What an exciting day! We left Little Farmers, exiting the cut at about 7:30 am, the time we thought would be slack tide, so no current. But we were wrong. Actually we knew we were wrong as soon as we looked out this morning, and the boat was swinging to the current, and facing into the banks, meaning the tide was running out, and opposite to the wind, a not very good situation. But the wind wasn't too strong, so we just pushed on, and it wasn't very bumpy. But as we were just passing through the narrows, we had the biggest rain squall we have had since arriving in The Bahamas. It didn't have strong winds, so we welcomed it as it washed the salt off the boat. And the salt was caked on everything.
Just outside the cut I put on my red and black lure and dropped it overboard as we set out for Adderly Cut (into Lee Stocking Island) about 15 miles away. We were in no hurry as we didn't want to arrive until low water slack, about noon according to our calculations. So we just sailed along nicely (still admiring the new jib). We were in company with about a dozen other boats, but they were motor-sailing as they were headed for Georgetown, about 40 miles away, so we were soon left behind. Jeannie began reading about fishing lures and... zingggg went the reel. Fish on!!! But we were sailing along at 7 knots, and the fish was swimming the other way faster than that. So I was running out of line fast. Jeannie let the sheets go to stop the boat while I grabbed the rod and began tightening the drag on it to stop the line from running right off the reel. Then... bang. No fish. He broke the line (80 lbs. test) and kept my nice new lure!! So I tied on my next best and dropped it off. But no luck.
Our strike came just after we saw a school of what to me looked like tuna jumping around. Were they chasing lunch, or was something else chasing them for lunch or both??? I don't know, but it was exciting for a few minutes.
By then we were off the cut to our anchorage, and we furled the sails, put on the engine and started in. And as usual, we were ahead of the tide. Although we had thought we would be entering at low water slack, there was still a brisk out-going current, setting up the usual nice standing waves, but not too bad, so we made it in without any concerns. Then, to move around to the anchorage, we had to negotiate a very shallow area, particularly as we had just tried (not very successfully) to arrive at low tide. So we very slowly worked our way in, and in doing so, met people from Kinkardie, Ontario whom we had met a few weeks ago in Warderick Wells. They were heading off snorkeling, and we carried on into the very nice and calm anchorage. When we got settled, launched the dinghy (we carry it on the fore-deck when sailing in waters like Exuma Sound, that have the potential to turn into big seas) and put the motor on, our friends had returned, so we motored over for a chat and to learn something about the Marine Institute ashore.
But what we learned is that it sems to have fallen on hard times, and there are just two caretakers ashore, and landing is not permitted. That's too bad, as we had read that you could go ashore, hike the trails and get a tour of the institute. It is (or perhaps, was) funded by a group of US universities. But there is no activity there at present. With us in the anchorage are our friends on Barefoot Shoes, a trawler style boat, and an other trawler, Halligan, also from Ontario who we also chatted with. As we are low on gas for the dinghy, we got a gallon of gas from them and in exchange, we invited them over for drinks, together with Barefoot Shoes, so we had a fun evening. Barefoot Shoes had been out snorkling and had returned with six nice lobsters they had speared, and gave us two which we put on the BBQ for dinner. We also made them show us where they got them, so tomorrow...