It's great to have visitors! You do things and go places that you have thought about but never do. Since Lori and Jack arrived we have had beers lounging out front of the Chat and Chill on Volleyball beach; had lunch at St Francis on Stocking Island; dinghied across Elizabeth harbour in the dark to enjoy an evening at The Fish Fry and went to a "Rake and Scrape". Drinking beer and eating lunch are self explanatory. The Fish Fry is about 10 little shack-like restaurants and bars on a small beach off the Industrial dock about 1 ½ mile walk from George Town. Most of them are in the open air. This is where the locals go to eat, drink, play Dominos, checkers and partake in Karaoke. Unfortunately, it was a cool night and there were only a few people there but we did get an opportunity to talk to some people who braved the cold. Beer flowed and we ate grouper fingers and other deep fried foods. One Bahamian girl said that deep fry is why they are all fat. She was wearing a ski jacket with a fur collar. The next night after a day shopping and taking in the sights of George Town (actually that takes less than an hour) we were off to the "Rake and Scrape". It was at a local bar and featured a Bahamian band playing Bahamian music badly while fat cruiser women got picked up by drunken Bahamian men. We quickly found that we had soaked up enough culture and headed back to the boat.
The next morning we left Chicken Harbour for Emerald Bay Marina. It was a relaxed departure and as we pulled away we found ourselves in the middle of the 'George Town Cruiser Regatta around Stocking Island' race. After untangling our selves from the race, we had a nice sail out of conch cut and headed north to the marina. We trailed a hand line and our fishing line. Suddenly, the hand line was pulled out of the cockpit and hard against its tether and as I grabbed it, it went slack. We watched a 4ft Mahi Mahi jump straight out of the water three times with my lure in its mouth and it disappeared behind us. I reeled in the line and found that the Mahi Mahi had not broken my line.. it was my knot that had come untied. I was devastated to find that the knot that I had been told to use (tying one line to another) had unraveled. Here I sit empty handed because I can't tie a knot, needless to say when we got to the marina, I retied all my connections using a knot out of the fisherman's guide book and a few normal knots for good measure. I had used a twist knot showed to us at the fishing tackle store and either I didn't get it right or it sucks. Mahi Mahi is one of the best tasting fish you can get.... So we've been told!
photos: check the gallery