Steve's Fish!

Mentioned the big fish Steve caught earlier, here it is!

Dinner - All the Fish You Can Eat

We left Chub Cay after the ROLLIEST night we've had on the whole trip! On our way by just after 6:00 to do the rest of the Northwest Passage (the oceany bit)and then to cross the Banks.

A downwind sail with following seas - woohoo, we don't get many of those! They are a real treat. No banging, no flapping and no crashing into waves. Just the head sail up, letting the waves push us along and cruising at 6+ knots.

After breakfast at sea, we dropped both hooks in and thought we might play at fishing for our last couple of days. Not half an hour later, ZING ZING! Both the fish pole and the Cuban reel were jumping with something going on with their lines. I rolled in the reel and Steve took the pole. Mine came up empty, something had bitten off both the hook and the pink frilly lure. (Hey, those things aren't free, you know!)

Steve was working the pole and it was bent nearly in half. As he started to reel the fish in, we could see that it was so big it was making its own wake! He brought it up beside the boat and we could see it was enormous - a big snapper (red or black fin), at least 18 pounds!

This beat all of our barracuda catches!

We had planned on grilling the next fish we caught whole (like you get in restaurants, whole grilled fish), but this was way too big to fit on our tiny grill so Steve filleted it and we packed it away into the freezer. I took a couple of the smaller pieces and quickly cooked them in butter with a little bit of salt and pepper. It was amazing, the best fish either one of us had ever tasted!

Dinner was had underway while watching the sunset. We coasted towards Bimini as it got darker and darker. The chart plotter guided us into the anchorage and we anchored using it and a bit of light from the moon. Our first full dark anchoring (we are still learning!). We did a total of 85 miles today in 15 hours, our biggest day yet.

This crossing of large ocean spaces is very interesting. I didn't realise until I got out here how we all are surrounded by people. Out here, we can look in every direction as far as the eye can see and there is no one but us. Strange to be so alone, but inspiring also - it's an amazing world we live in and we seldom get a feel for how big it really is.

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Sailing Downwind and Big Barracudas

After 10 days in lovely Staniel Cay, it was time to go. Yesterday we pulled up both anchors (yes, we can do the Bahamian moor!) and started headed back out to sea. Moss had grown on the anchors, they'd been in there so long! It was such a good anchorage (calm from all angles, beautiful and plenty to do), we hated to leave. We consoled ourselves that we'd be back next year.

We were very excited about this sail, it was going to be downwind. As you may remember from many of our posts, we typically sail to windward. As a matter of fact, we are experts at beating into the wind! We have had little to no downwind sailing on this trip and after yesterday, I have to say it is everything it's cracked up to be and more! Seven hours of coasting gently along at 5-7 knots through some of the prettiest seas you can imagine. Barely had to touch a sail and no slamming into the waves. We wanted to keep going forever!

Managed to insert a little fishing into all that leisurely sailing. We caught the biggest barracuda ever! This is no 'fish story', it was huge! (Stop laughing.) It was so heavy Steve couldn't even lift it out of the water (hence no picture - I said stop laughing!). Unfortunately we don't eat barracuda so it went back into the sea. I really do think we bought the Best Blue Barracuda Lure by mistake.

After our lovely sail (please note it was DOWNWIND!), we arrived at Norman's Cay in time to have the anchor down and be sitting in the cockpit, toasts in hand before sundown. Norman's Cay has a little beachside restaurant right next to the little airplane runway. A big drug runner used to own the island (he's in jail now), one of his planes crashed in the harbor and it's supposed to be a great snorkeling site - that's tomorrow's trip, along with dinner out at the restaurant.

Today's trip was over to the beach - where we did YOGA! Steve is determined to heal his back slowly while taking some gentle exercise, yoga is perfect for strengthening in a very gentle way. Imagine the most beautiful picture of the Bahamas you have ever seen, white sandy beach, waves gently lapping on the shore, a soft southern breeze, sailboats bobbing in the harbor as you do some of the most relaxing exercise ever. We're going to do it all over again tomorrow!

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Overnight to the Berry Islands

We left Cat Cay early in the morning, before sun up (thought we gave up those early morning get ups!) to make the crossing to the Berry Islands. We fished along the way and had a beautiful sunny day. The catch total for the day, two and a half fish! A small one, a big barracuda and HALF a king mackerel. This was a fairly good sized fish and it had been CHOMPED! Just the head was left on the line. We were very glad we didn't catch whatever had chomped the mackerel!

We sailed and fished all day long and then around 7 put the toys away and settled in for the night crossing. Although we had good sailing, we were going into wind so we must have tacked 30 times over the course of the day. As the sun went down, the wind picked up and so did the waves. So we wouldn't have a repeat of our last boisterous overnighter, I asked Steve if we could put the jib sail away. With the jib up, the boat tends to heel quite a bit more and once it gets dark the boisterous-ness is magnified. After the jib and mizzen were put away, the speed went way down so on with the engine and we settled in for the crossing. Except for going into wind and waves THE WHOLE WAY, the crossing was fine and with comparable or better weather, I would do it again. (Must have midnight hot cocoa though, essential crossing 'medication'!)

We arrived in the Berry Islands this morning and had the anchor down for 9:00. After breakfast 'bacon butties' (woohoo!), a nap was required. Spent the afternoon reading on deck, no rush to go ashore, and met a few of the local cruisers. Tonight is our belated anniversary dinner, Jessie's chicken wings and steak on the grill!

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And I Caught a Fish that Was THISSSS Big!

Our day of deep sea fishing was a success! We went out on one of those $55 rod and reel inclusive fishing trips today. This was our way of 'seeing how it's done' when it comes to fishing. Good chance to try the whole thing out without getting our boat all messy!

We arrived and explained that we were total novices and would need instruction, which the 'Mate' Eric promptly agreed to. We watched all the more experienced fishermen jostle for prime spots at the stern (back) of the
boat. Some had made reservations for these special places. We sat in the sun and watched how they prepared bait (gross!) and set up the rods and reels (no rocket science here).

We had a lovely motor out to the fishing grounds, past the last races of
Race Week (today is the last day). The anchor went down, the motor went off
and rods were at the ready. Actually ours weren't, 'Uh, what do we do now?'
Eric very kindly came over and said, 'You put the bait on like this and let
the line out until the hook hits the bottom.' End of lesson! (And we paid
55 bucks each for that!)

Okay, we'll give this a whirl. Bait on, hooks sinking, sinking, sinking
(we're in a hundred feet of water here!). I kept feeling little tugs on
mine and Eric informed me that I had a bite and then walked off. 'Hey, wait
a minute - that wasn't covered in the lesson! What do I do?!' Reel it in.
I did and caught a fish!!!

To be fair, it was not a big fish. It was not even a medium fish. It was a
6 to 8 inch Grunt (Steve insists it was 6, I however, being the actual
catcher of the fish know it was at least 8). Wooohooo, I can catch fish!

Because other people were not catching fish as successfully as I, they moved the boat. Whereupon I proceeded to catch another fish! This one was a big fish, an Amberjack, 23 inches. Eric measured my monster fish, told me it was an inch too short and THREW IT BACK IN THE WATER! Thank goodness Steve
had been quick with the camera and has photographic evidence which proves I did indeed catch a big fish. Please note that although Eric is holding the fish, I caught it - I just didn't want to touch it (as you may tell from the photo, fish have blood).

We fished for the rest of the day, but didn't really catch anything more.
Lots of other people caught other big fish (mutton snapper was the fish of
the day). We did learn how to put bait on the hooks (again, gross and why do
they not give out Wet Wipes here?!), we watched trolling, Steve watched
gaffing and removal of hooks. At the end of the day, we went back to the
dock and Eric filleted my little Grunt fish along with several Yellow Tail
and a Porgy for us. So we left with enough fish for a fresh fish dinner!

One of our favourite ways to prepare fish - Fish with Brown Butter and
Capers

Fresh fish
Butter
Capers

Melt the butter in a fry pan until it darkens to a light shade of brown.
Saute the fish in the browned butter until cooked to a state of flakey.
Sprinkle a couple / three teaspoons of capers in and give it all a good
stir. Enjoy with salad and a glass of wine.

It was the best fish we've ever had!

(Just a side note: Gaff Magazine is now following my Twitters. I am not making this up, I can show you the email!)