The Cat is out of the Bag--We head to Cat Island!

 Is it seriously April already? Anyway...

We left the Jumentos and hit Long Island for a few days on our way to Cat Island. We love Hillside Grocery and Tiny's Hurricane Hole in Thompson Bay/Salt Pond and had a few nights there before heading north. 

Tiny's--great good and fun! As weird as it sounds, I crave the brussel sprouts from here.

We were expecting strong winds from the east and lucked out with a VERY private, peaceful anchorage off the private Hog Cay (a different Hog Cay than the one we were at in the Raggeds!) for a night. We had some great snorkeling on the reefs (no dinner!) and enough solitude to properly shower on deck! The only downside was the discovery that a fish spike (likely from my hogfish) had pierced the starboard tube of our less-than-a-year-old dinghy! Gorilla tape and frequent pumping works for now, but a good patch is in our future.

It's blowing 20+ knots, but our anchorage is calm! But, ugh...the dinghy! Boo!

The next day we went "around the corner" for protection from SE winds in the south corner of Calabash Bay. The adults went for a little snorkeling/exercise and found even more corals we hadn't explored before here and a team spearing/wrestling match resulted in a very nice lobster! It was a nice way to close out our time on Long Island!

Frank's monster lobster that I helped secure. It was a sunrise departure from Calabash.

As we departed for Cat Island with winds and big swells on our stern, the forecast showed two days of NW and N winds. We decided to take a gamble and anchor at Port Howe on the south shore of Cat Island. A new place! It is an anchorage lined with a large reef that is notoriously reviewed as "rolly," but we thought we might luck out with the forecast. We entered the cut in the reef and anchored easily, but with winds and swell out of the SE on the first day we had a dreadfully rolly, sleepless night. It got better as the days went by, but surge definitely makes it in there. But it was also definitely protected from the north wind. The real treat? Super reefs to snorkel! And Frank brought in a beast of a lobster that we decided would be the last of the season for us. It's been a great run!

The entrance went really well considering we had waves and wind pushing us in. Great job, Skipper!

Frank's end-of-season mega lobster and a stunning sunset!

As winds shifted to the NE, we left Port Howe for the familiar waters of "the bight." We hit New Bight to visit the Hermitage, do laundry at Gilly's (SUPER nice laundromat!), get baked goodies and fresh eggs and tomatoes at Olive's Bakery, and find good food and cruiser camaraderie down at the Fish Fry. By the way, if you've never tried the island favorite "Chicken in da Bag," Gippy's is a great place to try it and they have ice cream, too! Next we shifted to Old Bight to wait out some strong SE winds before continuing our journey north, first to Bennett's Harbor then onward to Eleuthea. 

We had a nice walk up to the Hermitage.

The "parking lot" at New Bight gave us easy access to Gilly's Laundry, Gippy's for "Chicken in da Bag," and Olive's Bakery for those delicious Cat Island flour cakes. Some water is more green here, but some anchorages are this stunning blue!

Cat Island is really great and we are happy to see that more cruisers are making it a stop on their journey through the Bahamas. It's the home of Rake & Scrape and some really sweet folks. And while there is pretty much no where to hide from westerlies (unless you try Port Howe), you can anchor almost all up and down the west coast. Even with it's increasing popularity there was still plenty of room to spread out and skinny dip respectfully! And while we could happily spend more time with the lovely people here, more adventure awaits us to the north!

~Jo, 1st Mate

A quick trip up the Raggeds and Jumentos Cays

Before we left Ragged Island and Hog Cay we looked at weather and saw that we had a few solid good days before the next big blow out of the NE. While we could have weathered the blow in the Raggeds, we decided to spend the next few days exploring, then take advantage of a well-timed high tide and head back to Long Island before the blow. While we don't have a "schedule," we do have some other new-to-us places that we'd like to see this year and heading that way gives us more time and flexibility.

So from Hog Cay we went to Raccoon Cay, a short hop that gave us plenty of time to snorkel and hunt. I got my first hogfish and it was a beauty (not to mention, really delicious!). And we also grabbed a few conch for a fresh conch salad. 

Another epic day of sailing to a beautiful anchorage, and I got this awesome fish!

The next day we went just a little further to Buena Vista Cay. Trent wanted a "down" day so Frank and I went off to hunt/snorkel and came back with four lobsters (F-2, J-2) and a big snapper (F). We enjoyed some really beautiful reefs in the area and since it was St. Patrick's Day, we had lots of Guinness and some beer-battered fish  and potatoes to celebrate my Irish guys!

Sunrise at Racoon Cay before a great day in the water.

Our next move was to Flamingo Cay. We spent our first afternoon exploring via dinghy and foot. We dinghied into the cave at low tide and Trent "rescued" a sun shirt that was on the ocean floor. It fits me, but I'm reaching out to see if any friends claim it! We also hiked ashore, but that experience got its own write-up (see Tragedy in Paradise). The next day we found some nice reefs and came home with two lobsters (T-1, J-1) and a grouper (T). We got a weather update via satellite with our inReach (weather and chats with Katreina were about all we missed in the land of "no service") and saw that the forecast we had seen a few days earlier was still holding so we continued north that day.

For a while we were all alone at Flamingo Cay! We explored a cave and a wreck before heading ashore,

It was just a short hop from there to Water Cay, our staging point for the return to civilization. The short sail up had actually been quite squally and may have prompted one crew member to declare "I hate living on a boat!" so we had a pretty chill afternoon. I gave the Skipper a haircut, we made water, and we all read and relaxed before a nice lobster dinner and movie night. We were planning to depart before sunrise, so it was an early night for all hands!

Our "barber shop" has some nice views!

We definitely liked our first trip to this area and look forward to returning in future cruising seasons. I think we would shoot for a little later in the season to reduce the threat of fronts and we would DEFINITELY stay longer. As there is no cell service until you reach Hog Cay (non-boosted) and there aren't services like fuel and water, this maybe isn't the place to go if you need to work and need services, but for us it was just right!

~Jo, 1st Mate

The Sea Provides--Good Eats by Hand, Hook, and Spear

We have been in the Bahamas just about two and a half months and with our last week of good hunting, we realized that we've had lots of sea-provided meals in a short time, especially when we consider just how long we have stayed in national parks during that time! 

We don't eat a lot of reef fish due to ciguatera risks and personal tastes (not to mention that Nassau grouper season doesn't open until March), so we focus on lobster, conch, and pelagic fish. Here's how it's been going so far!

We didn't start hunting until we hit the Exumas this year. First up, conch in Highbourne Cay! We failed to keep count how many over our two days there as we gave some to friends, tossed some back, and ate a few.

A sweet spot of ours south of Highbourne gave us our first lobsters! (J-1; T-1)

After several weeks in the no-take Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, we found conch near Black Point Settlement.

Woo hoo! Big lobster haul on the sound side near Black Point. This was way more than we needed so we gave one to a friend as all three boats represented on the hunt worked the reef hard! (J-3)

A quick conch snack at Rudder Cay.

Two lobsters out at the Brigantine Cays (F-1; T-1) and a few (I think 2 or 3?) conch from near Lee Stocking Island.

Whoa, conch! We had another great haul near Lee Stocking.

After some time in George Town (we don't usually hunt there as there is just too much going on and way too many other hunting boaters all going to the closest legal reefs) we got crabby in Calabash Bay, Long Island!

Calabash bay continued to provide lobster! We got three on this hunt, with Trent scoring this monster! (F-1; T-2)

Fish on! We finally hooked up on some mahi mahi in the deep water between Long Island and Conception Island.

And back at Conception Island we found a few more big guys! (J-1; T-1)

Wait, did I say we don't hunt when we're in George Town? Well, conditions were decent today and Trent wanted to spear with a buddy of his...SCORE! We had a lovely lobster dinner! (T-1)

We will continue to hunt, especially in March as it's the last month of lobster season, but also the start of Nassau Grouper season! Can't wait to see how we do as the menu shifts more to fish!

~Jo, 1st Mate

Calabash Bay, Long Island

Our first visit to Calabash Bay wasn’t all about spear fishing! While that was a highlight, we also enjoyed sunset gatherings on the beach with our fellow cruisers and a taste of resort life. Cape Santa Maria Resort welcomes cruisers to their bar/restaurant with a nice happy hour. Free conch fritters, drink specials, and yummy pizza kept our crew coming back, and the company was awesome!

Fun with friends and amazing sunsets!

We also took a ride up the nearby creek to explore caves and mangroves, and to navigate a crazy tiny bridge overpass. The caves were a neat surprise and there were tons of bats!

Field trip!

Tonight we discussed plans with our friends—looks like we will try for San Salvador in the morning while a few head to Conception Island. We will adjust once we get underway if we need to. We also got to help our friends fix their dinghy motor as we had spare parts that should work for them. The nice snacks and German beer we got in exchange were very much appreciated! We would definitely revisit here, but ready to move on after four days.

A romantic sunset tow. 

S/V Lehe Paine at sunset (📸 by S/V Kolohe)

Good hunting!

We slipped out of Elizabeth Harbour Monday morning, left the bounds of Moriah Cay National Park, and dropped the hook in such a strange place that one of our friends called on the radio to see if we were in trouble. 😁 It was all part of the plan and the plan paid off with three good-sized lobsters. 

One was a full-on team effort—I had to call Frank over as there was a barracuda making moves on me, then he speared the lobster, I got it out of the hole, it freed itself of the spear, I grabbed it by its antenna, and passed it off to Frank for the return to the dink! Oh, and then one of the buggers pulled the drain plug on the dink in an effort to sink their captors! Good times! 

A great start to the day!

We continued on to Calabash Bay at the north tip of Long Island with hooks in the water. We didn’t bring in any fish, but we did loose a good hook to something! We anchored away from the crowd in the southern part of Calabash Bay—a friend had told us of some good lobstering nearby. The water here is beautiful and the sunsets spectacular, though the swell can make the bay a bit rolly. 

We all went snorkeling this morning and after about 15 minutes started having some luck with spearing lobster. Both Frank and I tangled with one in a ledge, with Frank finally landing it. We came across a few pretty, promising coral heads and Frank and Katreina left to move the dinghy closer. I dove down thinking one head looked like a great spot for a spider crab to hang out and stumbled upon the biggest lobster I’ve gotten yet! It was in 15-20’ of water (I really need a depth gauge), but the real challenge was holding it above the water while waiting for the dink to arrive. 😂

We moved along to some other coral heads and tried to nab grouper that were at least 20’ down. While taking a shot at a grouper I saw another big lobster. Frank, Trent, and I all took shots at it, but I ended up landing it. It was a tough swim back to the surface with that big guy! We were starting to tire and abandoned the grouper. On the way back to the dinghy Frank spotted two lobsters and got one. With four lobsters on deck and a tired team, we called it a day. 

His & Hers

How do we enjoy these lovelies? Grilled, steamed, as lobster rolls, butter poached...all yummy! We find them to be less sweet than Maine lobsters, but they are still really good. We may hunt a few more times here...the season ends at the end of the month and we are hopefully headed to a no-take national park after this. 🦞 

Cleaning and prepared lobster

We ended the day with a great view of the sunset from the beach with our fellow cruisers. These have been some great days! 

~Jo, 1st Mate

(the other) Leaf Cay

Knowing that a big group of boats was at Rudder Cut Cay, we passed by (even though we love it!) and headed for Leaf Cay. This is the “other” Leaf Cay—there is one in the northern Exumas that is famous for its iguanas, whereas this one is more to the south (and also has iguanas!). Winds were forecast to have a westerly component the next day so Leaf Cay would actually provide some protection. It would also put us near where we nabbed a few conch last year! Holding wasn’t amazing, but we got a decent set about an hour before sunset and enjoyed the view. 

While the kids did school I mended a glove and we snorkeled! We swam with a huge ray, found a stromatolite, and found a nice conch. While we were out a few other boats came in and definitely struggled to set the hook. That’s what we learned about Leaf Cay—some westerly protection, but strong current and a semi-hard bottom can make setting the hook a challenge. Oh, and we returned to find our kids in full-on dress-up mode!

After school the whole family went to Leaf Cay. Amazingly no tour boats visited the entire time we were there. We got chased around by the iguanas, explored the tide pools, and eventually went to the east side of the cay where we were treated to a pristine, empty beach with powdery sand. We had planned to explore other cays, but instead just stayed on this beach for the afternoon. Loved it!

Our friends on Kohole joined the anchorage, too! The next morning, they had a little anchor tangle that we helped them out with, but then Katreina and I ran to Lee Stocking Island to check out the building I lived in a long, long time ago when I was there for a class. It was more boarded-up this year, but it still stirred up some great memories.

Tropical Marine Science, ‘97-‘98

After one last snorkel around the cove (and a spider crab on my spear!), we left to head to George Town. There is a big blow coming in a few days and we have a birthday to celebrate tomorrow—the birthday girl requested George Town so that’s where we will go. We have friends already down there so it will be nice to see them, too. And we managed to hook up on a tuna on the transit so it seems like this was a good decision!

Visiting my old “dorm”; helping Kolohe with their anchor; more crab; a nice tuna.

New (?) Great Guana stops--White Point and Oven Rock

We did one last load of laundry and grabbed a few more loaves of bread from Lorraine's mom before a great upwind sail south to White Point. 

Close-hauled!

A lot of our friends were heading to Oven Rock, but we wanted to check out a few coral heads at the point. Holding wasn't fabulous and we ended up with some waves wrapping around the point and rocking us, but we stuck with it. At first we didn't see much, but ended up on a nice coral head and decided to hunt some snapper (scored!) and got the real surprise of the day, a big spider crab! The kids gave up on us and headed back to the boat, but we hit another head and I'm so glad we did--there was a pair of spotted moray eels there and they were NOT shy! I've seen green morays before, but never a spotted one so that was pretty cool. Our friends anchored nearby on S/V Bella Vita found two really nice conch, too! When Frank took a book over to help with the cleaning process, he came back with one of the conch. Andrey and Natalia had fish and conch and shared their bounty with us! So we decided to have "Bella Vita conch salad" and pan fried snapper for dinner, and cooked and cleaned the crab for the next day. 

The bounty of the sea!

🐟A note on hunting/fishing--we do it for sustenance, not just for fun. We like to supplement our provisions with fresh fish, conch, and lobster when we can. We don't often hunt reef fish due to risk of ciguatera poisoning, but sometimes we do if the locals are. If we get a big fish, we will freeze some of it or gift it to friends. The closest we come to "sport" is shooting lion fish as they are an invasive species. While you can eat them, we aren't quite ready to handle the poisonous spines and most that we hit are so small that it's a lot of risk for a little meat. When we get them we will either put them in the dink and run them somewhere away from anchored boats or swim them away from the reef and let them out in the current, figuring sharks will enjoy the meal.🐟

Ok, so more fun! The next day we ran a few miles south to Oven Rock. It looks like an oven! The draw there is a trail to a cave and as we didn't visit last year, this was new to us. Or was it? As we descended into the cave I instantly felt like I had been there before. But how? That feeling intensified as we got further into the cave, saw the bats, and started swimming in the water. This is a seriously cool cave, with cool, clear water, stalactites, stalagmites, bats, and fun rocks to climb over. So glad we came. And thanks to the power of the internet and my old college buddies on Facebook, we confirmed that I HAVE been in this cave before! We snorkeled it during my Tropical Marine Science class in the late '90's and one of my classmates had a photo that confirmed we were in the same cave. So it wasn't an entirely new experience for at least one member of the crew! 

The cave at Oven Rock

With daylight to burn and smooth seas, we continued south, out of Galliot Cut, and are headed for Leaf Cay/Lee Stocking Island for the next few days. 

~Jo, 1st Mate

Slay Ride! Enjoying the bounty of the sea 🎣 🦞 🐚

I couldn’t resist!  While heading south in the sound we saw “Sleigh Ride” on AIS and I couldn’t help but think that “Slay Ride” would be a great name for a fishing boat.  And while we’re not about to change our boat name anytime soon, we did slay some ocean critters over the past few days!

First, while up at Rudder Cut Cay we found two legal conch!  We only harvested one to meet our needs.  We also managed to spear two lobsters!  Lobstering turned out to be a family affair as we each have our own strengths—Trent is the spotter, Jo can linger at depth, Frank is the best-aimed shot, and Katreina mans the dinghy/stays away from the killing.  We saw many lion fish as well, but as we didn’t have gloves with us, we couldn’t safely harvest them.  Lesson learned—if we have the spear, we have gloves so we can help thin this invasive species.  That night we enjoyed a conch salad appetizer followed by a dinner of cracked conch and grilled lobster—yum!

Couldn’t even pick up the other lobster for the pic!

Lobster prep is easy!  Twist, poke, pull!

Conch prep is a little more challenging as you have to get the bugger out of the shell before essentially skinning it.  Oh, and ours was a boy!  Frank did not eat the “Bahamian Viagra.”  😳

Then as we were making our way to George Town (pounding into wind/waves on the nose!), we hooked two mahi mahi!  One got away just as we were about to get it aboard, but we successfully landed the second.    Grilled mahi tonight!

Our first mahi mahi!

We could get used to this, but as we are now in Elizabeth Harbour there will be no hunting for a bit.  Good thing we have some mahi mahi in the freezer!  We honestly strive to not take more than we need or can consume in short order so this restriction is just fine.  It just seems like the right thing to do.