Goodbye Nassau, 4/25

So, late yesterday afternoon Matt and Donnie took off in Matt’s dinghy in search of a shipwreck about three miles from the channel between Nassau and Paradise Island.  They found it, and snorkeled and spearfished for nearly two hours, until they were about frozen.  It was a cold north wind all afternoon and evening which made for good sleeping, but not to be wet and riding in a dinghy.

That hubby of mine manage to spear a rock hind in the belly, and brought him home in a bucket, still barely alive.  He had been in a half bucket of water for about two hours.  I no sooner had Donnie stand back so I could get a pic of his fresh catch of the day, when that fish took his last gasp, flipped off the fish cleaning station, through Donnie’s hands, and back in the water…and then he swam away!  It was either his lucky day, or he was going to be a tasty snack for something much bigger.  At any rate, he was the one that got away, and we had leftover spaghetti for dinner.  So far, we are just one for four in the fishing department.  Only one has made it to the frying pan.  Hmph.

We untied from the dock at about 9:00am, and set a course for Chub Cay in the Berry Islands, about 35 nm away.  It feels good to be moving again, not gonna lie.  Goodbye bridge to Paradise Island.

Goodbye Atlantis, with the fake birds chirping from speakers hidden in the landscape.

Goodbye pretty ladies with your pasty white, yet sunburnt, passengers!

Goodbye Nassau Lighthouse…I will see you again when I get home to my log cabin.
 (I have a collection of lighthouses in our living room J )

 Well, hello Mr. Freighter, entering the channel just as we were leaving!  Nassau is a busy port.

…and seven hours later, at 4:00pm, hello Chub Cay, This place was a mecca for sport fisherman.  You should have seen all of the beautiful fishing boats with their flying bridges nearly three stories high.  Matt and Karie got fuel, and we tied up to a vacant dock for about 30 minutes.  We pulled the dink in, stored all of the paddles, anchor, lines, and lifejackets, then flipped her up onto the bow for our crossing tonight.  Once she was securely tied down, we cast off and headed back out to sea.  There is a huge wall not a mile from shore there….from 25 ft. to 190 ft., then it DROPS, to over 2000 feet.  We had about three more hours of sailing to the tip of the tongue of the ocean, then we turned due west across the Bahama Bank.  I am on watch now, and we are in just 11-12 feet of water- for the next 60 miles.  I won't be seeing any starfish in the water tonight.

I decided to make a pot of white bean chicken chili for dinner, as it was feeling chilly outside, too.  I got everything in the pot and simmering, but decided some cornbread would really taste good with it.  I didn’t have any eggs left on board, so I hailed Karie on the radio and we agreed to do a mid-ocean rendezvous!  It was fun. She sent over two eggs, ever so carefully, and I sent over a container of chili and a box of cornbread mix for them to have for dinner.  I can never make a small batch of any kind of soup.  It broke up the monotony anyhow! 

Goodbye, Plan Sea, enjoy your supper!  Actually we consistently sail within a mile of each other.  Let me check….yep, they’re about a half mile behind us at the moment!  I’m blazing the trail as lead dog right now.  Actually, Agnes is doing all the work.  I’m just supervising so Cap’n can catch a few winks.

Since Cap’n no longer has his trolling rod, he decided to try his hand with the Cuban reel while we were still in the deep water.  Wouldn’t you know, a dolphin fish (not the Flipper kind) came tight under the boat, snagged his lure, then spit it out.  That makes us one for five now. Earlier, Matt also had hooked one, but lost him trying to reel him in.  Hence, chili for supper tonight.

It was looking to be a gorgeous sunset.  We actually have seen very few sunsets on our trip.  It has either been too cloudy at sunset, or we are tucked behind an island and can’t see it set.

Clear skies, calm seas, no clouds….it was looking to be a green flash kind of night…and it was!

I missed it on the camera, but the colors still look pretty. 

No sooner had the sunset, and Matt hailed us on the radio…he had a pilot whale tail come up not 50 feet from his boat!  He thought it was heading our way, but we didn’t see it.  Dang it…that would have been so cool.

So for now, it’s 11:00pm, and I am in just an hour into my watch.  We are trying to do three hour shifts.  The jib is rolled in, even though the wind is nearly directly behind us.  The main is out on the port side, and I just adjusted the sail and picked up about a half a knot.  Bessie is running, but only turning about 1600 rpms.  I do have a light breeze from the stern starboard side…I think that’s a broad reach, maybe?  At any rate, we’re making 5.5-6 knots to the good, and are due to hit our next waypoint, just this side of Cat Cay at 6:30am.    Have a good nite, y’all!