February 27, 2008

When we went to bed the wind was blowing about 15 knots out of the east. For this reason we had decided to anchor along the western side of the cay. When we woke this morning we found that the wind had already swung and was blowing from the southwest. That meant we needed to get out of there and go around and up into the bight on the southern part of the island.

So, I took the dogs to the beach, spoke to the Meermins and in 30 minutes we were up and underway for better protection. Another big reason for our early departure was that we’d heard several boats on the VHF discussing plans to ride out the blow here at Buenavista. There are only so many prime spots, so we didn’t want to arrive last and limit our options.

It’s kind of funny how there are so many options for places to go and be alone in the Jumentos. You kind of get used to not seeing any other boats, that is until a front comes through and everyone has to run for the same few places with shelter.

So we entered the bight and found ourselves as the second boat in the anchorage. True to form, the first guy in, had the best spot so we poked around a bit before deciding on our spot for the storm. The water here is a little shallow for our liking but we went in as close to shore as we dared for better protection from the winds. The anchorage is also sprinkled with random coral heads. We were safely clear of them, but as the anchorage fills, people will be forced to get closer and closer to the coral. We were happily anchored by 0830 and by noon there were 9 boats here with more closing on the horizon.

By 1000 hours Christy and her friend Elly were on the beach shelling/sea beaning while I stayed on the boat to make some sewing repairs. After they were done we had lunch and headed out for some snorkeling.

There is a very large reef system just to the north of our anchorage. We decided to snorkel that today because when the winds switched around to the north it wouldn’t be fit for man or beast out there.

There were the crews from 5 boats out there, all swimming about. Most of the people are out for lobsters or perhaps a large fish. Christy has already displayed a knack for finding conch, well today her gift appeared in another form. Lobster.

We haven’t seen a lobster since we left the protected national sea park at Warderick Wells. Today, things changed, between us we spotted at least 8 lobsters hiding in the reef. I spotted the first one and was so excited that I shot high and missed him completely. I haven’t missed a fish yet and have even been able to hit them in the head as they swam by. Yet, there was this lobster just sitting there broadside and I blew the spear right over his back. Bye bye lobster, he was back deep into his hole, never to be seen again.

Just after I finished telling Christy that I blew it, she came swimming back over to tell me that she had found another opportunity. This time my aim was true and I was on my way back to the dinghy with a lobster on my spear. Woo Hoo!

Then Christy hit the mother load, 3 fat lobsters all in one hole down under a rock ledge. I had to dive down to the bottom, level off and shoot under the shelf. The first shot took another nice sized lobster. I withdrew the lobster from the hole and dumped his body on the bottom instead of swimming him all the way back to the dinghy.

My second shot into the hole was a clean miss and unfortunately I drove the spear tip deep into the coral. So my spear was firmly lodged in the coral, deep under the shelf. Try as I might, I couldn’t pull the spear free. So I had to spin the shaft of the spear and unscrew my tip, leaving it lodged in the coral. That gave me my spear back, but without its tip, and my spare tip was back on the big boat. We were not leaving without the spear.

I was also not “leaving them biting”, so to speak, so I had an idea. The end of my spear is a threaded rod; the spear packs such a punch that I was sure I could blow it through their shell without a tip. The tip I lost had 2 barbs that open and hold your catch. The downside was that once impaled without the barbs they might be able to slip free, retreat and die in their hole.

So back down I went, and shot the tip less spear right through the second lobster. He was not dead, in fact….was fighting like hell, and I was able to pull him from under the ledge. The third lobster scurried far back into his hole and kept me from successfully completing the trifecta. I scooped up the first lobster from the bottom with my spear and took the two of them back to the dinghy.

We saw 3 more lobsters, took two of them without another miss and let one undersized one, live to see tomorrow. The last lobster we took was definitely the mother load for the day, it was huge. So after 2 hours in the water we came home with 5 lobsters. We also had opportunity to shoot a couple of nice yellow snappers, but I passed on them until I could put the new tip on the spear. We also saw a really nice Nassau Grouper and in 2 days, when he’s legal, I think we’ll be back.

Once back at the boat we decided that 5 lobsters were too many for us so we took 2 of them over to Art & Elly on Meermin. Christy went to work cooking the remaining 3 and making them part of a meal to die for. We each ate a 3 pounder and still had the monster 6 pounder left for tomorrow.

When we first got back to the boat we had a mini drama. The wind was supposed to start swinging around to the west by then. Instead, it was holding its direction from the southwest and it was really beginning to build. The wind wasn’t really the problem though, it was the tide. It had gone out, way out and we were ever so lightly bumping the bottom. It was still going to go out another half foot or so.

We had about 75 feet of chain out so Christy started the engine and drove the boat forward while I reeled in 15 feet of chain. I thought it did the trick as we had pulled ourselves into deeper water, just not “deeper” enough. In another half hour we were bumping again. Shit, we were gonna have to pull the anchor and reset it with the wind blowing close to 20 knots. Oh yeah, and there are boats all around.

We only had to move the anchor forward 40 ft and off to port another 60 ft to get us away from the shallows. It went smooth enough and I’m sure all who were watching (everyone in the anchorage) were duly impressed with our technique. We were in deeper water and were able to drop 90 feet of chain out giving us a scope of about 7 to 1, on all chain so things again are lovely.

P.S. Hunter/Gatherer Magazine has just called, I think they want us for a photo shoot.