Saturday 2.27.16
We left Hatchet Bay after a relaxing sunrise and breakfast. The winds were out of the ENE 10-15 kts, which gave us a beautiful sail down the coast. It was a nice relaxing sail, in the clear blue waters of the Exuma Sound as we followed the coast down past Rainbow Cay, James Cistern, Black Point, Pelican Cay, Alabaster Bay, Levi Island,Governors Harbour and Cupid Cay.
We fished as we usually do, and this time we caught a couple of Cero Mackerels. That was exciting as we had been out of fresh seafoood for a few weeks now. We got to the Pineapple Cays shortly after lunch and found a nice anchorage in 15 ft. of water behind Sheep Cay.
The Pineapple Cays, Sheep Cay and Round Cay
After spending a bit of a rolly night (the winds clocked a little too much to the east, giving us surge), we explored in LilBit with our sounding line and found a much better anchorage in Pau Pau Bay, close to the rocky shore in 12-15 ft. of water. We enjoyed the next couple of days, took a long walk into North Palmetto Point to the grocery store. We walked the beach on Sheep Cay. The anchorage provided more protection from the east winds so we slept like babies. We snorkeled on Monday, in search of Snapper, Grouper, Lobster etc.The water was COLD but really clear and the coral heads were phenomenal! But no lobster found. We didn’t want to work that hard to spear fish, there were only a few small ones anyway.
The shoreline of Palmetto Point, and Broken Cay
Our anchorage
Crystal clear water!!
Another shot of our anchorage
Beautiful sunset
The rocks where we snorkeled
Tuesday 3.1.16
We were ready to head back up the coast. We both agreed that we had no burning desire to go further south to Rock Sound Harbour. The winds were now out of the ESE, and very light. However they were perfect for a peaceful sail back up the coast. We hooked two HUGE fish, both of which got away! The first one actually snapped the line right at the swivel. Took our spoon with it! It had to have been a very large fish, Ed fought with it for a while before it regained strength and snapped the rig. The second big one that got away was also giving Ed a run for his money, the pole was bent over in a half circle. Just as I went to let the jib out to slow the boat, the line got caught on a fitting on the boom and sliced the line!! Damn! Another big fish and another nice spoon gone! We are running out of big enough tackle now. We proceeded to catch a couple more fish, a true Spanish Mackeral and another Cero Mackerel. We learned the difference between a Spanish Mackerel and Cero Mackerel. The Spanish Mackerel was way more bloody, and the meat had a red color to it. I guess all this time, we had been catching Cero’s, not Spanish Mackerels. The Cero are much much lighter and taste good!
Spanish Mackerel
We arrived back to Hatchet Bay early afternoon and found our spot to anchor. We sautéed the Spanish Mackerel and added it to the left over gumbo for lunch, then dinghied over to SV Mahina (Peter and Bonnie). We had pictures of Peter surfing that we wanted to share with them. We chatted for a while and returned to Manatee for another quiet evening.
Flying the bahamas flag
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