Thursday 5 March – Exit Exumas, hello Jumentos (36 Nm)
A 6.00am start to make the top of the tide at Hog Cay cut south of little Exuma was a shock to the system after 4 very relaxing weeks in George Town. We motored for an hour and a half straight into the wind and a number of very wet squalls to reach the cut. Hog cay cut can be difficult as it is narrow, shallow and subject to strong tidal flow. For us it was rather benign with a light South Easter blowing.
We had a very fast beam reach to Water Cay in the Jumentos, averaging about 9 knots for this part of the trip but often seeing 10. Wind increased as we went south but Geniet Lewe managed it well with full sails in gusts up to 25 knots apparent.
Found a lovely anchorage in Water Cay in a bay known as Fisherman’s anchorage as local fishing boats often anchor here. Today was no exception with a mothership anchored in the bay waiting for 3 small boats to return with their catch. They are fishing for Conch, Crawfish (lobster), and many types of fish and seem to work very long days from soon after sunrise to nearly sunset. Usually 3 men to a boat and moving all round the local area. We haven’t yet worked out all their methods, but they did offer to sell us fish of any type we wanted.
We are pleased to be out of George Town, not because it is unpleasant in any way, but there are a huge number of cruising boats that seem to be resident there for a number of months and it is easy to get hooked into their lifestyle. Our preference is to be a little more remote and on the move a bit. It is a welcome change to return to bays with crystal clear water and plentiful sea life.
Friday 6 March 2013 - Revenge of the Remora - Water Cay Jumentos
Spent the afternoon exploring and snorkelling for some kai moana to supplement our food supplies.
Our friends Brian and Sue were with us and we found a lovely spot with plenty of fish. Janet and Brian managed to locate 3 Conch of a suitable size for eating. After a little while in this spot a Remora (sucker fish) took an unhealthy interest in all of us, swimming close by and touching us. If you read Janet’s previous encounter with Remora you would understand our hesitancy in having much to do with it. Despite trying to discourage it by hitting with our fins and poking it with a spear, we decided to get out of the water as it wouldn’t go away.
We moved a little further out so Janet could try for a few more conch I had seen earlier in deeper water. Janet jumped in and dived to check the conch. A few moments later she was at the surface flapping around and obviously trying to deal with something under the water. The remora had followed us and was trying to suck on to Janet. We moved the dinghy alongside her and she popped out of the water like a cork out of a champagne bottle. After closer inspection we found a large hickey the remora had left where it tried to attach to her back.
Maybe a little revenge for the remora network after all the jokes at their expense following the last remora incident.
Saturday March 7th - WAHOO!
Great sail in 15 – 20 Knot easterly wind from Water Cay south to Buena Vista Cay. We sailed off the bank on the ocean side so we could fish and try to break our fish famine. We have been trying to catch fish in the Exuma sound, big pelagic ocean fish that is, like Wahoo, Mahi mahi and various tuna, but to date have been unsuccessful. Other cruisers have taken pity on us and donated one of their special lures to assist the cause but we have manged to steadily lose them to large fish that break the line. Today was no exception as the first fish we hooked took off with our last cedar plug – the best lure for Mahimahi. In desperation we changed to a wahoo lure with a wire trace and soon after Janet managed to catch a good sized wahoo.
The rest of the day we caught a succession of barracouda (cuta) which we don’t like because they have such big teeth and some have worms and or ciguatera (a nasty virus that comes from eating fish that eat coral, or further up the food chain). The last was huge and took a big effort to get it aboard and release it. It was being chased by a shark as it came up to the boat so that may have given it a little encouragement for the last part . I think we scored 4 large cuta’s.
The last hook up of the day occurred as I was pulling the line in to go through the cut to the bank side of the cays. Just as it was coming to the boat it was grabbed by another large fish which took off rapidly spooling line off the reel. I pushed the drag up to try and slow it, but it broke our 250 pound test trace and disappeared with our wahoo lure. Probably another very large Cuta. >p> We stopped for a snorkel inside one of the smaller cays and Janet managed to capture 3 large Conch. Not without some difficulty though – she was using a catch bag tied to her swimsuit and underestimated the weight of the conch. She tried to surface with three in her bag and really struggled to get there. I was way off somewhere else so wasn’t even aware that she was in trouble. She had to swim back to the boat against a current so was exhausted and had swallowed a fair amount of water . She had tried to untie the bag from her swimsuit but it was too heavy – lesson learned, and she thought afterwards she could have just slipped out of the swimsuit but didn’t think of it at the time. Conch have very heavy shells so we will just collect one at a time in future.
Monday March 9th - An encounter with Edward – Buena Vista Cay
The morning was spent exploring Buena Vista Cay on foot. It is a long low cay with a long sandy beach on the west side, vegetation in the middle and the treacherous ironshore rock on the east side. This rock is formed from wave action on ancient coral beds and creates very sharp rock with intricate patterns – it is very hard on shoes and feet.
We started on the west side going south on the sandy beach then found a track marked by many jandals (flotsam off the beach) leading across maybe 100m metres to the other side. We started walking north with the intent of crossing back over the island near the frame of a house which seemed deserted on the west side. We spied what appeared to be a person up high on the hill in amongst the low undergrowth and waved but got no response. As we worked our way around we could see it was indeed a person and he didn’t seem that pleased to see us but eventually pointed out where the track was to cross back over the island. As we got closer he came to greet us and introduced himself as Edward the owner of the house under construction.
He had returned to the island by mail boat late the previous evening from visiting family in Nassau but had left his medication for his Glaucoma and cataracts etc on the boat. He was up on the hill trying to get signal for his mobile phone to call and get the replacement medication. He slowly opened up to us and his story was fascinating. He was born in 1939 and grew up with his family of 10 siblings and his parents as the sole occupants of the island. His family had lived on the island for about 300 years. He was a farmer and had released about 25 goats on the island to interbreed with the wild goats that now number 300 – 400. He was growing sweet potato, pawpaw and coconuts as well as raising sheep and chickens.
Although his family had lived on the island a long time they had gradually all moved away – many to the bright lights and attractions of Nassau. He had returned some years ago to reoccupy the land and ensure the government could not take ownership and sell the island to private investors from overseas – a practice that seems to be happening to many of the islands.
He was in the process of building himself a house strong enough to withstand the potential onslaught of a hurricane. It was a very sturdy construction with large posts in the corners, sunk deep in the ground. He lives on the lower level which is largely complete and was in the process of erecting the frame for the upper level (at the age of 76) on his own although he said he had a friend coming to lend a hand in a few days. He was hoping to get this stage completed before hurricane season starts in late June
Population of the Bahamas is about 350,000 of which about 100,000 are Haitians. Edward’s view is that the Haitians are gradually displacing Bahamians in work positions that Bahamians could occupy and some islands have a policy to exclude Haitians from their island. Long Island is one of these that claims to have no Haitian inhabitants. Edward proudly states that there are no Haitians on Buena Vista either, but then he is the only inhabitant. He has a plan to plant coconut palms along the beach – a very long beach and a whole range of other ideas.
He gave us some good pointers on improving our lobster catch rate in return we gave him 25 gallons of water as his nephew had exhausted most of his supply on a recent visit.
Wednesday March 11th - House Bay, Raccoon cay
I went exploring the island on foot with the aim of crossing to the East side. The west is sandy with reasonably tall growth and beyond that a large pond full of small wading birds (plovers I think) and not much water. Towards the centre the rock becomes ironshore and the growth quite dense – I don’t know how it manages to grow on the ironshore rock.
This island may have been a base for drug smugglers or been farmed in the past as there are rock walls running in many directions, made from the ironshore rocks stacked up. The walls are all well overgrown now, so must be fairly old. There are scattered ruins of buildings as well and many wild goat herds but apparently no inhabitants on the cay.
Previous cruisers had set up a fire pit and seat on the beach near where we anchored so Janet and I headed ashore for a barbecue dinner of sausages wrapped in wholemeal bread (my first loaf) and jacket potatoes. It was delicious and the moon was late rising so the stars seemed innumerable. We need to do some work on being able to identify at least some of the major constellations but will have to download a book for that!
Lovely having this beautiful bay to ourselves again – we are really enjoying the remoteness of the Raggeds and the seafood is plentiful.