowed our supplies before upping anchor and heading the whopping two miles up to the north end of Green Turtle. It's flat calm out now and we took advantage of the conditions to get some spear fishing in.

Don and Sandi joined us and the four of us set off around noon. Amy and I anchored the dinghy in twenty feet over a beautiful reef and dove in. Right of the bat I found a medium sized slipper lobster which I quickly made my own.

I forgot to mention it, but today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

Amy then shot an absolutely HUGE Nassau Grouper that swam off with her spear! I think she may need to practice that whole kill shot thing. In her defense it was an enormous fish (~20 lbs) and it is tough to make a kill shot on something that big.

We searched for her spear for twenty minutes, but never saw it or the fish again. Now spearless, Amy spotted for me. She found me several nice specimens to shoot at, but I was not on my A game. First I missed a four pound Black Grouper. Then I winged a three pound School Master that quickly escaped back to the safety of the rocks.

Finally I snagged a two pound Hogfish. Damn I must be getting old!

We moved the dinghy over to hunt with the Anam Cara's and I quickly found, stalked and apprehended another nice five pound Hogfish. True to form, the shark magnet Don quickly attracted a four foot Black Tip shark and we all bailed out of the water into our dinghies. Enough for one day.

Back on board I cleaned our catch and made Amy a new spear from spare parts that my dad and I fabricated back in the states. Later, Don and Sandi came over and we were going to have grilled Hogfish, but Sandi made me birthday booby pizzas (shown at right) and as such we will save the fish until tomorrow.

Birthday festivities lasted until 10:30 and then everyone went home and to bed. For the record, I am now 34. Amy says I am now only one year a way from being almost 40, but I think that like with most wines and whiskey I am getting better with age.

Friday, May 19, 2006 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos
By Tom

We upped anchor early this morning with the intention of sailing north, but the wind that showed up today was right from where we wanted to go.

We tacked across the Sea of Abaco twice before deciding to return to White Sound and try again tomorrow. Anchor back down, we went into the Bluff House Marina for a spare can of gas and to use their wi-fi connection.

In the afternoon we just lazed around the boat. Amy read books and worked on one of her ongoing writing projects while I continued to oppress the peasants in my current computer game. Milo sat in my lap and got excited every time one of the peasant characters on screen screamed.

Dinner was grilled Hogfish served with potato wedges and individual fruit cups. These fruit cups represent the last of our original canned provisions from the U.S. that we got last October. Tomorrow we push on up the road

Saturday, May 20, 2006 - Manjack Cay, Manjack, Abacos
By Tom

We left White Sound this morning and motored the four miles up to Manjack Cay. Don and Sandi moved here yesterday, so we dropped anchor just in front of them.

The wind was non existent today, so we organized a hunting party. Don, Sandi, Amy and I headed out to the ocean side reef around 11 am. All of us were still a little skittish about the shark episode two days ago, but the dwindling fish supply in our freezer convinced us to go.

We hopped in and right of the bat I scored a ten pound Nassau in about 30 feet of water. As I was swimming back up with my fish, a small (2.5 feet) reef shark came by and took both my fish and my spear right out of my hand. Shitty Death !

All I could do was watch as the shark swam quickly away. He did have the decency to throw my spear back, which I then retrieved. I'm telling you, Don is a shark magnet. If I hadn't been so scared, it almost would have been funny. I mean the grouper easily outweighed the shark by three to one.

Take it from me, it's a dog eat dog (or shark eat grouper) world out on the reef.

It took me several minutes to recover from my shark episode, but eventually I rejoined the hunt. I found an absolutely HUGE Schoolmaster heading to class and I dropped him with one quick shot. See photo evidence stage right. He ended up weighing 4.5 pound and measuring 22 inches overall. A fine specimen in anyone's book.

Right as we were getting tired and about to call it a day, I managed to apprehend another Hogfish as well. In what turned out to be a total team failure, nobody else got anything! I feel like I am hunting for a family of four.

On the way back in, Amy wanted to try this spot we had been productive at before, so we dove in once more. She spotted a decent sized Nassau and after some effort managed to coax him into the dinghy.

Back on the mother ship I set about cleaning our catch. A charter cat anchored near us and the 6 ugly Americans on board proceeded to make asses out of themselves for the next three hours. Fortunately, the lure of the marina at Green Turtle was too much for them to escape and they left our anchorage shortly before sunset.

Don and Sandi came over for more grilled Hogfish accompanied by Don's Burnt Mystery Potatoes and a small side salad. Dessert was chocolate chip cookies. Everyone left full. Oh, I have been bugging Sandi to bring her two dogs Pebbles and Buddha over for some time and tonight she did. They were both well behaved, but extremely anxious about there being ferrets on board.

Once the ferrets realized the dogs were not edible, they pretty much lost all interest in them.

Sunday, May 21, 2006 - Powell's Cay, Powell's Cay, Abacos
By Tom

We sailed out of Manjack this morning at a stately 2 knots. What is up with this wind?

It took all day, but after stopping to fill up the mother ship with fuel at Spanish Cay, we anchored off of the beach at Powell's Cay. We have been here before and the anchorage is as pretty as we remember it.

I fished the whole day, but only caught two monster barracuda which we threw back. About two hours after us, the Anam Cara's showed up and right around sundown a fleet of six other boats anchored with us. I think we're being followed.

Both we and the Anam Cara's have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will be motoring the next two days to get out to Great Sale and our staging point for the jump back to America. The weather dude is saying no wind for several more days and we are all anxious to get across the stream in good weather.

Our current plan is to get up to Great Sale tomorrow or the next day and then ride a weak front that is coming back to northern Florida or possibly all the way up to Beaufort, South Carolina. Weather and fuel mileage will tell how far we actually make it.

Dinner was, you guessed it, Hogfish. This time it was pan fried and served with rice in a Caribbean jerk seasoning. Very good, but very spicy

Monday, May 22, 2006 - Hawksbill Cay, Foxtown, Abacos
By Tom

Another day of motoring. This time it was the 23 miles up and around the tip of Great Abaco to Little Abaco and the town of Foxtown. On the way up, I caught and landed an 8 pound, 31 inch Cero Mackerel which we quickly cleaned and added to the frozen section of our local grocery.

With all of the fish currently on board, I put away the fishing whackers for the remainder of the day. I am hopeful however that between us and the Anam Cara's we will be able to eat enough in the next 2 days that I will be able to fish the ocean on the ride home to the states.

Once Don and Sandi anchored, the four of us dinghied into town and for the record, I saw no foxes.

Amy called home to her brother and grandmother to wish them happy birthday and I helped Don get 10 gallons of fuel. We all then retired to the Shell Gas station as it is also the local town watering hole. We shared a beer and then returned to our boat for what should be our final Bahamian happy hour. Pebbles and Buddha attended as well. They still seem really upset by the ferrets, but the ferrets didn't even look at them this time.

Don, Sandi and the dogs went home around 7 with a baggy full of Mackerel and then I used up the last of the Hogfish with dinner for Amy and me. We now have only a selection of Snapper, Grouper, and Mackerel left in the fresh fish aisle. Of course, there is still several prime pounds of Mahi steaks in the freezer along with half a dozen lobsters, but who's counting?

Tomorrow we push on to Great Sale where we stage for the big jump. We should be back in the states in 2 or 3 days. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Great Sale Cay, , Abacos
By Tom

Well, for better or worse, here we are. We motored out of Foxtown this morning in yet another flat calm. It was so calm today I didn't even pretend to put up a sail while we were motoring. In an effort to conserve fuel, I ran the engines at half throttle and as a result it took us 6 hours to cover the 25 miles to Great Sale.

Once we anchored, I made the crew some fried grouper sandwiches. Milo says Grouper sandwiches are most excellent.

Afterwards, I washed the ferrets in the sink and then we set about getting the boat ready for blue water. The weather guy says maybe 10 knots of wind tomorrow, but probably less. In either case, we are going to jump off at first light and be across the banks and into open water by sundown.

From there if the wind shows, we aim our nose north to Beaufort, South Carolina. However, if the wind doesn't show, the we will probably try and motor through to Saint Augustine, Florida. Under power we have a range of about 300 miles, so Augustine is near the end of our envelope.

In the afternoon Amy and I took showers and generally got ourselves ready. As I sit and write this, Amy is reading her book, Milo is laying on his back showing his fat belly to the world, Mila is licking said belly and I am computing.

Dinner is scheduled to be a surf and turf affair with garlic butter snapper and grilled steak. I am trying to use the last three frozen steaks I bought down in Georgetown before we return to the states where my first order of business will be to get honest to god, real beef steaks.

Ok, thats about it for this season in the Bahamas. See you when we get back to the states