On Being a Government Tool

November 19, 2006

Sunday, November 12, 2006 - Current Settlement, Current Island, Eleuthra
By Tom

We awoke to a flat calm, no wind day. A few no-see-ums showed up last night, so we were in no mood to stay here.

We had a nice breakfast of ham, egg and cheesies on pre-fab homemade biscuits. If you squinted a little, they looked almost like they were from McDonald's. After the Amies and ferrets were fed, we upped anchor and motored the whopping 7 miles down to Current Settlement.

We could have gone on to the Exumas today, but the wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow, which would enable us to sail the 40 miles down to Ship Channel Cay, the northernmost of the Exuma islands.

On the way down here, I ran the full arsenal of all four fish whackers. About half way down we snagged a decent sized 2 pound yellow tail snapper, which is in fact another new species for us. We've long seen the elusive yellow tail on the reef while spear fishing, but they always manage to stay far enough away to ensure their safety. The one we brought aboard today was a fine specimen indeed and I briefly considered making him lunch, but when Amy and I conferred, we decided to send him back as we still have mondo tuna in the fridge and several snapper servings in the freezer.

See, I don't just kill everything I see. I am no government tool.

We dropped anchor in 8 feet of water and then rowed our dingy the 500 feet in to the shore. I had hoped to call my parents and say hello, but the only phone in Current Settlement was not functioning correctly. We did get to hear the entire settlement singing in church however and that in itself was worth the walk in. If I knew they sang like that all the time I might be a bigger fan of church attendance.

Back on board, we decided to go for a swim. I donned full wet suit and spear gear, just in case, and Amy chose to go bathing suit only. Swimming around I discovered this fish. He might be a space alien as he had way too many fins for a normal fish. We broke out the underwater camera and snapped a few pictures shown at right. He is pretty cool, no?

Dinner was an early afternoon snapper finger wrap fiesta and both us and the ferrets went away full. In the evening the no-see-ums showed up so we shut the windows and I ran the starboard side air conditioner for several hours to get us to the coolness of night. I hate those bugs. I hate them so much.

Monday, November 13, 2006 - Allens Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The anchorage became really rolly last night and we both ended up in the salon by 3 am. It was kind of tough to stay planted on the mattress in our bedroom with all of the hobby horsing going on. The sun started to brighten the sky around 5:15 am and we picked up the anchor as soon as it was light enough to see.

We motored through Current Cut and set our sights on Ship Channel Cay in the Exumas some 35 miles south. After an hour or two the wind died off and the sea settled way down. About that time we caught a 2 pound Barjack. We are still working through the tuna, so we gave him his freedom.

Two other times during the day the fish whackers got strikes, but we came up empty on both. One of the misses was the result of the lure disintegrating under the attack. This is usually indicative of a large barracuda, so we weren't too upset. The other failure to catch remains a mystery. The fish was there and then he wasn't. Hmmm.

With the settled weather, we stopped at a few coral heads on the yellow banks and did some snorkeling. Amy took some pictures and I shot a large Nassau Grouper that escaped when my flapper broke off my spear. Shitty Death !!

We motored southward and arrived at Allen's Cay around 3 pm. Besides a local fishing boat, we were the only vessel here until almost dark when a large trawler showed up. We got the hook down without incident although I am becoming somewhat concerned about our primary anchor chain. It seems to be giving up the ghost and we may need to replace it when we get to Georgetown.

Speaking of anchors, I am starting to rethink our switch to the CQR as our primary anchor. When it digs in, we haven't had a problem, but three times now since we've got to the Bahamas we have had trouble getting it to set, resulting in multiple attempts. I don't remember having that problem with the Delta. I guess we'll see.

In weather news, Amy and I were both relieved this morning when I was able to receive Chris Parker's weather broadcast. There is a possible tropical depression beginning to form south of Jamaica and it had us both worried. Chris says there is a 1 in 3 chance of it strengthening and moving on to become a hurricane. Any formation will take at least 96 hours, so we'll be watching this one closely.

We hope to get some diving in tomorrow depending on the weather. A front is forecasted to move through our area, so we may not be able to get out to the reef

Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - West Anchorage, Normans Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The wind picked up last night and made our anchorage kind of lumpy by first light. We decided to pick up the anchor and sail down to Norman's Cay where there would be better protection from the strengthening easterlies.

It took us two and a half hours to cover 10 miles under sail and we had the hook down in 5 feet of water by 10 am. By 11, we were suited up and heading out to some of our secret hunting spots in and around Norman's Cay.

We had a slow start, but about an hour in I snagged a 1 pound Margate. A few minutes later, Amy spotted our first lobster of the season. It took three attempts, but I finally made him my own. Twenty minutes after that I found another bug and he too joined the frozen section on board Team Dream Catcher. Amy rounded out our collection with the ever elusive Queen Conch.

With enough food for 4 days or so, we retired to the mother ship to retrieve our fish processing tools and then we went in to the beach to clean our catch. It's much less messy doing this on the beach than on our own boat.

Afterwards, we returned to the boat and put half our catch into the deep freeze and the other half into the fridge for immediate consumption. The remainder of the afternoon was spent lounging around the boat reading books and doing the occasional odd boat chore.

Around 5:30 I lit the grill and cooked one of our lobsters with the olive oil and roasted pepper recipe. Amy also boiled some spaghetti and made some sort of sauce that resembled goo. The combined meal was excellent and the entire crew had their fill.

Post dinner, we had the evening running of the ferrets and then settled in for night. The wind tomorrow is supposed to start kicking up, so we may have to move to a more sheltered anchorage.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 - West Anchorage, Normans Cay, Exumas
By Tom

The wind built a little during the night, but it's still far enough out of the east that we have decent protection. Yesterday evening Eddie and Eileen from Tropical Impulse stopped by to introduce themselves. They are the first cruising boat we have met this year, so it was nice of them to stop. They also invited us to go hunting with them today, so at 9 am we loaded up and headed out.

The spot they had chosen was very pretty, but very exposed. We only swam for about twenty minutes before it got too rough to continue. I did manage to get a nice sized Schoolmaster Snapper, but that's all we even saw.

We moved back in towards the protection of land and hunted off two small coral heads closer to the anchorage. I shot another lobster, but the shot did so much damage there was literally nothing left of our 10 legged friend. A little later I saw another, but was unable to apprehend him. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Back on the boat we took showers and cleaned up a little. Amy ran the vacuum and I ran the ferrets. As a funny side note, our ferrets seem to be absolutely terrified of the vacuum. Whenever it's on, they run and hide behind the freezer or under our pillows. I suspect that in the ferret world the vacuum really is the Dirt Devil.

Chores done, we resumed our reading. Dinner was a whole Margate grilled with two large beef ribs and homemade corn bread. Quite tasty if a little diverse. Around sundown the wind moved further to the south and our anchorage became a little rolly. I suspect it is going to be a long night.

Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Elbow Cay, Exumas
By Tom

By sun up, the anchorage had a consistent 2 foot surge pulsing through it, so as soon as we could see, we upped anchor and started heading south.

The wind was right on the nose and blowing near 20 knots. Rather than bash our way 30 miles south to Staniel Cay, we decided to divert into the Exuma Land and Sea Park and hide behind a small tidal island just off of Elbow Cay.

The entrance had a shallow bar with only 3 feet of water at low tide, but we managed to squeak over it and drop the hook in good sand and about 4 feet of depth. The anchorage was really well protected and we both congratulated ourselves on our last second decision to stop here. The wind is forecast to swing to the north tomorrow so we should be able to continue our sail south to Staniel.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent reading, computing, playing with ferrets and swimming off the back of the boat. Dinner was steak fajitas with all the trimmings and we were to bed by 8 pm

Friday, November 17, 2006 - Staniel Cay Harbour, Staniel Key, Exumas
By Tom

We got underway shortly after sunrise and motored in relative calm the remaining 25 miles to Staniel Cay. We ran the fish whackers most of the way and we hooked a nice sized Mutton Snapper, but he showed me his power and threw the lure right before I could gaff his fishy ass. Oh well, win some, lose some.

On the way down to Staniel, this Haitian Dow passed us heading towards Nassau. Notice his headsail? I am pretty sure it is a flat advertising tarp taken from a store somewhere. I guess you make due with what you have on hand.

We dropped the anchor off the town front and had the dinghy assembled by 12 pm. We went into Isles General grocery store for tomatoes and diet Pepsi. After we dropped the food stuffs off at the boat, we took our laptops into the Staniel Cay yacht club for a few beers and internet access.

The weather has been stormy today and about 10 minutes after we got to the yacht club, it started to pour down rain. I had to race back to the boat in the dinghy to close the windows we forgot were open. I returned to the bar closely resembling a drowned ferret.

We hung out for two hours and then returned to the boat. The wind shifted 180 degrees and left us exposed, so right before sunset, we moved the boat in the hopes of getting a little more protection. This worked for about an hour and then the wind started changing direction every 30 minutes for the rest of the night.

Around 9:30 pm, I had to get my wet suit on and dive into the water to unwrap the anchor line from one of our keels. Shitty Death! I was only in the water for 3 minutes, but I kept looking over my shoulder for a large shark to materialize out of the darkness and eat me. Needless to say, neither one of us got a good night's sleep after that.

As soon as it gets light, we are out of here.

Saturday, November 18, 2006 - Big Harbour, Little Farmers Cay, Exumas
By Tom

As soon as the sun was up, we picked up the anchor and set sail south. We decided on heading down to Farmer's Cay, some 20 miles to the south. The wind was blowing 15 to 20 knots and it made for a brisk run down.

About an hour in, one of our port side fish whackers started peeling of line. We rolled in the headsail and then I proceeded to get worked over by our fish. 10 minutes and lots of swearing later, I finally managed to get our fishy friend within gaff range and then I stabbed him in the head.

We ended up with the 29.5 inch, 12.5 pound Mutton Snapper shown side right. He was absolutely huge and set a new record for us for this species. I cleaned our catch and we ended up with 14 single serving meals. Nice.

We eased our way into Big Harbour at Farmers by 11 am and had the boat put to bed by noon. We had a quick lunch of hot dogs (me and Milo) and left over salad (Amy and Mila) and then the entire crew took a nap.

Around 3 pm we got up and spent the rest of afternoon listening to the Ohio State versus Michigan college football game, mostly because there wasn't much else to do.

Tomorrow, if the weather allows, we will sail the remaining 38 miles down to Georgetown. Stay tuned, more to follow.