Pigs, Fish and Sharks and More

Ah we now heading back north and have taken some time to see a few places that we passed by so fast on the way down. Working up the Exuma chain of cays we have taken our time in exploring a few areas that we have either read about or heard about by past cruisers, some we have even discovered on our own.
What a few months will do in teaching one. It is the great migration back north now as we seen going south. But now we know so many more cruisers then we did coming down and it is much more fun. We have been with Skip and Carol on Rhapsody now for a few weeks as they have a 1995 Catalina 36 also. During our trip Carol found a spot on their boat that she loved riding on as I would say it is a real life figured head for their boat. Skip is one that is well lets say older then I am but young in heart and mind. Between the 2 of us we have been fishing and snorkeling so much that we are now living on fish and lobster the last few week. Our spearing skills are growing but still have much to learn. Jeannie and Carol go along at times with us but to watch and float around while the hunters hunt. Grunts are a smaller fish but go a couple of pounds if you look for the bigger ones. After getting a few of them around the cuts of Big Majors I was cleaning them on the swim platform and happen to look down and oh yes. Sharks. But Nurse sharks, so I was not to worried but yet just a little concerned. I did take a few steps up the swim ladder so I was not all legs in he water. So I had to tell Rhapsody about the sharks. On the next day we got a couple of nice groupers up around Big Majors area again. That afternoon Skip said lets try it again with the groupers. So we both clean a grouper and as Skip was cleaning his I said ah we have company again. Sure enough. One shark,then 2 nurse sharks show up each around 5 to 6 feet long. So what we ended up doing is taking a 1/4 nylon line and running it through one of the groupers gills and tied it off and back in it went to the sharks. This went on for about 25 min and what a show we had with the sharks. Finally we gave in and untied the line but not till after they about jerked our arms off feeling the real power of the sharks.


Big Majors is known for the pigs on the island and it is a draw for tourist as well as cruisers. It is a place you can take your food scraps and feed the pigs. Well if your all wondering how salt pork is made we finally figured it out, they drink and swim in the salt water thus making them salty. Yea Right Uh! Well it is my story. The pigs are very friendly but we do respect that they are wild pigs as we have heard of stories of people being bitten.
Leaf Cay down by Lee Stocking island has a few iguanas on it and there you can do the same with your food scraps, well we did.
As it was not long and out they came, about 3 feet long. Up and down the Exumas there are a few islands that have iguanas on them. There is so much to learn about the Bahama's as there is so much history about them and what took place around each cay. After reading a book called the Out Island Doctor which is rare for me to be reading. It puts a lot of things into perspective in what we are seeing. The area around pipe creek use to be used by the US military for military tracking. There is still buildings standing that you can rummage around in. A few years before we came down I met a cruiser online that their boat is called Veranda. Well he took a picture that captivated me and I had to seek it out, well long behold we found it and added our own twist to it from what all the other boats have added over the years. Then during the drug days of the 70s Carlos Lehder ruled on Normans Cay. Many buildings are still standing as some still have bullet holes with in them. weather wise it is starting to get warmer as we have had a lot of high 70's to 80's days and very few clouds, something we seem to always seem to have in Michigan, Clouds that is. As we move up the Exuma Islands you can start seeing the change in land formation and as the cays seen to get much more thinner and less land mass. While we stopped up around Little Sail Cay for a night I figured as soon as the anchor went down it was time to go get diner. So off we went and a few hours later we had a few nice catches. Well Spearing. When we crossed over to the Abaco's it was a 52 mile ocean run for us and it was a motor sail day as we wanted to be in by dark. The seas were rather flat and more like doing a lake Michigan crossing. Jeannie is getting better at bigger water so we chose to go a day sooner as if we had waited we could have sailed more. Arriving at Lynyard Cay we noticed off in the distance we could see smoke in quite a few places. It has been very dry on Great Abaco island and they were just letting it burn out.
Not sure how long this has been burning but we saw it for 3 days..Then we moved up to Hope Town as it is a small and well protected harbor as we had a cold front coming and were told winds of 50 kts with it. So we took a mooring ball. Well a day later we had that front and we saw 47 kts on the knot meter. Hope Town is very small and quaint but a tourist town. It has a actual working light house that we had toured and went up inside.All 101 steps up to the top.There is nothing that is automated about it as it is all original. It is like a old cuckoo clock where the weight is wound up to the top and as it revolves the weight slowly drops over the night It was very interesting as each night you can see the keeper lighting it if you look though the binoculars.



After leaving Hope Town we had a long ride to Marsh Harbor, 9 miles. Wha hoo. What we have noticed about the Abacos is . It is like being back in a big city. Boats galore and people everyplace. Something we are not use to and we have actually got to the point we like being away from it all. Hard to believe I know. One of our walking trips we came across this sign here in the Abacos that we had to get a picture of it.

We are planning on crossing back over in the next couple of weeks and doing a run to Jacksonville Fl if we get a good weather window. So we will post once we get back to the states and let you know how the crossing went.

Endless Summer

After spending around a month in Georgetown it was time to move on. Georgetown is a nice place for services and what ever you need, but way to many boats for us. The weather has been great as it is always sunny and I believe we had one day of rain for a few hours during our stay there. Do not get me wrong if you like structured events and certain times to do things then Georgetown is your place to be. They have crafts , volleyball, different seminars on cruising topics, and poker ect. On one of the morning vhf Georgetown nets it was talking about the poker night prior and it sounded like it got rather heated. It would have been just as fun to set and drink beer and watch the adults piss and moan because they could not get in to play poker. But it is way to structured for us. Last count we heard was over 350 boats in the harbor. While Jeannie was gone back to the states I had no trouble staying busy. Georgetown is like the catch all. It where everyone you have met along the way seems to end up. Jeannie arrived back on the 15 of February and was glad to be back in the warmth and sun. I think she finally figured out that the snow is not in her vocabulary. As getting snowed in a few times and the cars stuck while at home was not fun. During Jeannie’s time away I had dinner with Lori and Clint on Escort a few times along with a few on Polar Pacer. Just about everyday I was out snorkeling trying to hone my spearing skills to provide us with a few seafood dinners. A lot of time was spent with Steve and on Hey Jude and Clint and Lori on Escort out in the Sound of the Exumas as that is where the fish and lobster hang out. My trouble is that not knowing what to eat as I am at a point I do not shoot unless I plan on eating the fish. But shooting and hitting the fish is a skill also. So now that is a double whammy on my half. Well thankfully we have met up with Sapphire and Barry on Night Hawk. Between these 2 guys the have taught me some of the in and out of spearing. One of the first was I was passing up way to many fish that were great eating. So getting that down pat now we are having some fish for dinners. Lobster, well that is a different story. They hide out in totally different places then fish as one needs to think like a lobster and where would you want to hide. Down under the ledges and under the rocks down deeper. With that down now I working on honing those skills as well. I can say now that we have had 5 lobsters but a couple were on the small side. Fish, well they are easier to get at times. But you can tell the ones that have been shot at before. They are more elusive and harder to get.

Getting out of Georgetown was nice as getting over to Long Island was like leaving a huge city of people and moving to the country. They have about the same number of stores and as well stocked as Georgetown does. But way less people and boats. We counted 34 one day and that was the high that we have seen so far. Local people here are very friendly and always glad to speak to you or to help you in any way they can. Long Island Breeze is a local resort that caters to the cruisers as Mike and Jackie are a couple that run it and Mike does a morning net on the vhf radio at 8:30 to give you some news, weather and local info. Long Island will be our furthest point south that we will go as we wanted to actually get in the tropics to say we had Mutual Fun in the tropics. Some of our days include long walks out on the beaches on the Atlantic side of the island looking at all the trash and finding what one might be able to use. Then snorkeling at low tide amongst the coral heads and elk coral searching for food and fish searching for us, Sharks yep we’ve see them off and on while snorkeling. 2 of the days on Long Island we took and shared a rental car with Rhapsody which is also a Catalina 36. Skip and Carol had already been at Long Island once before this year so they were our tour guides and all of us had so much fun. The first day we toured the southern end of Long Island down all the way to Clarence town. There we toured one of the older churches which up in the one of the towers it gave us a remarkable view of the area. One of our stops was to Max’s conch bar which is a road side bar and was very cool and great people there. Day 2 of the car rental we went to the north end of Long Island and walked up to a monument the that talked about Columbus landing on the north side of Long Island. What a view that was as well. The road getting their was not what we all call a road. But we made it thanks to Skips great driving.On the way we dropped our laundry off to be done which was new to us but would do it again. One of the places that we went to we passed a house that Skip and Carol had met the couple from the states that own it so we had to stop by. After an hour meeting Bernie & Karen and getting a tour of their place. What is interesting is to see how they grow their own produce. It is what is called pot hole gardening. They make a hole in the coral then fill the holes with soil and plant their plants. After seeing them we were off exploring once again. Going about a half mile we went to a vacant home that Carol had been to which gave us beach access where we had lunch. Just down the beach from where we were was the home where Elizabeth Taylor and Senator John Warner got married at. Then on the way back we had to stop at Stella Maris Inn for a bite to eat and a few drinks. Once again we meet a couple from Margareta and their friends from the Island. Penny was a local and loved her wine, Jeannie got along well with her especially she loved her top she had on. It said O to naked in 1 ½ bottles. Penny lives in a home that over looks Thompson Bay and will often hale cruising boats in the bay just to meet them. After we leave Long Island we are not sure what way we will start our journey back to Florida but we will be in the Abaco’s sometime in early April as we have some friends that we are wanting to meet up with that we came down the ICW with last fall. Weather plays an important part in our plans as we have we have learned more about the fronts and when to move and when to sit. We usually try and look out at a 3 day weather window as that gives us enough time to run and hide if we need to. I will say we have been very luck in our weather so far as not have one of those oh god days. One thing we both have learned is not to be in a hurry and there is always tomorrow.
NOTE due to band with we can not download pictures at this time, We will update this part when we have better wifi.