The rest of the trip.
Two days of bouncing around off Mores Island was enough. We went in to get fuel, having discovered that Mores Island now has fuel and ice available(as of just last year). The place used to be extremely poor and primitive, but today, fishing is making people prosperous, lots of new roofs and whole new buildings.
At this point we discovered we had enough time to go for an area I’ve wanted to visit for 30 years. Never met anybody who had been there, but the only two exploration reports available made it sound great. Google Earth looked fabulous, so off we went to Randall’s Cay, about 50 miles north in the far NE corner of the bight of Abaco. I planned to find some coral heads to explore on the way, of which there are a bunch, but the wind was howling, bank chop was large and square and water visibility was zilch. So, no stopping till we got there.
OH MY! this place is like the Berry’s 25 years ago, darn near virgin. Totally isolated, lunch jumps on your spear while just swimming around. The water is shallow, 10-15 feet, but lots and lots and lots of life, some of it big. Its a little startling to come around a corner in 8 ft of water and confront a 15 lb male hogfish, easy shooting distance away. Every now and then a 40 lb snapper would come by. Cliffs 20-50 feet high, straight down into 10 ft of water. You could bring the boat up touching distance to the rock. Almost entirely sheltered from summer winds. Gorgeous protected coves, little beaches. Two days exploring and I was hooked. This place I’m bringing my wife back to.
The odd thing was, you could see the telephone tower at Cooperstown, and not far. You just can’t get there without an 60 mile boat ride.
We flew the drone several times to view the area and almost lost it once. If the drone looses the operators control signal, it is programmed to return to where it started and land. Sounds ok except we launched it off the boat, which wasn’t there anymore and it can’t tell the difference between land and water. Not a good prescription for a dry landing. And the drones camera was full of hi-def irreplaceable video. When the drone was up in the air, the boat passed behind a cliff. Signal lost, wild scramble to get back into line of sight and regain control. It worked, but was close. You can see on the drone video where it lost signal and started back towards its landing point and when Ted was struggling with it, trying to regain control. It did not want to let go of the idea of landing. Chaos.
Ahh, but time grows short and I wanted to put one of those dog snapper in the boat. So, back to Hole in the Wall for a day and a half more diving. The fish gods smiled on us and we each put a nice snapper, 15 and 16 lbs, in the boat. Could have put more. Mine was riding a good bit of luck. I shoot a pretty wimpy sling these days and the spear brained the fish, but dog snapper have very hard heads and the spear did not even penetrate to the flopper, way too easy to shake out. Ham fisted, slippery scramble to get my hands in his gills before he woke up. Did not even realize how big he was till I was on the way up. Pics exist, but will be a while. Speaking of fish size, there were doggies down there that could have swallowed the two we shot. We hunted around for some hogs to take home with us, but they had all gotten the message. Where there had been lots a few days before, we did not even see one. Oh well, snapper eats good too and Karen will appreciate some filets in the freezer.
From there, uneventful. Snotty 120 mile trip back to the Bimini area, more conch, easy passage back to Ft Lauderdale, arriving mid day July 22.
Word of caution to aspiring Bahama cruisers, make sure you have not only a good set of spares, but the right tools to use them. I goofed and left a set of SAE open end wrenches in the truck in Lauderdale, something I needed desperately to change a slowly weakening water pump. Neither sockets, crescents, slip joints, nor vise-grips worked worth a hoot. Running out of ideas but got lucky when my metric open ends had just the right size.
One very odd thing. no sargassum. I mean none, zero, not so much as a speck in the Gulf Stream, coming or going. Saw a couple of very small pieces near Hole in the Wall, but that was all. What gives?? Is this related to the bad fishing in the Keys earlier this year?
I’m a little concerned about eating those snapper. Anybody know anything about dog snapper and ciguatera?
Needless to say, a great time was had by all.
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