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.