With winds out of the E-SE less than 15kts, we were able to make a spinnaker run up from Cambridge Cay to Allen's Cay. It was our first attempt as raising the spinnaker on Kokopelli and surprisingly, all went well. The chute went up without a hitch��"no twists, upside down sails or other problems.
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We spent a few days exploring the reefs around Little Bell/Cambridge Cay at the southern end of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. We enjoyed several excursions and spotted turtles, nurse sharks, lobsters out walking the reefs, as well as the usual varieties of fish. Since this is a protected park with no fishing allowed, the reefs are teeming with fish.
On Larry's Reef, we enjoyed the stand of rare pillar coral and got our hearts beating with a lone hammerhead shark cruising the reef and checking us out. He was about 10' long and seemed quite curious to decide if we were edible.
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We left Staniel Cay into Exuma Sound to try our hand at fishing. The mahi-mahi had been running for several days and the locals were bringing in tons of it!
We were outside for about an hour and lamenting the lack of fish, birds, and weed lines when about 30 seconds later we had hits on both the hand reel and the pole. I stopped the boat and took the pole while Alan reeled in the hand line. We had a blue fin tuna on the hand line and I caught a female mahi-mahi on the pole.
We had blood EVERYWHERE! Since the mahi continued schooling around our boat, we threw the pole back in as quickly as possible and hooked up another mahi-mahi. This one was a HUGE bull and Alan was fighting him for all it was worth. I, professional sport-fish captain that I am, maneuvered the boat��"reversing and spinning to keep the fish fighting off the stern. The mahi jumped out several times in a dazzling display.
Unfortunately, a 12' tiger shark caught the struggle and blood trail and began chasing the bull. I was unable to gaff the mahi before he broke the 100# test leader to the hook��"probably because I was so apprehensive about falling overboard with the shark in the water.
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On 3 May, we left the Jumentos for the 2 day trek north back to the Exumas. We made a stop in Blackpoint for laundry and trash disposal and a fabulous meal of fresh mahi-mahi at Lorraine's Café.
We moved up to Staniel to get our broken motor bracket welded by an expat from Connecticut who now lives on the island.
We enjoyed a Cinco De Mayo celebration at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club with lots of cruisers and local Bahamians. The food was surprisingly good for a Mexican feast in the islands. We had chicken, fish, and beef fajitas, beans, rice, guacamole, and all the fixings with lots of tortillas as well as chips and salsa.
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The weather finally broke and we were able to move north to Flamingo Cay then Water Cay. Water Cay is our favorite stop as the snorkeling/diving is fantastic. There are numerous reefs and 3 blue ocean holes. We did some spear fishing (that's Alan filleting one of the fish) as well as conching. The blue holes were fabulous and loaded with fish, including several huge grouper. We didn't spear fish in the holes due to the large populations of sharks just waiting to nab your catch.
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We have spent a week at Raccoon Cay weathering strong trade winds causing rough conditions that no one wanted to travel in. We had 5 cruising boats in the anchorage along with a Bahamian fishing boat. We were able to still do some conching and spear fishing in order to live off the sea.
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