January 15, 2010.

We were the only boat anchored in Spanish Wells Bay on the west side of Raccoon Cay. That meant that we had plenty of privacy for some scantily clad sun bathing, so we did enjoy some of that, but the bulk of our day was once again spent in the water. The bay immediately to our south had 5 boats in it after several arrived today.

After 1 ½ hours in the morning and were able to take a small Hogfish, a lobster and a 9 ½ freaking pound Mutton Snapper. It was another lucky shot as the spear angled through his body and severed his spinal chord rendering him instantly cooperative. We ran across several Nurse sharks today. Nurse sharks are very docile unless provoked, so there was none of that.
It’s amazing to see these huge sharks just resting on the bottom as we approached individual coral heads. Usually, they meander away after a short time while leaving the coral for us to explore.

After a lunch of “fish sandwiches” we headed out once again and were rewarded with another lobster and three Margates. We had Margate for lunch today and I admit to having tunnel vision toward Margate’s this afternoon. The third Margate of the day was a 7 ½ pounder. Quite a glorious day in the water.

Once we were back to the boat we had to hustle to clean our catch before heading in to the beach to burn garbage and have sundowners with the crews of several boats that showed up today. We have a bit of a blow headed this way, so I’m sure all of us will be here for a few days. The bright side is that we’re in the Jumentos and fishing will be available in spite of the wind.