Heading North

Heading North   …   Friday 22 March

Today we made the first leg towards our journey home. We plan to spend the next couple of weeks making our way slowly up the Exuma chain before heading over to Nassau on towards Florida. We left the marina at Emerald Bay at about 10 am and headed north west up Exuma Sound. The weather couldn't have been nicer - but not so ideal for sailing. Winds were less than 10 knots out of the east and the seas were dead flat calm so we ended up motoring with the mainsail up. Our original plan was to go ~ 30 miles and then traverse onto the bank via Galliot Cut, however, when we listened to the forecast the winds are supposed to build from the south overnight and there is little protection from that direction in the anchorage west of Galliot Cay. We had hoped to catch up with our friends Lynn and Lee who are going in similar direction and during the day we were able to contact them on VHF radio and found that they too had the same concerns and had decided to go a little further up to Gotham Cut and then anchor at Black point about a mile south of there, so we changed our plans and headed for the same location. It was hot as blazes in the cockpit and there seemed to be little action on the fishing lines. Then about mid-afternoon Gloria spotted a green plastic jerry can floating in the water and whilst looking at it saw a number of sizable fish. No sooner had she called my attention to these than we heard the line go out on the rod and reel and simultaneously the bungee on the trolling line went tight signaling a fish. When we tighten the clutch on the reel we once again lost the fish on the line, but we managed to land a spectacular Dolphin fish on the hand line - significantly bigger than the one we caught the other day with rod and Sue. Holding the hand line and gaffing the fish proved quite a challenge but we managed to get it on board . After that excitement we had a couple more hours to get through the cut and anchor at Black point a hundred yards or so away from our friends. Lynn and Lee and their dog Maggie came over for dinner, bringing with them a delicious salad and some delicious coconut water drinks. The main dish was of course Mahi-Mahi, cooked in a soy ginger and spring onion marinade and served with sautéed sweet potatoes, and we finished off with some yummy coconut / chocolate cookies also courtesy of Lynn and Lee.  Having downloads photos and written up the blog it's now late - but what a great day!

Mike

24 06.122 N, 76 24.198 W

p.s. we seem to have lost the "Lightbox" view of the photos - i.e they open up in a nice sort of slide show format when you click on them - does anyone know how to restore this?

Gloria and the Dolphin Fish

Dolphin fish skin

Dolphin fish skin

Bow Wave - abstract -  (red hull slicing through blue water)