Mike
05/15/2009, Marsh Harbour, Abaco

Forgot to post this pic from Hope Town

May 13th... Lynyard Cay to Marsh Harbour, Abacos

I was up at 6am mostly because dawn is at 5:30 and I thought that I'd slept in....I wrote in peace for a half hour before tuning in Chirrs for the weather. It is going to be windy and rainy for a few days...I hope. We weighted anchor a little before 9:30 and had all our sails up in about 5 minutes making 4 knots to the north. After an hour we reached North Bar Cut and decided to exit the banks and try some fishing. "Fine Lion," who was behind us decided to stay inside and pick up some Swiss cheese at Vernon's Store in Hope Town. In truth, they were hauling their dinghy with the motor on... which is a big no-no anytime you're on the ocean.

Managing the cut was easy and we were soon sailing at 7 knots with everything up in 10 to 15 knot winds. We had two lines in the water and were trying to stay between 100 and 200 feet where we've had our best luck fishing.

By noon we were at Elbow Cay with the wind dying. We turned to the north aiming for The North Man-of War Cut which was about an hour away. Down wind was too rolly so we fired up the engine and motor sailed to the cut.

We didn't have a hit in our 3 hour ocean voyage but turned off the engine once we cleared the cut and set a beam reach course for Marsh Harbour. Again... it was a perfect sail.

There was lots of room to anchor but just as we began the process of backing down the over heating alarm when off. Kathy turned reached down and turned off the engine and we decided to wait for it to cool off before we finished anchoring.

Steve and Kim sailed in an hour or so later as I was lowering the dinghy to run in to town for some tonic. We are out of Soda Club Tonic and have not been able to make anything even close to substitute.

They had picked up some Swiss cheese (a rare commodity here in the Bahamas) for us at Hopetown and brought it over later in the afternoon. We had G & T's with them in the cockpit and later cooked some pork chops and baked potatoes for dinner...which we enjoyed with a tossed salad.

Comments [1]

Mike
05/15/2009, Marsh Harbour, Abaco

May 13th... Lynyard Cay to Marsh Harbour, Abacos

I was up at 6am mostly because dawn is at 5:30 and I thought that I'd slept in....I wrote in peace for a half hour before tuning in Chirrs for the weather. It is going to be windy and rainy for a few days...I hope. We weighted anchor a little before 9:30 and had all our sails up in about 5 minutes making 4 knots to the north. After an hour we reached North Bar Cut and decided to exit the banks and try some fishing. "Fine Lion," who was behind us decided to stay inside and pick up some Swiss cheese at Vernon's Store in Hope Town. In truth, they were hauling their dinghy with the motor on... which is a big no-no anytime you're on the ocean.

Managing the cut was easy and we were soon sailing at 7 knots with everything up in 10 to 15 knot winds. We had two lines in the water and were trying to stay between 100 and 200 feet where we've had our best luck fishing.

By noon we were at Elbow Cay with the wind dying. We turned to the north aiming for The North Man-of War Cut which was about an hour away. Down wind was too rolly so we fired up the engine and motor sailed to the cut.

We didn't have a hit in our 3 hour ocean voyage but turned off the engine once we cleared the cut and set a beam reach course for Marsh Harbour. Again... it was a perfect sail.

There was lots of room to anchor but just as we began the process of backing down the over heating alarm when off. Kathy turned reached down and turned off the engine and we decided to wait for it to cool off before we finished anchoring.

Steve and Kim sailed in an hour or so later as I was lowering the dinghy to run in to town for some tonic. We are out of Soda Club Tonic and have not been able to make anything even close to substitute.

They had picked up some Swiss cheese (a rare commodity here in the Bahamas) for us at Hopetown and brought it over later in the afternoon. We had G & T's with them in the cockpit and later cooked some pork chops and baked potatoes for dinner...which we enjoyed with a tossed salad.

Comments [0]

Mike
05/15/2009, Lynyard Cay, Abacos

May 10th.... Tahiti Beach to Lynyard Cay, Abacos

Happy Mother's Day

Our plans are to leave this morning heading south. The first 2 miles of this trip are quite shallow with chart datum at 1.2 meters. Since we draw 1.6, and the high tide this morning was only 2.5 feet, we needed to be departing just before the high at about 9:45.

Before our departure, we each called home to wish our Mothers ... a Happy Mothers Day.

The trip went smoothly. The least amount of water we saw was 6.5 feet and once through the shallow area we hoisted the jib and sailed along at about 4 knots. Arriving at Lynyard Cay at around noon we had some lunch and were in the cockpit when Steve and Kim headed to shore to dive on some coral.

Before I was finished with my left-over Spanish rice, Steve was on the radio with the report that he had found two nice groupers but didn't have his spear with him.

We loaded up our gear and joined them on the beach. In minutes we each had a nice grouper in the bucket and had found another. The third one was a little smarter and hid in some rocks where he was safe.

A little later we returned to the boat to grab some knives, a cutting board, and the conch that I had picked up on Tahiti and headed from Lynyard Cay (which is a barrier island) east to Great Abaco to a deserted beach. (We keep conch over the side in a mesh bag to keep them alive until it's time to clean them.)

We looked around, the ladies picking up some nice shells, and I cleaned the grouper. Kathy wanted to keep the conch shell so Steve carefully made the proper small whole and cut the attaching muscle without destroying it. When the conch was cleaned and our tools de-slimed, Kim walked up with another.... and another.... and finally after a few minutes a third one that was huge.

In a few minutes we had dinner. Our plans were to grill chicken for dinner but with fresh fish and conch to crack, the chicken could wait.

We returned to the boat and I pounded conch in the dinghy while Kathy cleaned up for company. Around 5-ish we ran into shore to the camp fire pit and burned all of our paper products.

Back aboard I made sweet potato chips and after Steve and Kim arrived, fried up the sea food. We had a little trigger fish in the freezer that we added to the conch and grouper for a fine meal including Steve and Kim's salad.

We read and watched some video for an hour before bed.

Comments [0]