Unexcused Absences Central Exumas - Part 6 (he said)

Central Exumas – Part 6 (he said)

by Kent 20 Apr 2016

Aprili 10 – April 18, 2016. Instead of “Central Exumas, Part 6,” I should have titled this post “Private Islands, Tasty Fish.” And before we get started, all mentions and photos of private islands were pre-approved by the respective island managers.

The “Private Islands” part started the day after our arrival back at Staniel Cay. Our friend and client, the F&B manager at the Yacht Club, invited us to a big Sunday-Fun-Day BBQ at a local private island. Sunday-Fun-Day is an informal, somewhat weekly, off-and-on gathering of private island and resort managers. And while it may sound exotic to live on and manage a private island (actually, it does sound pretty exotic…), the reality is that these folks are mostly stuck on a small rock, maintaining all the systems (generators, solar panels, wind turbines, water makers, septic systems, etc.) plus a fleet of boats, tractors, and utility vehicles, all of which are needed to live completely off the grid, with food and supplies that come in by private plane, and living far away from friends and family. Still, it’s not exactly hazard duty, being paid to live in a beautiful location in the tropics.

And unfortunately, because private islands should remain, um, private, I need to obfuscate many of the details. The last thing the guy who shelled out tens of millions of $ for a private island wants to hear about is his staff having any kind of fun.

On the way to “Egg Cay” we passed the yacht belonging to J K Rowling

So anyway, “Harold” (I’ve changed the names of the people and islands), who manages “Large General’s Bits” (not to be confused with Big Major Spot next door), came by Miss Adventure and picked us up in his center-console, and off we went. We stopped at “Another Private Island” and picked up “Evan”, then swung by “Chapeau Cay” to pick up “Henry”, and continued north to “Egg Cay”, where we met “Nick”, the manager and our host for for the afternoon. And actually “Nick” didn’t mind my using his, or his island’s, real name, but I’m on a roll with these made up names.

Loading the tractor with supplies for the walk to the main house

Arriving separately were “Warren” and “Gina” of “Sam’s Son’s” Cay, “Richard” and “Allison” of [redacted] Cay, and three folks who manage “a private island in the Exumas”. By my tally there were seven private islands represented at the party. The only islands not represented were Little Pipe Cay, Fowl Cay, and Rat Cay. I guess Bell Island (owned by the Aga Khan IV) wasn’t there either, but they operate at a completely different level — over 40 full-time staff, 350 acres, numerous houses, and staff housing that is easily mistaken for a nice resort complex. It’s not really a “private island” so much as a small town owned by an eccentric rich guy. Must be nice to be the religious leader of 12 million followers, all tithing away on your behalf.

New resort? No, staff housing at Bell Island

The party was a hoot; everyone brought drinks and side dishes, “Nick” served up an abundance of grilled meats, and he had the usual party games (cornhole, ring-on-the-hook) plus one non-standard game, called “pull Richard’s center-console off the sandbar once the tide went out,” but nobody won that one. We already knew about half the people there, and were really happy to meet the crew from “a private island in the Exumas.” They have been together for years, basically since [famous-person] bought the island seven years ago, and were a very relaxed and friendly group to chat with.

A couple days later we brought Miss Adventure up to the Exuma Land and Sea Park area, and anchored near Pasture Cay (that’s actually its real name) and “a private island in the Exumas” for a rendezvous/reunion with our friends Brian and Susan (Good Morning Vietnam) and Drew and Sharon (Z-Raye). None of them are famous enough to have to change their names, or their boat names, at least as far as we know.

Happy hour on Snake Cay with “Z-Raye” and “GMV”

The six of us, plus Brian’s grandson and friend who were visiting, snorkeled the Sea Aquarium, and all eight of us had dinner aboard GMV. The following morning Heather and I dinghied over to the staff dock at “a private island in the Exumas” by invite from one of the managers we met at the party on Sunday. He gave us a complete tour of the island, and of course I can’t post photos of the inner workings, but let’s just say that [famous-person] has great taste, and the island looks like a very relaxing place for him and his family and friends to hang out.

The cruise over to Rocky Dundas onboard “Miss Adventure”

After lunch the crews of GMV and Z-Raye came over to Miss A, and we used our big boat to take everyone over to Rocky Dundas (which was too far to visit by dinghy) for some snorkeling and swimming in the caves. Back at anchor near “a private island in the Exumas” I let our friends in on a little secret; during our morning tour, we had invited the island managers over to a nearby cay for happy hour, but our friend said why don’t we all come to the beach on “a private island in the Exumas” instead? Going once, going twice, and SOLD.

Me, Heather, Susan, Brian, Drew, and Sharon

So we all loaded up snacks and beverages and invaded the beautiful beach on this lovely private island. And proceeded to carry on until well past boater’s midnight; in fact, it was close to actual midnight when the party broke up. This all made quite an impression on the two high school seniors, who will have quite a story to tell back home about their spring break. How many of their friends can say they partied on the private beach belonging to [famous-person]?

Private beach party at “a private island in the Exumas”

The next day we said our final farewells to GMV and Z-Raye, both of whom are starting their trek back to the USA. We took our time (up and out by 11…) and then motored out into the Exuma Sound for some deep sea fishing. Once we got beyond the Park boundary we deployed two lines, our reel and a handline, and set to work. “Work,” in the sense that to troll for gamefish you drive the boat at 6 knots in a straight line — not terribly taxing, at least physically.

And now for the “Tasty Fish” part. So far this year we had done an adequate job of fishing, considering that before February of 2016 neither of us had ever caught a fish of any size, much less big offshore game fish. But our efforts were only adequate. Today, by pure blind luck, a feeding frenzy appeared right in front of us, on the surface about half a mile away. The five minutes it took to cover the distance seemed like 25, but we finally got there and saw lots of tuna jumping clear of the water.

The tuna feeding frenzy

We drove Miss A directly through the center of the patch, the fish parted, then converged in our wake right on top of our lures. Within half a second we had strikes on both lines. We reeled in a 10 pound yellowfin tuna and a 5 pound skipjack tuna. And as you may know, yellowfin (ahi) is the most prized of the tuna catalog. Sushi dinner! But whom to share with? The two fish would easily yield 4-5 pounds of filets. We emailed “Nick” of “Egg Cay” to see if he was available for dinner onboard the Miss Adventure.

Yellowtail and Skipjack Tuna for sushi

Meanwhile, we tried to catch a few more tuna, but the feeding frenzies would dissipate as we arrived, so we pulled in our lines and headed in Conch Cut and anchored off the south shore of “Egg Cay”. Fortunately, “Nick” was available, as was his Bahamian part-time helper, Kieran. They came out to Miss Adventure around 6pm and we had a deliciously fresh tuna dinner on the back deck. “Nick” regaled us with stories of the good old days, including tales of the numerous plane crashes that have occurred on their tiny 1,000 foot airstrip.

The tiny airstrip on “Egg Cay”

The next morning “Nick” and Kieran invited us up to the main house for a big home-cooked breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage), and then we walked down to the beach to admire the Rockwell 690B Commander that crash-landed here a few years ago. The pilots had an inflight emergency and “Egg Cay” was the only airstrip around, and they attempted to set down their plane, which requires a 1,600 foot minimum landing distance (remember, the strip is a thousand feet…). So the plane went right off the end of the runway and came to a stop in about 3 feet of water a few dozen yards out in the lagoon. No one was hurt, but the airframe — which “Nick” subsequently hauled up onto shore — was a total write-off, so now there’s a mostly-intact twin-turbo airplane gracing the beach at “Egg Cay” (N690LL if you want to look it up).

Kieran and Heather checking out the plane wreck

That afternoon we cruised south through Pipe Creek and anchored off “another private island” for a tour at the invitation of one of the managers. “Richard” of [redacted] Cay had meanwhile joined us on Miss Adventure for after-work drinks, so the three of us got to see this awesome island up close. I say “awesome” not for the architecture or style, which is a bit over the top, but rather for the infrastructure. The island boasts the following systems, per their website: Three NPS 100kW wind turbines, a 720kW solar array, three 250kW Cat diesel generators, and 6 MW hours of battery energy storage. The average home uses around 10kWh per day, so the island could supply 600 homes for one day just on its battery bank.

This is one of three aisles of batteries at “Another Private Island”

The next morning we went back into the Exuma Sound, deployed our fishing lines, and promptly heard “zzzzttt … zzzzttt … zzzzzzzzzziiiiiing”, the most wonderful sound in offshore fishing. First the fish grabs the lure, then they tug on it again, then they realize that something’s wrong and the little silicone pink thing that looked like a squid is not in fact a tasty meal, but something altogether worse (and is somehow associated with that boat that keeps moving away at 6 knots), and they run for the hills (so to speak), spooling off line as they go. This one had definitely been to “Mahi evasion school”. He jumped and fought and jumped some more and when we finally reeled him in we had landed a 15 pound Mahi. Nice!

A major Mahi

We turned around to head back towards Staniel and Big Majors, but kept the three lines in the water, and apparently motored right into a big school of Mahi. Our three lines (a reel, a spinner, and a hand line) all went taught at the same time, and suddenly there were three Mahi jumping around in our wake. This is where lack of experience did us in. We quickly landed the one on the reel, which was easily up to the task. Our spinner (a gift/long term loan from Good Morning Vietnam) was on the light side for gamefish, though, and I couldn’t set enough drag to pull him in. Every time I made progress, he would strip off line and we’d be right back where we started. Stalemate.

I set down the spinner and grabbed the hand line, and got the fish right up next to the boat. Heather was reaching down with our big net when our fish threw the hook and was gone. Argh. Now back to the spinner. After 20-30 agonizing minutes, I finally gave up on the mechanism and just started hauling the line in by hand. This worked surprisingly well, and we got the big fish alongside. Just as Heather was reaching down with the net, the line snapped and a very tired Mahi departed with our lure.

Yet more Mahi

We laid two lines back out and headed for home. As we were approaching Big Rock Cut outside Staniel, we caught yet another Mahi, this time an 8 pounder. Now we had three Mahi onboard, enough for dinner for the entire anchorage. Not wanting to catch any more fish, we pulled in our lines and headed for shore. As we were passing through the cut we heard a call for “Forever Young” on the radio. Once they were done chatting, I piped up and said, “Is that Forever Young as in Laurie and Richard?” Sure enough, it was.

Dinner onboard “Forever Young”

They, too, had caught a Mahi that day and were making plans to host 16 friends for dinner onboard their 78-foot Hatteras. Richard said “how about you make it 18,” and like that we had an invite to dinner. We spent the rest of the day cleaning our catch, I whipped up a large batch of ceviché to contribute to the event, and we had a terrific evening on the top deck of their gorgeous boat. We met Richard and Laurie a few years ago on one of our many vacations to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and have kept in touch ever since. We didn’t expect to see them so soon, since they normally spend May through August down here (because the Bahamas are just too cold in the “winter” months).

“Sunday Fun Day” on “Large General’s Bits”

To finish up this excessively long post, the next day “Harold” and his girlfriend “Maude” hosted Sunday-Fun-Day at “Large General’s Bits,” where we supplied Mahi ceviché and lots of Mahi for dinner. We also met “Grahnt,” the general manager of “Duck Cay,” upping our private island manager rolodex to eight entries. So by my count, in one week we had toured and/or partied on four new private islands. Plus, we caught about 45 pounds of tasty fish.

Campfire at “Large General’s Bits”

The next few days were a blur of morning water aerobics on the beach (for Heather), lunch at the Yacht Club with Forever Young, happy hours and pot luck dinners at Pirate Beach on Big Major Spot, dinner on Miss A with Richard and Laurie and our new friends Dirk and Nancy (Renegade) and even some work for our favorite clients. It’s been a whirlwind week, and I’m exhausted just typing it all out. I could use a vacation from our vacation.

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Central Exumas 6

Engine Hours: 12
Generator Hours: 14
Miles Traveled: 72
Fish Caught: Mahi (3), Tuna (2)
Marina and Mooring Fees: $0

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Total Numbers

Engine Hours: 187
Generator Hours: 294
Miles Traveled: 1,091
Fish Caught: Mahi (6), Tuna (3), “Fast Grouper” (1), Grouper (1), Lionfish (2), Snapper (4)
Marina and Mooring Fees: $1,425 (includes one month of parking on Grand Bahama during the holidays)