Worth Repeating

June 30 – July 4, 2012

After we had finished our “business” in the Green Turtle Cay area, Wayne asked me where I wanted to stop next as we continued our move northward.  The answer was easy, Powell Cay.  We had not stopped there for several years, and I knew it would be a great island for beach combing, both on the ocean side and the Sea of Abaco beaches.

Powell is interesting because it is located in an area of already populated cays, yet it is still unoccupied, not one house on the whole island.  With the prevailing easterly winds, there is good holding on the island's western side, near a prominent bluff, one of the few “high” rocky outcroppings on any of the cays in this part of the Abacos.  Years ago when we anchored here, it was the first time I had ever seen the beautiful, bright white, tropic birds.  They nest in holes on the side of the bluff, and this year we were treated to the antics of 3 pairs as they glided gracefully on the air currents with their long plumage trailing behind.

Laying idle

There is a trail from the shore up to the area above the bluff.  We had not found it on our previous stops, so it was on the agenda to find this time.  Fortunately, someone had hung a sign indicating “Bluff Trail” so we had a good indication where to look for the trail this time.  However, with the heavy rains a lot of new growth had covered the entrance to the trail, but we manged to find it and headed up the path.  There were several large trees that had gotten blown over in recent storms laying across the path, so we had to duck under them.  Wayne was in the lead, so I could see him bending down, but he didn't tell me about the two tree trunks that were side by side.  From my level I could see the first one, but not the second one.  So, when I ducked under the first one I couldn't see the second one because of my hat, so I bent up right into the second trunk and smashed my forehead right into it.  Even through my hat, it broke the skin.  Eddie was behind me on the trail and couldn't see what happened, so he came to the two trees and did the same thing, so he couldn't make fun of me!

Happy trails to you

After we made the short hike up to the bluff, which is worth ducking under all the fallen trees for, we decided to hike over to the ocean side beach.  That trail was very obvious, as indicated by the above photo.

The well-used trail takes you through a variety of island habitats, open and shaded, including elevation changes.  Overall, the footing is easy, but you have to wear decent shoes to avoid getting punctured by thorny vegetation or sharp rocks and to keep from slipping.  One section of the trail is very low, and had standing water on it,  a good mosquito breeding ground, as evidenced by how many times we got buzzed in the thickly vegetated areas.

Mosquito goo trail

We walked into the neighborhood of a gray gnatcatcher.  We've run into the tiny, 4” chattering birds before.  They come real close to you and hop from branch to branch until you leave their area.  For being so small they have a lot of spunk!  They are the chihuahuas of the bird world.

Gray gnatcatcher

There is a nice high dune that you crest before you see the ocean.  You can look back the way you came and see other parts of the dense undulating island.

Great swimming beach

The beach has soft, clean white sand and a broad, expansive area 50 yards wide offshore with a clear sandy bottom.  We could see 4 nurse sharks placidly cruising along the bottom.  There were some offshore rocks and coral heads visible, and we decided we would take the dinghy out to them the following day.

Rather than taking the “public” trail back to the west side of the island, Wayne said that we should try walking around the north end of the island like we had done on a previous visit.  I thought I vaguely remembered having done that hike before and remarked that, if I remembered correctly, we had to wade in waist deep water part of the way.  Wayne said he wasn't sure that was the same episode he was thinking of, so I reluctantly agreed to go along.  I knew the tide was rising and was concerned that the waist deep water might require swimming instead, and we had “treasures” we were carrying that I wouldn't want to give up.

Shallow existence

The first part of the hike back wasn't too bad.  We had to forge our way through some knee high vegetation with only a few thorns until we reached the NE end of the island where there is another nice beach area.  Since the tide was still low we could walk on the sand most of the way.  There were many big invasive trees fallen over, probably from the 2011 hurricane season.  Looking in the photo above, you can see why the whole tree fell over instead of just getting blown apart from the wind.  The roots are shallow because of the iron rock base, some still clinging to the root ball, and the storms erode the earth and sand away from underneath. The native vegetation does a better job of surviving because of their slow, deep-rooting rate of growth which makes for stronger wood fibers and better holding.

We FLUKESTERS began to get spread out on this section of the walk.  Wayne had gotten farther in the lead, and with the curving shoreline was out of sight.  I was in the second position and stopped to figure out if we could manage to get a large piece of driftwood I knew was meant for me back to FLUKE.  I could see Eddie rounding the last bend and decided to call him over.  When he saw it, he agreed we wouldn't find another piece better than that on the rest of the walk so we should take it.  He said he would try to carry it for a while by himself, but I had my doubts as to how long he would be able to make it.

Eddie with good intentions

After about 100 yds, Eddie had had enough and suggested resting in the shade.  He asked where Wayne was, and I told him I thought he was up ahead since I hadn't seen him in 15 minutes.  While Eddie rested I rounded two more corners to try to find Wayne, but couldn't see him.  I wondered if he had found a trail through the brush since we had run out of beach and there were only rocks and thick vegetation to walk through along the water. 

Eddie and I began arguing about what Wayne may have done, with Eddie thinking that he was probably going on ahead to get the dinghy because he knew we had the big piece of driftwood.  I didn't think so and suggested that we could share the weight of carrying the log by each of us holding an end.  This banter went on for some time until we realized we had the dinghy key and Wayne wouldn't be able to pick us up!

Soon after we started moving again, Wayne showed back up and asked what happened until he saw the big driftwood piece.  Rather than make a fuss about it, he took on a resigned, good sport, attitude when he saw how we had already “bonded” with it.  He showed us the shoreline “path” he had taken on the way back to us.  On his return pass to us, he had waded through the water, but it had already risen too high for us to be able to do that with all we had to carry, so we were stuck having to scrape through the underbrush and rocky terrain right along the water's edge.  Wayne and Eddie had to pass the log through the brush since there wasn't enough room in most places to hold it across your body.  Wayne called it a “death march”!

We finally made it back to the flat, sandy, west side shoreline where it was easy to walk again, and Wayne took over carrying the big log.  We came upon several people who had beached their day boat where they were trying to cool off in the water.  One of the guys yelled out that he liked our driftwood – a man after my heart!  He, like Eddie and I, has THE VISION.

The following morning we took the dinghy back out to the east side of the island to check out the rocks and coral heads we had seen from the beach the day before.  Eddie speared a 3# grouper, but overall there weren't many fish to see.  Wayne said that we should get back to the west side of the island via the south end, but I told him I thought it was too shallow for the falling tide, but Wayne didn't think so.  Since he hadn't fussed about having to deal with the driftwood the day before, I decided to let him have his way about taking the southern route.  Never having said “I told you so”, I still wasn't happy having to help drag the heavy dinghy several times for quite a distance until we had deep enough water to run the motor.

We had yummy grouper sandwiches for lunch and then a little time to rest and try to stay cool.

Dog day afternoon

Sometimes the coolest air is located in the shade on the bridge deck, and we all retreat to that area at one time or another to try to catch a breeze swirling down the side of the boat.

When the winds increased and had a more westerly flow, we moved over to Angelfish Point.  Since it was already past 5:00, we knew we wouldn't be bothered much by boat wakes at that time of day.  We have always found good anchoring along the east side of Angelfish where we have ridden out some very high blows. 

I talked Wayne into driving the dinghy for me while I trolled along the east side of Crab Cay from its northern end to a few miles south down from where we were anchored.  I got several hits and had one fish up to the boat, but lost it before I could see what it was.

Moonrise over the thunderhead

On the morning of July 2 we moved to Allans-Pensacola where we rendezvoused with our friends, Carol and Bruce, on EAGLE.  We all went out to the offshore coral heads for a 4 hour marathon dive.  We don't know when to say when!  I speared a 4# grouper, but overall we didn't see many fish considering all the time we spent in the water.  There were 12 boats anchored at the cay for the night, the most we have seen at anchor at any of the small cays the entire time we have been cruising this year.

The following day, we moved over to the Fish Cays and went out for another dive trip.  While we did see more fish than the other places, it was still less fish than we had seen the previous two years.  Surprisingly, we haven't seen any sharks, which is unusual when we spear fish and stir up the neighborhood.  The visibility was poor, so maybe they were there, and we just couldn't see them.  But we KNOW they can see us, so we are always on the lookout.

We stayed anchored at the Fish Cays for the night, and EAGLE elected to go back over to Allans-Pensacola where they felt more comfortable.  We didn't mind being by ourselves, but it would have been nice if they took a couple thousand mosquitoes with them!

We rendezvoused with EAGLE in Moraine Cut the next morning where we planned to go out beyond the barrier reef and head westward to Wells Bay off the Grand Cays, which would be our final anchoring area before heading back to Florida.

Since our normal cruising speed is also great for trolling, we planned to try our luck trolling the 150 – 300' depths for the 7 hours it would take us to get over to Wells Bay.  We had our lines in the water as we went through the Moraine Cut and caught and released a jack.  That was the first fish of what would turn out to be an explosive Fourth of July fishing day for the FLUKESTERS.  Finally!

Eddie and the blackfin

You know that old saying “Be careful what you wish for”.  Well, when it was time to eat lunch, we had to pull in the fishing lines so that we wouldn't hook up any fish while we were trying to eat.  Then, by 2:00 p.m. we had to bring in both lines altogether because we were just too hot (it was 90 degrees in the pilothouse) and too tired to have to reel in the fish and take them off the line.  Our total for the day was 8 blackfin tuna (ranging in size from about 8 – 15# each), 1 spanish mackerel, and 1 jack.  We kept a 15# tuna for ourselves, released a couple of others, and Eddie gutted a few to give to friends of EAGLE once we arrived at the anchorage.

Arriving in Wells Bay once again brought back a lot of pleasant memories of great cruising adventures of the past.  We hoped the period of good weather that had been with us for the last week would continue.  Lloyd and Jacquelyn had diving plans swirling in their heads!  Jacquelyn had already made up her mind to make the dive again at Tea Table Cay where she almost took her last earthly breath to take up new residence at Davey Jones Locker.