Unexcused Absences

May 2 – May 15, 2016. From here on we are unfortunately headed north and west and ultimately back to Florida. We marked the beginning of our end with a final breakfast at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club with Richard and Laurie of Forever Young. We said goodbye to the employees who were on duty (Jen, Theresa, Carl, and Ashie), filled up Miss Adventure with a load of diesel fuel, and started north.

A seaplane passes by in Pipe Creek

Fortunately, we didn’t have to go far. Monday afternoon our friends, the island managers at [redacted] Cay, had set up a big goodbye party for us. All our island manager friends were there, plus four friends from Staniel Cay, as well as five new faces; David and Corrine, who run Overseas Salvage on Big Sampson’s Cay; Seth and Jamie, friends of friends; and Susanna, who took many of the photos we used when we created the stanielcay.com website. We grilled up some of the steak from our freezer (unneeded because we have been catching fish for the past couple months), plus some Mahi from our stash, and our hosts added a bunch more food. We were touched to see most of the people we had met over the past few months in the Central Exumas come out to say goodbye (or maybe they just came for the beer).

Lagoon-side seating

From there it was time to start heading home in earnest, but Mother Nature threw one final wrench in our gears. The forecast called for a light west wind in a few days, and we decided to play it safe and hole up at the Hogs Cay mooring field in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. For some reason, the computer models don’t seem to do a good job of accurately forecasting west winds in this part of the world, which makes it especially challenging because strong west winds can be devastating to exposed boats in the Exumas.

Sunset

We are very fortunate to have played it safe; the morning the front rolled through boats up and down the island chain were calling out on the radio, “55 knots at Staniel Cay… 60 knots at Sampson Cay… 67 knots at Big Majors…” It was way worse than forecast, and a number of boats, friends of ours included, sustained some damage. By 2pm that same day, though, the sun was out and the wind was out of the north-east at 15 knots; normal Exumas weather.

Mooring field at Warderick North

That afternoon we motored Miss Adventure around to the North Field at Warderick Wells and parked a couple moorings in front of our friends Dirk and Nancy on Renegade. They, too, were heading home, and had sat out the storm at Warderick. They invited us over for a delicious pasta dinner, and we enjoyed one final evening with this lovely couple.

“Renegade” moored at Warderick Wells

Friday dawned calm and clear, so we said goodbye to our friends and the Exumas and pointed north east, headed for Rock Sound, Eleuthera. On the crossing, about a third of the way across, we caught a 9 pound Mahi — perfect timing, since we had served up the last of our Mahi at our going-away party. And now we had about 4 pounds of fresh Mahi fillets in the fridge. Dinner at anchor in Rock Sound was our simple yet proven recipe; dust the fillets with flour and Tony’s Creole Seasoning, then sauté in melted butter. Healthy and delicious!

Our “crossing to Eleuthera” Mahi

From Rock Sound we motored directly into a stiff north-north-west breeze for close to seven hours and arrived at Gregory Town mid afternoon. The town is build around a natural cove in the cliff face, and resembles a Mediterranean fishing village like you’d see on the coast of France or Italy. The swinging room is pretty tight; backing down to set our anchor brought us about 15 feet from the cliff face.

Approaching Gregory Town

Walking around town was a treat; everyone we met was incredibly friendly, and we bought some homemade ice cream (our first ice cream in months) and visited a few shops and chatted with the owners. We even had a rare dinner out (other than at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club) at Sunset Cafe on the hill above town. If you find yourself on Eleuthera, definitely plan to spend at least a day in this village.

Local fishermen

Bait fish in Gregory Town

Gregory Town square

“Miss Adventure” anchored off Gregory Town

Sunday was a day of decadence; no wake-up alarm, french toast for breakfast, a leisurely morning reading the Washington Post online, followed by a three hour cruise over flat water to Spanish Wells. We needed to sit out one more round of stiff winds before making three long days of crossings (Eleuthera to the Berrys, Berrys to Bimini, and Bimini to West Palm Beach, Florida).

During our two full days in Spanish Wells, we got some warranty work done on our outboard motor, Heather got to relax at the beach, and I fit in a short windsurfing session before the wind died Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday was anything but our normal island routine; we were underway by 7:30am for our crossing to the Berry Islands. I took us on a small detour to run parallel to the drop-off (where the bottom plunges from 50 feet to over three thousand feet), but we only caught a barracuda.

I then pointed us due west for our 5+ hour open-water crossing. About one hour later we saw some birds hovering, always a good sign. I turned toward them and, like clockwork, we got a hit on our big reel. This guy fought bigger than his “check-in weight,” and when it was all over we had landed a 9 pound Skipjack Tuna. I don’t have to tell you what we had for dinner that night at anchor in the Berry Islands. Really fresh tuna is SO delicious.

Tuna

Fresh tuna dinner

West coast of Eleuthera

We didn’t have time to explore the southern Berrys since we had another long day of driving in front of us. Our route took us in deep water for the first 90 minutes, but we had no luck with fishing. After that it was over 10 hours of motoring in a straight line across the Banks, in about 15 to 20 feet of water over white sand. We anchored on the west side of Cat Cay and took a final swim in the warm Bahamian water.

Sunset from Cat Cay

Fortunately, the next morning the wind was exactly as forecast, light out of the east. We were on our way before sunrise, hit the drop-off within 20 minutes, and deployed two trolling lines. The horizon was filled with large cargo ships (maybe not “filled”, but four big ships is a lot to see at one time), plus one fast ship that looked like a small destroyer. About 30 minutes later, the “destroyer” suddenly turned directly for us, and pulled up right behind us. Up close it was a US Coast Guard cutter, and he was immediately on the radio asking all kinds of questions. After a few minutes, we heard, “Miss Adventure, prepare to be boarded.”

As they were putting their big inflatable in the water, fish hit both our lures, and the reels started singing. To their credit, the five gents in the boarding party waited patiently until we had reeled in our two fish. I got the small unknown one quickly onboard, while Heather went to work on the bigger one. As she was bringing it in, there was quite a commotion in the water – a small shark was chasing her fish and making a few lunges at it. We “rescued” it from the shark with our big net (in the sense that we saved it from being a meal for the shark so it could be a meal for us), and had no idea what we had caught.

Our “unknown-at-the-time” fish

Once we got the fish stowed in the ice bucket the Coast Guard pulled alongside, and two sailors came onboard. “Any weapons? Drugs? Fire extinguishers?” No, no, and yes. I hoisted the big fish and asked if either of them knew what this was. “It’s a fish,” said sailor #1. “You must work for Microsoft,” I replied, assuming that had to be the case since his answer was 100% accurate while being, simultaneously, completely useless. That got a good laugh from sailor #2.

The Coast Guard

They completed their safety check (we passed, thanks to favorite wife’s preparation), filled our our paperwork, and headed back to the cutter that had been following close by. Since we were out of cellphone range, we were still in the dark as to what kind of fish we had caught, but we filleted them up anyway and put them in the fridge.

The boarding party

The rest of the trip across the Gulf Stream was uneventful (the best kind of crossing), and we got a nice boost from the stream, which pushed us towards Florida at almost 10 knots. We had a strong sense of sadness when we hit the 12-mile limit of US waters. That meant two things; one, our 2016 Bahamas cruise was officially over, and two, we had to stow the fishing gear for good since we had neither federal nor Florida fishing permits.

We arrived in Palm Beach at the Lake Worth Inlet around mid afternoon, turned south, and 300 yards later dropped anchor across from the commercial port. It was interesting, and frankly a bit disappointing, to be back in the hubbub of the United States. But with cellphone coverage we were able to determine that our big fish was a Rainbow Runner, and that it was known as “Hawaiian Salmon” in the Pacific, and that it was delicious. So Heather cooked some up for dinner (we had already eaten the smaller unknown fish for lunch during our crossing).

Florida

From Palm Beach we beelined four straight days up the ICW to get to Brunswick, Georgia, our summer parking spot. Everything was pretty much a blur of organizing, packing, more organizing, and more packing. But a few highlights stand out. As we were motoring north near Cape Canaveral, we saw a very familiar sailboat, and called on the radio to Dirk and Nancy of Renegade. We had last seen them a week prior at Warderick Wells. And when we got to Fernandina Beach, Florida, we saw a couple of very familiar sailboats anchored, Good Morning Vietnam and Z-Raye. We had to continue on our mission towards Brunswick, but we caught up with them for a few dinners once they arrived a few days later and we had rented our car. We also got a surprise lunchtime visit from Laurie and Richard of Forever Young, who had parked their boat in south Florida and were just starting out on a two-month driving and eating tour of the US east coast.

Moonrise in Georgia

I’ll close out our first Bahamas cruise with a thought from Heather; she points out that the standard salutation between sailboaters is “fair winds and following seas,” but for the powerboat crowd, she proposes “flat seas and following fish.” And that pretty much sums up our winter. That, plus our discovery of a new way of life; the “private island manager.” Thank you all for following along, and if the creeks don’t rise, our next report will be from the French canals sometime in July.

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Homeward Bound

• Engine Hours: 54
• Generator Hours: 27
• Miles Traveled: 380
• Fish Caught: Mahi (1 on crossing to Eleuthera), Tuna (1 on crossing to Berrys), Rainbow Runner (1 on crossing to Florida)
• Marina and Mooring Fees: $60 (two nights mooring in Exuma Park)

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Total Numbers (from Grand Bahama, through the Out Islands, and back to Lake Worth)

• Engine Hours: 273
• Generator Hours: 375
• Miles Traveled: 1,654
• Fish Caught: Mahi (10), Tuna (4), Rainbow Runner (1), “Fast Grouper” (1), Grouper (2), Lionfish (2), Snapper (4)
• Marina and Mooring Fees: $1,485

Warderick Park HQ

Gregory Town, Eleuthera

A “see-through” house in Gregory Town