First Lobster!
28 September 2010 | Treasure Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
Captain Chris
From sea to shining...grill!
We hung out in Marsh Harbour with the other cruisers for a few days, including having everyone over for some singing and guitar music. On Thursday, when things calmed down a bit, we struck out for Great Guana Cay and had a great sail over to Fishers Bay on a close reach. Once there, we were snorkeling on the small reef in the middle of the bay when Linda spied a lobster! He looked big enough to take legally, so I went back to the boat for my spear while Linda kept an eye on it. After a few deep breaths, cocking the pole spear and a shallow surface dive, I took my shot and got him! I stayed put for as long as my air held out to ensure he didn't wiggle off the spear, then brought him back to the boat and dumped him in the dinghy for later cleaning.
We went over to Flying Pig that night, so we kept the tail in the fridge until Friday when Linda sautéed it in some butter and garlic and served lobster over rice. Yum! Friday night Gusto joined us and Flying Pig at Grabbers for dinner, and then Saturday we all went back into the water. Dick from Gusto quickly got a lobster not far from where I speared mine. I didn't see any others on that patch of reef, so we all moved out to the rock near the mouth of the harbor. I spied one tucked back into a hole, but with enough showing to get a shot.
Either I missed or the spear tip glanced off the shell, but the lobster quickly flapped his tail and took off across the reef with me in pursuit. He went shallow, where it was hard to see him with all the bubbles from breaking waves, and my shot there missed again, but I saw him quickly flapping his way to the other side of the reef, so I continued to pursue. He backed up against an old trap lying on the bottom, and again his shell must have deflected the spear tip because he took off. This time, the barb on the spear tip caught in the mesh of the trap and I couldn't pursue until freeing it. Linda happened to spy him crawling into his original hole and called to me. So, fearing Dick would get to him before I could, I huffed and puffed my way over, cocked the spear as far back as I could and took my fourth shot. This one definitely got him, but it appeared the barb wasn't holding him on the spear so we held the spear down against the bottom until I could grab him with my hand. By this time his fight was gone and I emerged victorious. I saw at least one wound other than the final one, so it appears that one of my other shots was accurate, just not deep enough for the barb to hold the spear in. The smaller spears from the Hawaiian slings are starting to look good!
The tail was a nice 6" one, so this time I put it on the grill with some butter while Linda made some pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. Lobster twice in three days helps make up for the two months it took to get the first one!
We sailed from Great Guana to Treasure Cay on Monday, a very nice broad reach in 8-12 knots of wind. After dropping the hook, we went for another walk on that beautiful beach and had a cold one at the beach bar before coming back to the boat.
It appears that we're going to get our worst weather to date as a tropical low combines with a cold front to come up the east coast of Florida tomorrow, bringing storm force winds to the area on Wednesday and Thursday, so we're still hunkering down in the Abacos. We've let out some more chain and tied things down. Right now it's 89 degrees F and partly sunny, pretty nice fall weather, we'll let you know in a few days if we still feel that way!