The search!
09 February 2008 | Joes Sound, Long Island, Bahamas.
Jim Lea
Today dawned as another perfect winter's day... in the Bahamas, with a light breeze out of the south-east and a clear sky. After Chris' weather report, we chatted over the SSB with other boats, Seabird in Georgetow, Strathspey in Thompson Bay and Solitaire in Emerald Bay... like an old fashioned party phone! After breakfast in the cockpit, we headed out with the snorkel gear and set off south to an area called Dove Cay where we thought we might find something interesting, like lobster. We found some nice coral patches and I enjoyed chasing some of the larger fish, but they easily eluded me! Finally, when poking in a small hole in a piece of coral, I came face to face with a lion fish. Lion fish are native to south-ease Asia, and have begun showing up in the Bahamas in the last few years. They are named after their appearance, very colorful with lots of strands looking like a lion's mane. But they are voracious eaters, highly toxic, and have no predators here, so are multiplying rapidly. There are serious concerns about their impact on the marine environment here. It showed no fear of me, so I poked it with my spear, and it shot back into its hole, and I did a hasty retreat! By the time we were back at the boat, it was early afternoon. So a quick lunch and we went beach walking, and burned our garbage that was now becoming quite smelly! In late afternoon, we heard Seabird calling us on the VHF from just outside the entrance to our anchorage. As it was low tide, they were concerned about making it through the narrow entrance. We had just gone through in our dinghy and checked the depths with our hand-held depth sounder, so were able to report enough water for them to pass. I went out to guide them through, as well as "Margaret", another boat just outside the entrance. Safely through, Seabird anchored just up the narrow channel from us, and invited us aboard for "sundowners". Comfortably seated in Seabird's cockpit, we glanced westward to where the setting sun should have been and saw not the sun, but a very well formed waterspout, a kind of seagoing tornado. We watched it for a few minutes, then retreated to Estelle to batten things down. Boats anchored outside the sound hoisted anchor and set out for open water. There was lots of chatter on the VHF, and as we got things prepared, we watched it dissipate. So back to Seabird to finish our drinks and catch up on their news, then a quiet night.