Saturday 11 April 2015

April 4-6, 2015 sharks, rays, leaving the Bahamas


the forest fires are still burning, last night the sky was glowing red in one area …usually it dies down in the night


anchored here to dinghy to the beach and see the sharks and rays


we are walking the beach, and I was not going any further in the water to see this shark closer


one of the rays, now they where in closer to shore and I just about got enough nerve to ….


get closer … some of you won't know but my daughter Lily and I swam with the rays in Bimini 3 years ago and one of them gave me the biggest hickey ever … so I'm not getting any closer to them now


a cormorant and a pelligan in a tree


laundry was dry by the time we returned to the boat


then off to Powell Cay … we saw the Tropical Birds, I could not get a picture, but will see of I can get one from Mary Ellen and post it later


a conch that is walking along, see the two antennas 


a look a like we found on the beach


north Crab Cay for the night


M & M, cleaning their treasures


Rubble Beach, and it was, all stone rubble


packing the dinghy away for the crossing


Persuasion doing the same


leaving early in the morning to get to Great Sale Cay, and then to the Banks


my first of two Cuddas


anchorage for the night, Great Sale Cay


3G is hard to find, the only place was against the mast

April 4 - 6, 2015

We topped off fuel tanks, water, did the washing of clothes and I posted the blog, at Green Turtle Club.  By noon we headed out to Manjack Beach and dinghied to Manjack Rock Beach to see the sharks and rays. When we arrived there where 2 sharks, and we stayed our distance. The rays came closer.  We met Charlie and Chis from Wingspread there.

By the time we got back to the boat the laundry that was hanging on the life lines where dry. Next we headed to Powell Cay for beach combing, and we where lucky enough to see the Red Bill, White Tailed Tropicbird, (no pictures), wing spread is 37 inches, length 26 inches including a long streamer tail. We saw about 10.

Our next stop was  North Crab Cay, Rubble Beach for the night. Persuasion and Modaki deflated or stored our dinghies on the deck for the next 7-8 hour sail to Great Sale Cay. I fished all the way and within the last 1/2 hour, I caught a 24 inch Great Barracuda.  We know they are safe to eat if under 5 pounds, and larger fish sometimes carry Ciguatera (a type of poison).  We decided to return it to the sea, so the other fishes could have a feed.

Our sail here was lumpy with the wind 10-15, gusting to 20 knots on our STB quarter. Our foresail out, surfing at times 7 knots and seas 3-4 feet.  Not the easiest day on the water.  Our new auto helm struggled to keep us on track and the old one was a bit better, but finally neither wanted to work in the washboard conditions.
We anchored on the NW Harbour, and by dark 14 boats are here.  The east winds are still blowing 15-20 knots.
Not the conditions that we wanted to cross the Little Bahama Banks.
There is no 3G, but Joe did manage to send one email to West End Marina, which might be tomorrow nights stay, with these conditions, but at $3 per foot … ouch





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