February 19, 2012.

Happy Birthday Randall.

After a few therapeutic days of hiking and hunting we decided to once again change cays. We sailed the 4 miles from Spanish Well Bay north to the anchorage at Buena Vista Cay. The wind is supposed to be mild so I wanted to hunt the wonderful coral on the eastern side of the cay.

As a bonus we would be going out with some people that we really just met this year down at the Valentines Day party. Greg and Maggie are the husband and wife team of doctors that lent a hand when Doctor Bob sewed up Lynn from First Editions face when she fell on ironshore last year.(Cockpit surgery) They expressed a desire to do a little hunting with us as they felt they weren't having the success they ought to. I LOVE the whole mentoring thing. Somebody took the time to teach me and it made a huge difference so whenever the opportunity arises I try to pay it forward.

Fortunately Greg is in good shape and is comfortable in the water. Hes got the right equipment, we just had to get into the water. We chose a stretch of water with large coral and some ledges on the east side of the cay. We swam together, searching the holes and crevices. Each time I found a bug tucked away I had Greg come over discover it himself so he could get used to seeing the tip of the antenna, the contrast of the legs or whatever gave the bugs position away.

Then I let him take the shot and just like its written in the script, he missed. In fact, he missed the first few shots but his frustration ebbed when he soon nailed his first bug of the day. While we tread water in the sloppy chop I explained how to tease a lobster out of his hole.

If you can only see the tip of an antler you can take your spear or finger and lightly touch / stroke the antler. 70% of the time the bug will shrink back further into his hole. You didn't have a shot anyway so its worth the try. 25% of the time the bug will be curious enough to step forward possibly giving you the shot. The other 5% will come storming out of their hole screaming “Who doth dare to touch me?” Greg was understandably happy about teasing a 30 percenter into his bucket.

Just like with Keith and Jamie (Keiths turn to be the new guy) last year after a short while the hits were far outnumbering the misses and we both headed home with 4 bugs in our buckets.

I can't really take any credit for his "new found" skills. Greg was another perfect example of a guy already having all the tools to be successful. He just needed to pick up a few pointers in an area with enough bugs to hone his abilities.