Thursday April 14: New Bight, Cat Island

     0610 and we are underway, saying goodbye to Elizabeth Harbor, and on to Cat Island to the East.

     It was a little hard to sleep last nite as we could hear the roar of the surf on the East side of Stocking Island.  The alarm came early, and I was skeptical that we could make the trip, due to adverse wind and ocean swell.

     We had our breakfast porridge while still in the lee of Stocking Island, then began to roll as we came between the reefs at the North end of the harbor.  In Conch Cut we took some spray, but going on the premise that it would be calmer in the deeper offshore water, and a good forecast, we plowed on.

Sunrise as we left Elizabeth Harbor.

     We had arranged with another boat, the catamaran Presence-ing to make the run together to Cat Island, and were also joined by the 40 foot sloop Free d Spirit, which on the radio all day I mis-spoke as “Great” Spirit.  They were both just behind us leaving the Cut.

     As hoped, the wind driven waves did die down and it turned out to be a perfect day to motor-sail the 50 miles to Cat Island.

     As soon as the seas moderated, we started getting our fishing gear out, as we were covering some deep water today.  About an hour into our fishing we had a strike, and it gave a mighty pull.  Our big rod was in one of our deck drains, which we have been using as rod holders, and after the fish took all the line, it pulled so hard that it put a 20 degree bend in the pole’s handle!

     I reeled it in and we watched as it jumped several times.  This was clearly a Dolphin Fish, aka Mahi-Mahi.  We had it right beside the boat, a 12 to 15 pounder when it spit the hook.  Bummer!  But wait, there were three of them and they swam around the boat for about ten minutes, but even though they hit my lure several more times, they would not take the hook.

     Okay, excitement over, for now, back underway.  Our friends in the catamaran had passed us while we were stopped trying to land the fish.  they were fishing as well but had had no hits.

     An hour or so later we had another strike and this one was even stronger.  I reeled him in several times and several times he pulled all my line back out.  He had a will.  I figured to let him tire out so we would have a better chance of boating him.  We could see him clearly as he swam alongside the boat.  We both have polarized glasses, unfortunately our camera does not.  We could see the pink hair from our lure and the bright blue pectoral fins, and the large yellow tail.

     Finally we got him alongside but were unable to get the net under him, so I yanked him right up onto the rail, and our leader parted off, there goes dinner!

     Same as before, there had been 2 other Mahi-Mahi in this little school, but when our fish escaped, they all vanished.

     We still had two hours to go in the deep water, so we set new gear, but had no more luck, well only to say that when I pulled in my lure as we approached Cat Island, I realized that I had forgotten to remove the masking tape that is wrap around the hooks for stowage!  I guess that last effort was just practice.

     After making the Hawks Nest Point we still had almost 2 hours to go to our anchorage off the Hermitage, a shrine built by a single monk. All this was shallow water, and very calm.  Very strange to go from over 1000 feet of water to 30 in a matter of several hundred feet.  It must be some steep drop-off.

The Hermitage, overlooking New Bight settlement - highest point in the entire Bahamas.  206.7 ft.

     Our friends on the Free d Spirit had passed us when we were losing our second fish, so we followed them in to the anchorage, joining 3 other sloops already anchored.  Strangely though, no sign of the catamaran, though we are sure he was ahead of us.  Throughout the rest of the afternoon he kept calling first the Free d Spirit then the Willie Dawes.  But when we tried to answer we got no response.  All we could figure was that since he was so far ahead of us, that he had gone to a different anchorage….

     This is a wide open roadstead, with fifty miles of water off our stern, and the main road of the island off our bow.  This is the middle of three settlements on the island and  we will go ashore in the morning and see what the town is all about and see if the monk did a good job.

     And don’t forget the great pork tenderloin we cooked on the grill!