Happenings in the 'Hood

June 3 – June 11, 2008

Chart of the 'Hood

I'm writing these words in a whisper: we're still here!

Our continued presence in exactly the same spot, a.k.a. WiFi Land by the cruising community, has drawn attention from a couple of our cruising friends who have passed through here. One of them went so far as to ask us if we had broken down! This morning, in a VHF conversation with departing friends, I mentioned that we were thinking of moving in a few days, now maybe another week, and received a humorous reply that we needed to exercise prudence and caution in arriving at the final departure decision and planning our next destination. Keen advice to the crew of FLUKE who logged about 4700 miles in 2007!

I've decided to include a chartlet for you to see what our neighborhood looks like, from one of our cruising guides, The Abaco Guide, by Stephen J. Pavlidis. We use cruising guides where ever we go to help us make decisions about where to navigate and safely anchor. You can see that the guide indicates the shape and size of the island, how deep the water is, where rocks or coral may be located, and suggested places for anchoring based on the quality of the sea bottom. Some guides include topographical data about the island itself. Most guides provide text information about the islands, customs, people, laws, places to buy food or fuel, beach landing sites, snorkeling spots, wrecks, interesting flora and fauna, and miscellaneous other pieces of information.

We are anchored close to the anchor symbol located at 26º49'N latitude and 77º22'W longitude. You can see the offshore reef, nearby cays and cuts, and other points of interest that I have referred to in the blog. One minute of latitude (one horizontal line on this chartlet) equals one nautical mile to give you an idea of distance.

We have had from 4 to 12 vessels of varied sorts spend a night or more here in our little anchorage. An unusual trawler phenomenon took place when two other Whalebacks, Steadfast and Friend Ship, showed up right next to us. Since there are only 29 of these boats in existence, having 3 of them in the same proximity, with no prior planning, is a quite a coincidence.

What a Good Path Looks Like

One morning Wayne, I, and Ursa landed FIN (the dinghy) at the islander's dock and took a land hike to Mt. Manjack, the highest point on the island, elevation 18'. Since it wasn't an arduous climb, we had enough energy left to hike over to Coconut Tree Bay and the next point of land north of the Bay via another mostly well-maintained trail. One part of the path went through a giant land crab habitat where one of the residents was busy doing burrow maintenance. Our final destination was a building site where a couple from London are in the process of constructing an island home aptly named Carousel.

Bahamian Excavator

Coconut Tree Bay

Friendly, and willing to share information about their building experience, we learned quite a bit about their 8 sided island retreat. On this particular morning we were able to watch some of the work associated with putting in the septic tank in the solid rock ground and the cedar, insect and mildew resistant, planking in the ceilings. The home is built on gigantic pilings so that flood waters will sweep right under the main living structure rather than damage costly parts of the house that couldn't take to getting wet. Wayne gleaned some useful information about their solar panels, in hopes that we may eventually use solar panels on FLUKE. They currently have 1, 1000 gal. cistern in use, but will have 6, 2500 gal. cisterns placed under the house prior to completion. All the water will be collected from the roof runoff into downspouts. We were told that the spouts need to be disconnected during hurricanes so that the cistern water will not be contaminated with salt water borne up in the hurricane's fury. They have been working on the home for 5 years, for a total of about 13 months, and they hope to finish it next year. They have been aided by recent relaxations in Bahamian duty laws that enable reduced duty imports of building supplies. At least that helps to encourage construction and get the locals some jobs.

Carousel Cottage

We dropped off some carrot-cranberry-walnut Amish Friendship Bread (it was great!) that I made to Tricia and her family, the local island residents of our anchorage. She told us she had just boated over to the New Plymouth settlement on Green Turtle Cay to take her daughter to the clinic for treatment of an earache. Eddie is having trouble with both his ears again, so we may have to break down and visit the clinic. Such a visit runs $30 which includes the diagnosis and medications, really a fair price.

At 2:02 p.m. a VHF broadcast came on saying that the Amy Roberts (a LOT of the out islanders have that surname) Elementary School on Green Turtle was closing the school at 2:00 because the school didn't have any water and they couldn't keep the kids at the school any longer that day. Parents were told they had to pick up their children immediately! We were wondering what the reaction was from the locals and were laughing just thinking about what havoc that message would create back at home, especially with negative time notice. That is the way life is here in the out islands: no problem, mon. Less can be better.

Some thundershowers are in the area, but we have only managed to collect 10 gal. of nasty roof water. The first gallons are gross because they wash the salt, bird poop, and who knows what else, off the roof. YUCK!

Perfecting the Art of Procrastination

I am convinced that each night we are invaded by some form of procrastination virus. The evidence is clear in that it is just difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Then, trying to decide what is going to be done each day is a monumental task, often involving arguments, with me, still having a touch of the workaholic streak that plagued me most of my life, insisting that we MUST DO SOMETHING. I think most days my two crewmates who carry the Y chromosome would not even have discussions about doing anything at all, and they would just be content to reposition themselves around FLUKE for the best napping spots in between their precisely timed feeding schedules. When I say stuff like this to them they tell me I should be banished to nearby Crab Cay, which they think must be named in my honor.

The weather plays a big part in what can be done if it involves leaving FLUKE unattended for any length of time, going snorkeling or fishing, or hiking across an island. We have our priorities, and that means that boat work is lower in importance on the list than fun activities. However, it still needs to be done.

Island Fun

How long do you think it takes to clean the shower on FLUKE? It takes 3 days and 1 hour. 3 days to think about doing it, and then 1 hour to get the job done. That is the rationale that is used for all the jobs that aren't absolutely necessary for safety or sustenance purposes.

Wayne has done a great job expanding his baking skills. Of course he is driven by his fined honed mantra “Tick tock, eat by the clock”. Since he has to have a sandwich for lunch every day, and we couldn't possibly bring enough bread from Florida, he has had to learn how to make bread. He had a private baking lesson with Carol (a skilled baker), from Take Time, another Whaleback, while she and her husband, Wayne (yes, isn't that a weird coincidence?) were in Vero for several weeks before we left. He has enjoyed it so much, he has moved on to baking another of his favorites, sweets. So, while Eddie and I are out in the deep blue sea trying to catch some nutritious fish, Wayne stays aboard FLUKE baking high calorie goodies. It is much better that I am not aboard when Wayne does his “magic” in the galley. I am one of those cooks who cleans up along the way; Wayne is the opposite, leaving a trail of debris after every step in a recipe. I was so thankful that I wasn't present when he had the great chocolate boil over. His description, liking it to an exploding lava dome on a volcano, made me shudder enough.

We've Got Bread

The whole crew had to put on their work hats to mobilize early a couple of mornings ago (after we ATE breakfast!) to change the anchor light bulb on top of the mast. It is important that we have an anchor light on all night long so other vessels can clearly see we are at anchor. While it would be difficult not to see this 60,000# white whale, the anchor light lets people know we are not moving. You are probably wondering why it takes 3 people to change a light bulb, just like that old, now politically incorrect joke? Well, we can't climb the mast, so it has to be lowered. This is a complicated, dangerous job. The mast has a lot of equipment on it and is held up by heavy duty stays and bolted to a big bracket on the back of the pilothouse roof. We have to connect a winch cable up as high as we can reach and then slowly winch it down while standing on the roof and then set it in a cradle, all while the boat moves with the wind and water. Then when the mast is finally low enough, it extends beyond the end of the aft deck, and Wayne has to hang out over the rail to remove the light cover and change the bulb, trying not to drop anything in the water, to be lost forever. When that is successfully done the mast has to be winched straight up, slid back into its bracket and bolted back in place. Oh, then it was almost time to EAT lunch!

The Long Reach

No one has an appetite when the sewer is malfunctioning. Seems like our holding tank is having a venting problem by not venting enough and having a big build-up of sewer gas rather than letting out nondescript wisps of the fumes on a regular basis. Then, when a toilet is flushed a HUGE cloud of noxious gas gets forced out the vent line, engulfing FLUKE, seeping in all ports and windows, making everyone moan and groan. Anchoring downwind from us could be a most unpleasant experience. I mean, we can't just get on the VHF and tell everyone to get ready for the big flush.

So, we've tried to take some corrective action by using our compressed air to blow back into one of the vent lines that we discovered was clogged (we're not sure with what, but there aren't a lot of possibilities) and are hoping that things will have improved. Fortunately, the ever present island breezes make the gas pass quickly.

The Two Sea Stooges Fishing Charters

Eddie and I are making regular forays out the nearby cuts, trolling, drift and bottom fishing in hopes of landing some edible, legal sized species of fish. We've started to attract a lot of flies and the dinghy stinks from blood and guts, but that is acceptable if we are bringing fish back to the boat.

When seas and winds are calm enough we go all the way out to the offshore reef which comes in as close as a half mile to shore in some places. We are pretty cramped for serious fishing in the dinghy, but we make the best of it, and despite some yelling and swearing, Eddie has wanted to go out regularly now without a lot of prompting. Some days he even catches more fish than I do! Outwardly that annoys me, but inwardly I am happy for him because that will keep him motivated.

Since I am the one who does all the rigging, and am usually doing so while underway, Eddie is now doing the driving. The other morning we were trolling (Fisherman's talk: when the sun is shining strong and bright, troll green and yellow to get a good bite) along the inside of the reef and entered a real shallow area. My back was to the bow of the dinghy, so I couldn't see what was up ahead, but I could look over the side and clearly see lots of coral heads, way too close to the surface (Sailor's talk: brown, brown run aground!). If that wasn't bad enough, I could see we were getting sucked into a wave that was pulling the water out from under us and would probably pull us up with it and push us right down on the reef if we didn't hit the bottom first and just have the wave crash over us. Eddie suggested we just try to ride the wave over the reef, but I felt that since the wave was still building, sucking too much water from under us, we weren't going to make it. I yelled at him to gun the engine to push us up the face of the wave and over its back side to deeper water. PRONTO! I wasn't worried about drowning or getting cut to shreds on the reef, but I was worried we would lose the engine on the dinghy. We managed to get up over the top and safely down the backside of the wave. That maneuver was good for some loud conversations with choice language!

Mutton Snapper, When Baa'd Is Good!

Trolling has yielded several species of fish so far: almaco jack, yellowtail snapper, blue runner, and a prize mutton snapper (8-9 lbs.). We managed to hook the mutton right when we were headed back from sea passing through the cut. Fishing is so much luck. I couldn't help but think of what my favorite golf pro used to say when I hit a great shot: even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then! So, it goes for the two sea stooges.

We are using varied sorts of cut bait for our drift and bottom fishing expeditions. We have to go out and catch our own bait now, so that is an extra step to the whole process. We like to get grunts, but if we aren't getting much, will use about anything that has some meat on it. Eddie hooked into a scorpion fish. I wasn't positive it was one when he first brought it into the boat, but I had a feeling that ugly fish, that not even a mother could love, with all those gobblygook projectile growths on his head and lips was something we should exercise caution with. They have venomous dorsal spines that can inflict serious injury. Another Dr. Suess fish.

Scorpion Fish

Queen Triggerfish

When we aren't spending our time trying to get untangled from the bottom, we have caught coney, triggerfish, porgey, and undersized grouper. We go out for 3 – 4 hours at a time, to make it sure we get back in time so as not to miss a feeding event.

Getting a Piece

We had a couple of friends from the deep visit us after we cleaned the big mutton snapper one day. We figured our resident barracuda would like a free meal, so we tied the fish carcass with a string attached to the swim platform to watch him feed up close. To our surprise, he didn't just take the whole thing all at once. While he was taking his too slow of time, a 6 ' tiger shark (just a baby, adults average 11') came by to have a little snack. It was fascinating to watch how the shark made passes around FLUKE, coming up to the carcass several times for little sniffs, to the consternation of the barracuda no doubt. Finally the shark engulfed the whole thing in its big jaws, cutting through the string like it wasn't there, slowly gliding into the sunset. Tiger sharks are known as “wastebaskets of the sea” because they eat anything. Besides all kinds of fish, seals, birds, tires, licenses plates, and even antlers have been found in their stomachs.

The Big Guy Finishes It Off

Eddie would not go in the water around FLUKE for 4 days after that. I keep telling him there are scarey things in the sea that come and go all the time whenever we're out there. We just don't see them. Another example of when ignorance is bliss.

Searching For Davey Jones Locker

Lloyd and Jacquelin continue in their quest to uncover mysteries of the sea bottom.

One afternoon we were snorkeling just off the south end of Crab Cay and decided to let the fast, incoming tide push us through the cut between Crab and Fiddle Cays while we dragged the dinghy along with us. We floated a good bit of the way to Crab Rock and then snorkeled all around the shallows of Crab Rock.

We saw several good octopus lairs, holes where octopus live and hide in during the day. At night they come out to hunt for their prey which they take back to the lair. Octopus eat mollusks and crustaceans and deposit the shells and exoskeletons outside the lair in nice neat piles called middens. We love sorting through the middens, looking for shells, most of which have no damage to them. I saw hundreds of hermit crabs in 1/2” shells crawling around at the entrance to one lair. Depending on the depth and shape of the lair we are able to peek in at the octopus.

Tools & Treasures

We found a just killed green sea turtle, actually just the head and shell. The entire body had been stripped out. Locals have always used the turtle meat for food, but next year new fishing regulations are supposed to put a stop to that. We have no idea how they will ever be enforced as fishing police are seldom seen in the out islands.

Eddie's Culinary Art, A Memorial to the Slain One

We have seen some premium mutton snapper, one of the easiest targets for spear fishing. However, we haven't pulled out our spears yet. We really need someone to give us some good pointers. Plus, two of our other cruising friends who spearfish a lot keep telling us stories of their close encounters with too aggressive bull sharks in these waters. While we haven't seen any of them, it seems like whenever we're out, there is a big barracuda close by over my shoulder that could make short work of any fish we could spear before we could manage to get it in the dinghy. More to come on this subject!