05/05/2013, Luperon Harbor, Dominican Republic
Around noon on May 4th we pulled anchor and motor sailed away from Grand Turk, across the Turks Bank past Salt Cay and Big Sand Cay headed for Luperon, Dominican Republic. I was on the bow sprit looking at the bottom through 50 + feet of water. Jeff was dragging a couple of lines and caught a barracuda, which he threw back, then reeled in a blue runner, which he filleted and we ate. While on watch in the wee hours of the morning I saw the red moon arisin' and was finally close enough to make radio contact with my friend Ida on Cheers, who was also on the way to DR from French Cay. We were teased by the scent of land wafting on the breeze long before the mountain tops appeared on the horizon.
Jeff joined me in the cockpit for the sunrise and a bit more than an hour later we spotted the blow holes spurting water just outside the harbor. We entered this renowned hurricane hole with Cheers to find our buddies on Cannonball and Last Unicorn anchored there. The vibrant greens and distant misty mountains were quite a change from the low islands and blue water scapes throughout the Bahamas.
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04/25/2013, Atlantic Ocean, south of Samana Cay
We untied the dock lines at Sumner Point Marina, Rum Cay, Bahamas at 7am headed out past the mermaid just ahead of Last Unicorn while the Cannonball boys were still snoozing. The wind was blowing steady on our beam so we were able to make good time under sail power only. Night turned into day and we were lucky to have clear skies and a nearly full moon casting its glow across the waters to the horizon while we sailed toward Provodencials, Turks and Caicos. There were two ships that we crossed with in the night and it took me awhile to figure out what I was really looking at. The tug pulling the barge had me a little confused because I thought it was two ships. Fortunately, Captain Curly roused himself when I yelled for help, came up from down below, and set me straight on that one reminding me not to sail between them. Then, I needed to figure out what was going on with the floating city ahead and to starboard. I thought I was looking at the side of the cruise ship but further investigation on our AIS revealed that it was actually the front of the Emerald Princess. Seems like an easy enough mistake when the ship has a 118 foot beam. Lucky our closest point of approach was 1.2 nautical miles....
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04/20/2013, Sumner Point Marina, Rum Cay
The fisherman who had a lucky day were cleaning their fish at the marina and gave me this 4 foot carcass so I could play tug-o-war with the nurse sharks. I won the first round but one of the sharks tugged the carcass away on the second round. After feeding them, I got to pat them on their heads which were out of the water on the dead conch shells. CRAZY.... I didn't know the sharks came out of the water. also saw the lemon sharks circling trying to get a few of the tidbits.
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04/17/2013, Bahamas
Pulled anchor at West Bay on Conception Island at 7:00 am, hoisted the sails and headed towards Rum Cay, about 20 miles away. Fishing lines were dragging behind us by 7:30 and at 8:00 one of them was whirring off the reel. Jeff had a good fight with this fella and 25 minutes later we had 48 inches of mahi aboard. After a fine motor sail the rest of the way across w tied off our dock lines at Sumner Point Marina around 1:00 pm and grilled mahi cheeks for lunch. The guys below swam by to greet us when we threw the mahi scraps overboard.
We will be sharing one of the filets with the cruisers here at the potluck in the club house tonight and we have several zip locks filled with mahi in the freezer. The cost justification to pay for fishing gear took a nice dive to $8.79 per serving today, and the fun factor for reeling in the mahi, feeding the scraps to circling sharks, then sharing our catch for dinner is..... priceless.
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04/10/2013, Mt. Alvernia, Cat Island
We hiked 206 feet up Mt. Alvernia (also known as Como Hill) past the Stations of the Cross to the highest point in the Bahamas with our friends Mark and Kathy.
Atop is the Hermitage, a small stone monastery built by hand by the architect hermit, Father Jerome. The 360 degree view was awe inspiring and the structure, with all the twists, turns, nooks, and crannies was interesting to delve into.
The wooden steps cemented into the stone inside the bell tower were intact so I climbed up and rang the bell to announce it was time for lunch.
We found a cool refuge inside the 18 inch thick stone walls to eat the sandwiches we brought along before returning to sea level on another path that took us past the cave where Father Jerome lived while he built the monastery.
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04/07/2013, Volleyball Beach, Stocking Island, Bahamas
Today I spent about an hour in the water petting the rays that swim near the shore to feast upon the scraps handed out by beach combers around the Conch Shack at Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island . I was dubbed the "Ray Whisperer" because as other folks were attempting to get the rays near enough to pet by feeding them I had the rays swimming right to me by remaining very still and wiggling my fingers around in the water. I could pet their wings, top and bottom, just like they were a cat sidling on over and rubbing up against my leg. There was a big ray whose wingspan was wider than my outstretched arms, baby rays with a wingspan of less than two feet, and several sizes in between. Eventually, I did feed a few of the rays by holding the conch scraps between my fingers. They would swim over my hand and start to suck in the food at which point I would drop it. Unfortunately, our friend Keith forgot to let go of the scraps when he tried the same thing with the tiger sharks......
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