Unexcused Absences Jewfish Cays and Long Island (he said)

Jewfish Cays and Long Island (he said)

by Kent 19 Mar 2016

March 13 – March 17, 2016. Our cruise from Jewfish Cay to Thompson Bay, Long Island crossed the most amazing stretch of water. The word amazing is thrown around a lot, but the water actually glowed. It was positively luminous. The route crossed dozens of miles of 10-foot-deep fine sand. For much of the day, the turquoise stretched in every direction all the way to the horizon.

The water wasn’t clear, per se, but was actually quite cloudy with what appeared to be suspended fine, white sand. I just could not stop taking pictures, and with a 5+ hour cruise, it was a lot of pictures. Much of the way was almost out of sight of land, but the south-east tip of Great Exuma was still barely visible to the north when Long Island came into view.

Luminous turquoise water

View from our flybridge

Entering Thompson Bay, Long Island

The reason we went to Long Island was that our friends on Good Morning Vietnam, Brian and Susan, had told us about a cruiser’s rally from George Town, Great Exuma, to Thompson Bay, Long Island. We figured it would be a fun chance to catch up with them, to meet some other cruisers, and to participate in some of the land excursions the rally had planned.

A fishing boat headed to sea

Fortunately, we arrived a day before the rest of the “fleet”, and were able to provision at the nice grocery store on the hillside (curiously named “Hillside Grocery”) before the ~40 boats from the rally showed up and cleaned out the shelves. For a small-town grocery store, this one was shockingly well-stocked, especially for boaters. They clearly know their customer. We were able to completely re-provision our flour supplies after all Heather’s bread- and pita-making. The extra time also allowed me to change the generator oil and filter.

The fruits of our provisioning

The welcome party at Sou’ Side Bar

One of the rules at Sou’ Side Bar

The bulk of the fleet showed up just after lunchtime, and by happy hour the bay was full of boats. We met up with Brian and Susan at the big welcome party at Sou’ Side Bar and Cafe. The main event of the evening was the Conch Race. I had secretly spent the past week training my conch for the race (don’t ask), and was disappointed to learn that the race was just conch shells mounted to small squares of plywood that were pulled by the contestants winding a string on a small dowel. Neither Heather (for team Miss Adventure) nor Brian (for team Good Morning Vietnam) did very well, but no one was too concerned.

The conch races

We had GMV over for dinner, and the next morning were up and at the dock for the bus tour of the southern end of Long Island. We’re not normally “bus tour” people, but it was a great way to get a guided tour of the island. The bus took us through areas devastated by (and still recovering from) hurricane Joaquin the previous autumn. The effects were particularly harsh because the storm didn’t just roll through, but rather parked over the area for three days. Many homes had no roofs, and the local power company was still restoring electricity to some of the more remote areas.

Damage from hurricane Joaquin, five months prior

The tour settled in Clarence Town for lunch and a visit to Dean’s Blue Hole. There are many “blue holes” all over the globe, but Dean’s is the world’s deepest (at ~660 feet) with a sea-level entrance. It is quite spooky to look down into the depths and see the light turquoise blue of the surrounding sandbar fade to sky blue, then cobalt blue, and finally the deep deep blue of the center. Insane people gather here (they call themselves “freedivers”) and compete to see who can hold their breath the longest and dive the deepest with no scuba gear. Some of them get shockingly close to the bottom.

Dean’s Blue Hole

That evening we hopped back on the bus and were taken to a “cave dinner” on the north end of Long Island. Near Stella Maris resort there is a cave in a limestone hill set up with tables and benches. The resort catered a simple but delicious meal, complete with buffet table, live reggae band, and waiters, all spread out inside a large underground chamber.

The cave dinner at Stella Maris

Wednesday we took Miss Adventure up the coast to anchor near the airport. For reasons known only to Bahamian bureaucracy, they give visiting boats a cruising permit good for 12 months, but only give the people cruising on the boat a 90 day permit. So we had to visit a customs/immigration office to get an extension. And there are no customs/immigration offices between Great Exuma and Nassau, where we are spending most of our time, hence our visit to the airport. The official ladies couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly, and we were on our way directly, new permit in hand.

Flat water on the way to Stella Maris

Back on Miss Adventure, we headed west across the long shallow sandbar and then turned north and anchored briefly in Calabash Bay. Good Morning Vietnam had driven up from Thompson Bay, and we tied our dinghy to their sailboat, then took Brian and Susan onboard, along with all their fishing gear. The northern tip of Long Island is supposed to be good for deep sea fishing, so we figured we’d give it a shot. With their two rods, plus our one rod and two hand-lines, we were trailing a delicious cornucopia of colored plastic and silicone lures (at least we hoped it looked delicious to the fish).

Soon after we hit the dropoff, where the bottom rapidly drops from 50 feet to 3000 feet, we got a strike on a handline. As I pulled it in we noticed a bunch of fish jumping a quarter mile away, so Heather steered us towards them. Once the handline was in we found a small barracuda, maybe 20 inches long. Back in the water he went. No sooner was the handline re-deployed than I got a strike on my reel. He was about the same size, but was a much more delicious skipjack tuna! And as soon as we landed him, Brian got a strike and reeled in a two-foot bigeye tuna. We had dinner!

Brian with our tuna catch

We got all our lines sorted out and back in the water, and even though the fish were still jumping all around, they lost interest in us and we didn’t get another strike. Back at anchor, we cleaned and filleted the fish while Heather cooked up sushi rice. The four of us then sat down to the finest, most delicious raw tuna we’ve ever eaten – no need to even pretend to cook it, it was creamy and amazing.

Fresh tuna sashimi and sushi

Then next day we left at the crack of dawn because we wanted to fish some more before making the open water crossing back to the Exumas. We went to the east of the shallow water “tongue” sticking out of the north end of Long Island, while Good Morning Vietnam went west. Before we even got our lures in the water Brian radioed over to say he had landed a nice 12 pound Mahi. That was quick. Made us look pretty silly for heading east. We trolled around for an hour with no luck, then pointed west and started chasing GMV who was out in front by a couple miles.

Brian reported that he hooked two more Mahi, but both got away, including a big one he was just about to gaff when the fish threw the hook and escaped. We remained fish-less for hours, and were within a half hour of pulling in our lines in preparation for entering Adderly Cut (to the north of Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas) when we got a bite on our reel. The line zinged off the reel for maybe half a second, then was quiet. Argh. Something hit the lure but didn’t get hooked.

The clear blue water of Exuma Sound

Just then we noticed something thrashing in the water behind the lure. It made a few lunges for the lure, with Heather and I literally willing it to bite down hard. After all, even with our tuna yesterday, that made only two fish we had landed, and our $400 investment in fishing gear had by no means paid for itself. And then the fish bit down hard, and line started singing off the reel. I grabbed the rod while Heather slowed the boat, then engaged the autopilot and began hauling in the handlines while I fought what felt like Moby Dick.

Heather and I took turns fighting him, alternatively pulling tension and slowly reeling him in, all the while wondering what we had caught. And then he jumped. Wow, do “fast grouper”* even live here? ‘Cause he sure looked like a “fast grouper”. This was a classic good news / bad news situation. “Fast grouper” are big (good) and exciting to catch (good), but they have a big long pointy thing where their nose should be (bad), and this one was thrashing around trying to dislodge the hook or cut the line (as I sure would be if I were in his situation).

We eventually tired him (and us) out, and got him to the edge of the swim platform. Now what? One good thrash and he could break my leg, so I wasn’t going down the ladder, that’s for sure. I took our long gaff and tried to hook him behind the gills. Several tries later, I had him. But now what? He was close to 45 pounds and over six feet long, and I wasn’t going to lay him on deck even if I could dead-lift him up over the rail. I somehow got a loop of dock line around his tail, and lashed the gaff to the lifeline, so we kind of looked like the Beverly Hillbillies with a dead animal tied to the boat. But somehow we didn’t loose him as we made our way into the cut and south to the anchorage.

Luckily Susan is an MD, and loves all the blood and guts associated with surgery, so she and Brian came over to help me clean this 6-foot-long fish. I “helped” in the sense that I stood by and offered encouraging words while they did the hard work. Meanwhile, Heather was searching for “fast grouper” recipes on the internet, and ended up creating a soy ginger marinade for the steaks that we threw on the BBQ onboard Good Morning Vietnam.

Our freezer packed with “fast grouper”

Even after grilling for four, we ended up with over 15 pounds of fresh “fast grouper” steaks, which we split with GMV – quite the end to our Long Island cruise. The fishing gear has officially paid for itself. Our mission for the coming days will be to give and/or barter away bags and bags of fish. Our freezer is only so big.

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Jewfish Cays and Long Island

Engine Hours: 25
Generator Hours: 14
Miles Traveled: 160
Marina and Mooring Fees: $0

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Total Numbers

Engine Hours: 134
Generator Hours: 228
Miles Traveled: 797
Marina and Mooring Fees: $1,200 (includes one month of parking on Grand Bahama during the holidays)

* “Fast grouper” is our euphemism for the fish we caught. The Bahamian regulations are not clear on the subject, in one part they imply there’s no problem catching and eating “fast grouper”, and in another part they seem to say they should be caught and released. So for the record, we don’t know what we caught, and will continue to refer to it as a “fast grouper.”