Saturday April 9:  Say Goodbye to the Jumentos

     According to the weather guru, that Norther was going to come through beginning Saturday night, with winds from the North to Northeast at 20 - 30 knots for two or more days.  For us this meant either retreating back to Buena Vista Cay for nominal protection for the duration, or pressing on back to the Exumas.  We decided to keep going North.  It was our first long day’s cruise in a long time, and it meant saying goodbye to the Jumentos.  What an awesome part of the Bahamas - we will always treasure our ten days here.

     It was calm enough on the Atlantic side, and the winds were light enough to make it a very pleasant cruise in deep enough water to once again try our hand at fishing.  Almost as soon as Dan had set his fishing rod he caught something.  He slowed the engine down to idle, I grabbed the net and made ready, and he slowly reeled it in, allowing time for play so that this time we didn’t lose the lure.  (We’ve lost about $40 worth of fishing tackle so far…)  

In which Dan catches a plastic bag.

     We figure at least we saved a turtle’s life.  They feed on jelly fish and can choke on plastic bags.  At least we still had the lure.

     Undaunted, he cast again and then set up the other rod for me.

     Sometime after lunch I had a bite, but when I reeled it in, nothing was there.  A short while later I caught a barracuda.  A BIG barracuda.  

Look at the teeth on that thing!

     Then Dan had a bite and the pole bent so far it looked like it might snap. This was a very big fish, or at least very determined.  Dan almost couldn’t reel it in.  It fought right up until it got alongside the boat, then gave one big yank and swam away with the lure and the steel leader.   Whatever it was, it stayed far enough underwater that we never got a look at it.   Shortly after that, I caught another barracuda, about the same size as the first one.  We are getting very good at catching barracudas - we know exactly what lures they go for.  I decided that was it for my day’s fishing.  Dan set his line one more time but didn’t have any more luck.  We packed up and stowed the equipment.  It was time to cross over to the much shallower Bank side of the island chain anyway.

     We arrived at Little Exuma island just after six pm, and settled down to a supper of spinach curry and rice.  This is a pretty little anchorage, and despite our proximity to the George Town area, we are alone.