11/25/2009, Alder's Cay, Berry Islands

November 19th, 2009 Great Stirrup Cay to Alders Cay, Berry's
Our plan this morning was to leave about 9 a.m. at high tide and fish our way south for about 25 miles. The weather was once again perfect and we sailed all day. The motor was on some of the time because fishing at less than 6 knots is not a good thing here.
After getting out to deep water, which took us the better part of an hour, we got our lines in and turned south.
Before long, with Kathy below, we had a double. I had fish on the salmon rod and one on the hand line. As I worked the hand line in the other fish got off. Kathy got things moved around in the cockpit and without much delay, we had dinner....a nice Black Fin Tuna. They don't get really big, which is good for the tackle, but this one is certainly large enough to make a dinner for four.
The rest of the trip was a wash out. "Fine Lion" caught a barracuda but we didn't have another hit.
We motored through the cut between Bonds and Alders Cays to the banks on the west side. "Fine Lion" checked out the area behind Bonds Cay while we surveyed the area behind Alders a mile to the north. We could tuck in closer to shore in the northern anchorage so ended up there for the night.
Steve and Kim took their dinghy and explored the area finding one good coral head to dive. They got their stuff and returned but didn't really see anything to shoot.
After taking showers and putting together some snacks we motored over to "Fine Lion" so that Steve could sear the tuna. He is much better at it than I, rarely overcooking.
It was a great meal...seared tuna that was in the ocean the same day, with wasabi, is about as good as it gets.

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Mike
11/25/2009, Great Harbor, Berry Islands

November 18th, 2009 Lucaya to Great Harbor, The Berrys
We were up at 5:30 and away from the dock an hour later. Our trip today took us south to the Berry Islands across the Northwest Channel. There wasn't much wind, so we motored sailed with the jib up for a little push and some stabilization. Our target in the Berry's is a place called "Great Harbor" about 56 miles away.
Our fishing gear was in the water by 7:30 and stayed there all day. We did have one hit in the morning and caught a Barracuda in the afternoon, but failed miserably at catching dinner.
The Northwest Channel is the main thoroughfare between Nassau and Miami so we had lots of shipping traffic to deal with as well as the cruise ships that ply these waters.
We arrived at about 3 p.m. and worked our way into a small anchorage passing through the shallowest water we've ever traversed without hitting bottom. It was a little scary but we went slow and were very careful. It was dead low tide ...and there was less water than the charts indicated.
There is not much here. The cruise ships anchor within sight and send folks ashore to the beach during the day... so it's not really our kind of place to spend much time. Tomorrow we'll move south in the Berry's about 25 miles to find a spot to do some swimming and hunting for a couple of days.
After sitting in the sun for a couple of hours in the cockpit ... soaking up the 80 degree temps and thinking about our friends who are still in cold climates, I went below to make dinner.
We had some left-over turkey that needed to be used up so... with no fish today, I made some biscuits and made the turkey into a nice chunky gravy to pour over the top... It ended up being quite good. There seems to be enough left to do it again for lunch tomorrow- if we can look at it once more.

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Mike
11/25/2009, Lucaya, Great Bahama

November 17th, 2009 Lucaya, Grand Bahama
Yesterday the four of us decided that we needed to stay another day here ... Kathy really hadn't seen the shops of Port Lucaya and we were all still a little beat from our overnighter. So in the morning we layzed around for a few hours and then went down the dock to wander around. We had a late lunch at "Agave" a Mexican place and then had a beer in an outdoor place called "Rum Runners."
There was a TV on the wall on the inside half of the bar and we asked if they Got ESPN. We were in luck. Across the central area we purchased a couple of conch salads for lunch tomorrow and returned to the boat. I made a Greek salad topped with left-over lamb from our Greek dinner last night which turned out quite well.
At game time we were back at "Rum Runners" and watched the first half there. We were all pooped and returned to our boats to listen to the second half.
It was nice to win when we seemed to play so poorly. I thought Tom was quite reserved after the game.

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