A Tale of Two Chemists: Catch of the day, week of the year

Catch of the day, week of the year ... Guest Blog Entry Sunday 10th February 2013

Unfortunately tomorrow we will head home to 3 feet of snow, looking back to a week that went by in a breeze – with a breeze. Sailing is the way to explore the Bahamas and on Mike’s and Gloria’s Cotinga, is a lot more comfy than you would expect. The mornings are started with gourmet breakfast and good coffee (and I roast my own!), followed by excursion on sea, in water or on land. We saw more of the region than probably most land rats will ever see, when ground anchored. The boat is a marvel of perfection and Gunther said it could have been made by a German engineer, but don’t be mistaken a Morris is a beautiful US creation out of Maine. The sailing is smooth, fast and none of us ever got seasick. The internal outfit is logically designed to functional perfection executed with master carpentry. It brought us to all the hidden Jewels of the cays around Marsh Harbor. The houses here are colorful and the people relaxed and friendly. Nobody is ever rushed and always has time for a nice chat. You get asked whether you are walking by free will or want a ride on the back of a golf cart towards the way you are going. Sailors become a community and you keep running into each other at one or the other harbor, mooring or favorite anchor place that is a base for another adventure. Sailors look out for each other, share their tips and then leave with a smile. I wonder what makes them happy? For snorkeling, you have to give up on sailing a bit since winds can make it an interesting adventure. When it is calm though, the reefs and fish are as nice as the ones I saw off the coast of Yukatan. Now a word about fishing (please not at the reefs!), I would stay I stick to my grounds in New England. Here the fish are not as abundant and go for only the finest bait that they carefully nibble off the hook without attaching themselves. So you can easily feed more bait here than you catch fish. Nevertheless, today on our last fishing spree off the dinghy, we kept catching smaller but very tasty French Grunts and a nice big Nassau grouper, the later one we let go since it is protected. We did end up with a nice fish appetizer for dinner so got at least a taste of what fish is like here. Mike did the catching, cleaning and cooking and as always he produced another yummy meal. After those meals we had great conversations, solved the world problems and in the mornings we tried to figure out how to execute our plans.

Earlier today we took a nice long walk to train our lethargic leg muscles, down to the Abaco Inn on the south side of Elbow Cay. As they say here: “ tan your toes at the Abacos” and that you do unless you underestimate the sun here. Then your feet are on fire. We treated ourselves (Gloria and Mike did) with a nice cup of Java on the outlook deck of the Abaco Inn, looking out towards the West onto turquois blue waters, sheltered from the 25 mph winds that will soon be on the daily order here for Mike and Gloria to propel Cotinga further South towards Eleuthra and the Exumas. For us, those have to be explored on another trip but I am sure we will read about it in Gloria and Mike’s future blogs.

So thanks so much for having us on board of the Cotinga, a great week that Gunther will scratch off his “bucket list” and 7 great days with friends that we have missed back home very much. Soon we will be approaching sailor’s midnight (9 p.m.) and tired from a day of fresh air so we will sign off for the last time. Last word of advice, if you have the opportunity to stay with the current crew on board of the Cotinga, find the time and go for it!

Gunther and Bridget