“Wouldst thou,” so the helmsman answered, “ / Learn the secret of the sea?/ Only those who brave its dangers/ Comprehend its mystery.” Longfellow
Things overheard in the Bahamas-
You got to sweep
in front of your own stoop, den all the worl’ be clean.
All kinda flyin’
right. Who da H E double hok.
Spankadotious
jeep. All dem udder tings. Spiralin’.
We had a wonderful time in the Northern Abacos/
Bahamas. We crossed the Gulf Stream from
West Palm Bch., FL to West End, Grand Bahama which is about 60 nautical
miles. We left in the dark, about 4 am
and steered south of our waypoint at West End to counter the 2.5 knot average
northerly current of the Stream which begins roughly 10 miles out from the East
coast of FL. It was a little rough in
the beginning against the tide but we had a fairly good motorsail across. Saw our first (of many) flying fish. They can actually fly, sometimes as much as a
hundred yards over the wave tops. Very
spankadotious. Even got a few on
deck. We spent two nights at the resort
marina at West End and then sailed NW across the little bahama bank (the
overdraft charges are even worse than Providence Bank) in an average of 8 feet
of water and anchored off the small deserted cay (key) Mangrove Cay. We had buddy sailed with a Brit- Richard-(thanks
for the lure, Richard, we caught a 30” mahi-mahi 4 miles out from Lake Worth-
delish) and his partner- Mari, a Philipino,
from FL. But they decided that this open water/ deserted cay thing was
not for them, and turned back. Mari was
very anxious about pirates, sharks, death, etc.
and we all know and sympathize that anxiety and fear are no fun at all. In fact, after three weeks of being in the
Bahamas, with some heavy winds (a whitish squall), shallow water, uncertain
anchorages, culture shock, etc. etc. Jan and I became quite exhausted by the
constant anxiety, and were totally ready to be teleported back home. Nevertheless, the seafood, the snorkeling,
the crystalline waters, the adventure, the sunsets, the fishing, the sights,
the bird sightings, the beachcombing, and the beer ( You want “Sands” or
“Kalik” not “Eclipse”) and the friendly, kind people, made it all worth
while. In spades.
Early one morning, anchored off Double-Breaster Cays, while ensconced upon our electric porcelain
throne, I hear Jan exclaim- “Oh no, Dave, our dinghy’s gone!” . I’m thinking , Yeah, right, you can’t fool
me- well, you can, but not this morning..
Sure enough, I poked my head up out of the hatch, “and there, much to my
surprise” was no dinghy. After two frantic hours of searching up and
down the shore and calling on the radio, we were just leaving when we got a
reply on 16 that someone had found our dinghy, and would bring it out to
us. Soon, a one-armed man and his
family, in an old, beat-up 17’ boat arrived with our dinghy in tow and really
made our day. They even taught us how to
harvest the conch from a huge shell I had found. We gave them $40 and Jan had some books and
toys for the kids so we hope they were as happy as we were. We had come back from an excursion to the
beach the night before and I had clipped the davit line to a rope on the dinghy
instead of the hoisting u-fitting , so with the bouncing during the night, a
knot came loose and she was free . The
current swept it thru a small cut bordered with razor-sharp coral rock and into
the inner bay. We felt very fortunate, especially
because of all the dire tales we heard out there. Lost dinghys, dragging anchors, groundings,
loss of generators, loss of engines, and even one night at the dock, an old man
flatlined on a boat just down from us, so there were sirens and lights and a
real brouhaha. They resuscitated him and
hauled him away to Freeport on a gurney.
A couple weeks later, when we returned to the same marina, the guy on
the boat said the old guy was flying back out and was continuing their
cruise. Never say die. “They wanted me
to go to rehab/ I said ah NO, No, NO.” Others had the flu, sea sickness, and food
poisoning. “I can’t help it if I’m
Lucky.”
At Little Grand
Cay, Jason took me out to the reef (on the Atlantic side, Bob could be on the
boat in 20’ of water and throw a potato into 600’ depths, the bottom is so
steep) and we caught about a dozen yellow tail in 2 hours. Best fish I ever ate. I had a nice yellowtail on when suddenly I
felt a ginormous hit and a 3’ barracuda leapt 12’ into the sunlight
flashing. When I reeled in only the head
of the yellow was on the hook. Whoa,
Nellie! Spektakularishous!
Birds- night heron, various sand pipers, plover, black-headed gull, green heron, boat-tailed
grackle, common gallinule, anhinga, a
million egrets, pelicans, herons (great blue/Louisiana/great white, etc.) ,
terns, ducks,scoters, coots, osprey, bald eagles, and wonderfully the
black-necked stilt and the swallowtailed kite.
A lot of these were on the Okeechobee waterway which technically makes
the southern half of FL an island.
Fauna- Sea turtles,
needle fish, rays, wahoo, alligators by the ton, dolphin (speckled), lots of
cool unident. reef fish, jelly-fish, mahi-mahi, conch, star fish, manatee, barracuda,
sharks, lobster, etc…..and even a camel.
Our favorite marina is in Stuart, FL, where we stayed on a
mooring ball for $15/nite and had new showers, restrooms, lounge w/ big/screen,
groceries, bicycles, groceries, laundry, all nearby and best of all visited
with our buddies Doug and Maxine Snyder who had a condo just up the
road. In Stuart check out a new bistro- Be Merry.
New music- Adele Old Music-
Lil Ed and the Imperials at Jensen Beach.
Headin’ back to Punta Gorda and then to S. Carolina and then
Mich. by June w/ the van.
People of the World,
Relax!
Hi Ho
