THE END OF THE 2008 ADVENTURE IN THE ABACOS

July 3 – July 27, 2008

Being Blue in a Beautiful Way

We have managed to keep busy since the last blog posting. It is with much sadness that I'm now (July 24) writing the final chapter of this year's Spring/Summer cruise; we all wish that we were staying longer. That's saying a lot since we have had relatively poor weather with lots of wind, overcast days, day and night thunderstorms, terrible lightning, hurricane anxiety, water with poor visibility and fast moving currents, hordes of biting insects,burned by fire coral, shark encounters of an unpleasant kind, and finally, very hot days when the wind wasn't blowing. So, why have we stayed and still don't want to leave? Read the rest of the story!

The Motley Crew

Stranded Naked

30 boats ended up anchored in our “neighborhood” the night of July 2, most all to attend the big event scheduled for the next day on Fiddle Cay, an easy dinghy ride around corner of our Crab Cay. Many more people, as evidenced by the photographs, arrived in various vessels from neighboring cays and other anchorages.

Just a Part of the Food Line

Our Happy Group

Despite ominous skies, this Regatta Time event proved to be a fun time for all. No one could ask for a refund since the food and drinks were free! The grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and fixings went well with the Abaco Glow margaritas. Commemorative t-shirts were for sale, and that line was nearly as long as the food line. Jimmy Buffet music blared from steamer trunk sized speakers as people wore funny hats, competed in contests, walked a tight rope, milled about in the gin clear water, and caught up on cruising news with old and new friends.

Food Instructions

The Real Party Animal

Strategically Placed Flowers

Leaving Civilization Behind

After we finished eating our food and completed our social interactions at Stranded Naked we hauled up the anchor to head north to Allans-Pensacola Cay. This was to be our first stop in what would be a gradual move westward through a chain of small, remote cays that are mostly uninhabited except for a couple of small settlements that can provide only a minimal amount of goods and services. In fact, only the most adventuresome cruisers spend extended time in these areas because of poor holding, shallow water with swift currents, and no protection from the wind. Those are especially trying conditions for FLUKE with her deep draft, heavy weight, and big windage. An eye to the weather on a daily basis is a must!

Signing Tree

All that negative stuff aside, Allans-Pensacola is an idyllic cay with picturesque surroundings. In times past, this land mass was once two separate cays, but a hurricane joined the two together by pushing up large amounts of sand such that now there is vegetation growing on the “new” area. Allans was once the site of a U.S. missile tracking station, and the abandoned ruins, old dock, and foot path to a beautiful beach (opening photo) with colorful silver buttonwood signing trees are regularly visited by passing cruisers. Nearby offshore reefs and cuts between the small adjacent cays, afford excellent trolling, spearfishing, and snorkeling opportunities.

Allans-Pensacola Yacht Club Dock

We celebrated July 4 aboard FLUKE with our friends Janet and Bruce from NOCALL. Janet made a big dish of lasagna. That feast was topped off with the traditional holiday dessert of ice cream, an extra special treat when you're in the Bahamian out islands. Eddie had been whining about eating the ice cream since the beginning of June, but had finally been convinced it would be more enjoyable to share it with friends who would appreciate the treat too! And they did.

Eddie speared his first edible fish (Nassau and strawberry groupers) on July 10. Then, we enjoyed our most memorable Bahamian meal aboard FLUKE with Janet and Bruce: freshly caught grouper and hogfish encrusted with coconut and almonds (Janet's special fish dish), cole slaw, scalloped potatoes,and fruit ambrosia. Who needs a restaurant?

The Hunters With Their Catch

Bahamian Feasters

After leaving Allans-Pensacola, still traveling with NOCALL, we made a day stop in Cooper's Town, located along the eastern shore of Great Abaco a.k.a., the mainland of the Abacos. NOCALL needed some dinghy fuel and a couple of grocery items. We bought a 4# bag of sugar for $2.99. The classy hot spot waterfront bar and eating establishment had a sign that read “No Dope Smoking”.

Waterfront Conch Bar

With high westerly winds in the forecast we decided to anchor off of Angelfish Point, a short distance north of Cooper's Town, and the northernmost point of land on Great Abaco. Aye Doc, with Stacy and Nancy aboard, joined up with us. We anchored for 5 nights behind a 43' hill of land that helped block the winds and rain that came with the thunderstorms. We productively passed time between storms by walking the inside beach, exploring the backwater shallow areas adjacent to where we were anchored, trolling in the lee of the point, and snorkeling along the rocky shoreline.

He Drew Blood

The shallow areas of the mangrove flats offer some interesting exploring opportunities if you aren't in a hurry and have the patience to carefully pick your way through the skinny water in your dinghy. Blue holes of various sizes, some hardly larger than FIN, abound. It is fascinating to come upon a deep blue hole sitting amidst a brown, grassy shallow area. You glide over it and peer down through the crystalline blue water; you may see honeycombed rock formations with fish swimming in and out or even water bubbling the sand around the bottom where the water is spilling into the hole from an underground stream. A small barracuda jumped right into FIN and startled us!

Looking for Deeper Water

Eddie and I had fun trolling. We had several hits and boated a toothy barracuda, big horse eye jack and even bigger, cubera snapper. Despite making great fillets, Eddie and Wayne wouldn't eat the snapper when I mentioned that this species of snapper was associated with ciguatera poisoning. This neurotoxin accumulates in the food chain when toxin containing dinoflagellates are consumed by small reef dwelling species of fish who are, in turn, eaten by bigger fish which further concentrates the toxin. The toxin, which doesn't affect fish, is most frequently associated with large sized barracuda, grouper, and snapper (bigger than what we caught). Usually word will be out in regions where ciguatera has been found, and we haven't heard of anyone being afflicted during our travels. Oddly enough, the guys have eaten grouper and other snapper until they have started to grow scales. We reached a compromise by freezing the Cubera to eat when we get back to Florida and have access to 911 or the nearby community hospital.

Cubera Snapper

You don't need vibrant, colorful coral reefs to have fun snorkeling as evidenced by the good time we had poking among the rocks lining the shore for 4 hours. Eddie found a small Danforth anchor, and I found a mushroom anchor. We saw so many lobster (to say 100 would not be exaggerating) just sitting side by side in ledges; some ledges were stacked on top of one another, and they were filled with another whole row of lobsters. We are so disappointed not to be here for lobster season which starts August 1 as we would only need a day to get our legal quota. Oh well, we sure have had a lot of enjoyment anyway in just seeing them in their natural habitats. I poked through octopus middens and found a couple of nice shells. Despite my declaration that it would be a recreational snorkel Lloyd took along his spear anyway, but I wouldn't tell him when I saw any fish. We had swam to shore from FLUKE and trying to spear fish with no place to put them would only lead to trouble as you will read about further into this blog.

We were finally able to move further westward to the Fish Cays on July 17. They are a group of 4, low lying cays with a couple of nice beaches surrounded by beautiful water. However, they are out in the open and plagued by swift currents. We were bounced around quite a bit and could hear the water ripping by under the hull when the tide was moving. We came here to do some spearfishing on the nearby reefs, but unsettled weather only permitted a two night stay.

We moved over to Strangers Cay, trolling and boating 2 barracuda, for another stay of just two nights. Scoured sea bottom makes finding a good anchor hold a real challenge. Swift currents move off nearby bars and cuts, and there is minimal wind protection from the low land mass.

The Fleet at Anchor

Everyone wanted to spearfish the nearby reefs in hopes of finding some good fish since the area doesn't get a lot of visitors. Murky water dampened our efforts, but we managed to get a few anyway.

Stacy took Janet, Nancy, Ursa, and I to the oceanside beach for shelling. Beach landings are difficult because of the surge from the onshore waves, so you have to time your exit from the skiff properly. Nancy had gotten off the bow and was moving toward shore and stepped into a hole at the same time I was getting off the bow. I tripped over her and fell down. Wayne had tossed Ursa into the water to swim to me while Stacy was trying to back up the skiff to keep from getting pushed into us, so she just added to the confusion. We were all laughing so much it was difficult to get up!

Uncloudy Day, a Bahamian conch boat, came in to anchor for a night. The boat carries 10,000 conch, which they take to Nassau to sell for $2.50 each, provided they are delivered alive. It takes the 5 man crew about a week to fill the boat. Every night they have to unload ALL the conch into their 2 dinghies and take them to shallow water where they are retrieved again the next morning. The conch can't crawl away because 4-5 are strung together with a rope looped through a hole in the outer part of their shell. The dinghies are piled so high with conch they are barely above the water, and have to be constantly bailed out to keep from going under.

Two crew members came by our boats wanting to trade their conch for “smokes or beer”. I told them we don't smoke and we were out of beer to where I was going to have to ask Stacy to let us have a couple of cans. We didn't want any conch anyway, but I asked them if they needed some canned foods. They just laughed at me!

The most special event at Strangers Cay was getting to see the green flash at sunset. Until you get to see one you don't know how unique it is. When the sunset's horizon is clear, and atmospheric conditions are correct, the orange yellow orb of the sun melts into the last bit of the horizon and a beautiful emerald green flash pops up for about a second. If you blink, you will miss it, but if you see it you will remember it forever.

On July 21 we moved further west to Wells Bay, adjacent to the Grand Cays. Trolling on the way over proved to be profitable. We boated a gigantic barracuda that put on a good show, leaping 8-10' out of the water after it was hooked. We also caught a nice yellowtail snapper (in the freezer), an Almaco jack, and half an amberjack, which was chewed off when I was reeling it in.

Yellowtail Snapper

Little Grand Cay has a small settlement and provides some basic goods and services so it is a popular cruiser's stop in this part of the northwestern Abacos. Walkers Cay is about 2-3 miles away. It used to be a popular dive and fishing resort until it was destroyed by a hurricane a few years ago and has never been rebuilt, although you can still clear customs and immigration there. Wells Bay has fair holding, but you have to chose your spot carefully as many of the clear bright patches on the bottom are not sand, they are that scoured, rocky marl.

Wells Bay Beach Meeting

The patch reefs are close to the Bay, so are a convenient dinghy ride. I thought they were the most beautiful heads we have seen on this trip. There is a large diversity of fish and both hard and soft corals, varying depths, interesting structure formations and fair currents. We had a special treat on one dive when a pod of 8 dolphins spent some time with us swimming in the water. Janet was even able to get some good video footage.

Our weather woes continued with thunderstorms popping up in mid morning, right about the time we like to leave to go diving. One day we were caught out on the reef and had to ride back in the pelting, cold rain with lightning and thunder. Pretty scary.

Nearby Conch Shell Cay has a small beach on the northwest tip where you can find quite a bit of sea glass. You have to pay your dues though; there is no place to safely land the dinghy, so you have to anchor off and swim in. If you swim into the beach be very careful of the slick, flat rocks that are right off the beach. I made 2 trips and added quite a few nice pieces to my sea glass treasure chest.

Lillies by the Sea

Eking Out An Existence

I think out island living presents a hard life for most of the residents, and much of their lifestyle pits our ideals of conservation against their daily livelihoods. Most cruisers come here to enjoy the natural resources and do follow bag limit rules. We have to pay $300 to clear customs, part of which is supposed to be used for “conservation”.

I already described the activities aboard the conch boat, Uncloudy Day, and that is just one of those boats, and there are many more. They are having to go further and deeper to find the conch to maintain their livelihoods. The conch are not keeping up.

We have walked deserted beaches on uninhabited cays and saw where sea turtle nests have been dug up to harvest all the eggs. And they are still killing the turtles.

Janet saw a Bahamian woman collecting bird eggs along a rocky shore, probably night hawks, terns, or gulls like I have marveled over and written about in an earlier posting.

In Wells Bay we watched 2 men pull up an abandoned electrical cable from the sea bottom and cut it into pieces to salvage the copper to sell for scrap. Very hard work, but at least they are not hurting their natural resources.

The settlement towns of Grand and Cooper's Town do not look thriving. I do not know how they are able to afford to pay the high prices for food and fuel that we see here. A walk around town brings friendly smiles from residents, but they are just milling around during the traditional work hours. Hopefully they have a viable plan for the future, and it just isn't based alone on these words posted at the school.

Trying to Teach the Young

How Lloyd Kept All His Limbs and Became a Champion

One of our goals this trip was to learn how to spearfish, and I have briefly mentioned that we had some success. Much thanks goes to Bruce and Janet (and later on, Stacy) who took the time and patience to let us go diving with them and give us tips on techniques and safety. We know that they chose dive sights that were best suited to our level of skill, despite my complaints that I felt we were being trained for the Senior Olympics with some of the currents we had to swim in.

Lloyd Hones his Weapon

One of the spearfishing rules we tried to adhere to was to dive in pairs, so early on Eddie and I would go out together with Eddie carrying the spear and both of us trying to spot fish. Then, if Eddie would dive down to try to take a shot, I would hover nearby to make sure that he didn't get into any trouble, particularly watching out for sharks.

If a fish is speared and isn't killed directly by the hit, it will thrash violently to try to free itself from the spear. The thrashing and sounds made by the fish, noise of the spear hitting the fish or rocks, blood in the water, and our movements all serve to make the reef creatures take notice. Some of them come out of their hiding places to see what's going on, some swim farther away, and some even come close to the speared fish hoping to get a piece of the action. Thus, it becomes very important to get the speared fish to the surface and out of the water and into the dinghy as soon as possible.

July 11, the day after Lloyd's first big success, nearly proved to be the end of his budding new career. We were diving on a large coral head with a lot of current and had gotten quite a ways from the dinghy. Plus, we were both carrying spears and got separated going after different fish. I heard Eddie yelling and looked up to see he had speared a fairly large hogfish and was struggling to keep it out of the water. I was a bit closer to the dinghy than I was to him, so I decided to swim back to get the dinghy and then go pick up Eddie.

I heard Eddie yell “shark” and just swam as fast as I could. By the time I managed to get to him with the dinghy he had dropped his weight belt (he didn't think he could stay afloat during the melee´) and the shark had grabbed hold of the fish and spear and took off. We were lucky there was only one shark and the speared fish kept him occupied! Fortunately Eddie only lost the expensive spear and his weight belt. He was determined not to quit though.

It was another week before the weather calmed enough to allow us to dive again, when we had moved to the Fish Cays. We added another safety net to our strategy: Wayne volunteered to stay in the dinghy and drive over to anyone who speared a fish and take the fish off. This gave everyone much better peace of mind and greater mobility.

We continued to have more encounters with the “toothy guys in the gray suits”, but we kept our distance and watched their behavior and moved to other areas. However, one more time, we knew we had overstayed our welcome and pressed our luck to the limit. Eddie wounded a fish, and Stacy went after it to try to shoot it again, and did, but not before the “word” had gotten out. As Stacy was bringing the wounded fish to the surface, two bull sharks (they are BAD) came after it; Stacy had to slap the fish off the spear to divert the sharks away from him and Nancy who was in the water nearby. Fortunately the two sharks were content to fight over the fish in time for all of us to get back in our boats.

By the time July 24 came, Eddie had gotten his technique down better, borrowed a weight belt from Bruce, and Stacy loaned him a different style spear and a set of “lucky” beads, presumably as a joke. However, on the next outing Eddie speared the most and biggest fish! Even the master divers cheered for him.

Eddie and His Hogfish

So, how has Jacquelyn managed to do? With minimal spear time, I've only shot 2 fish, and neither one stayed on the spear to allow me to get it to the surface. Eddie hit a fish which fell off his spear, and I swam to the bottom and grabbed it with my hand and surfaced and threw it in the dinghy. This year I can only take credit for being a good fish spotter for Lloyd, but I am looking forward to trying my luck at spearfishing during our next visit.

The Last Day

We left Wells Bay yesterday afternoon and headed to remote Mangrove Cay to spend the night. We were spared a night of thunderstorms and got up at 3:30 a.m. to finish crossing the Banks and cross the Gulf Stream in hopes of getting to Ft. Pierce inlet and up the ICW to Vero Beach before dark. The best news is that the crossing has been calm enough for me to write most of the day, and no one, not even Eddie, has gotten seasick. We've been trolling and have boated a barracuda and small tuna. The not so good news is that we probably won't make it to Vero before dark, but if we don't have to deal with a thunderstorm, which we can see in the distance, we can tough it out and get to the home dock.
Eddie has spent the day on the pity pot, lamenting over having to leave when there were more fish to be shot. Wayne has spent the day with Jason Bourne (Bourne Supremacy). I've been busy writing and being grateful for having been lucky enough to have spent the last nine weeks on another of life's adventures. We all want to walk and swim those islands again and we can find the way, since we left behind a trail.

What We Left Behind

Standby For Future News

FLUKE will be getting hauled out within the next month to have some preventative maintenance work done and to get some storm protection. We will have some photos to share, and you can see what this big girl looks like out of the water.