Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Adventures of Captain Gale: The Tropics

From: briangale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:briangale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 9:03 AM
Subject: The Tropics

Hello again! Thanks to all who have written - please remember when replying not to return my message to me, it helps keep the phone bills at a less painful threshold.

I am writing from Georgetown on Great exuma island. Georgetown lies on the Tropic of Cancer and therefore I have officially made it to the Tropics. My friends Truman and Nisa have just left, leaving my boat quiet. I had an action-packed 10 days with Nisa and 2+ weeks with Truman. I picked up Truman in Nassau and we had a great 5 days sailing and snorkling along Eleuthera Island (25 deg N,76.5 deg W, for those with the home game). The most memorable anchorage was Hatchet Bay, whose entrance is blasted out of the cliffs and cannot be seen until you are upon it. The guide book claims that the entrance is 90' wide, but Truman and I put it more towards 60 feet. And when you're boat is 10' wide and you have a following sea pushing you into the rocks, well, the chanel gets even skinnier. Truman (who is twice the sailor I am, was at the helm for this entrance, waited until the point of commitment for this entrance before he says (just to needle me, I'm sure), "Do you think thi!
s is it?" Thanks Truman, great thing to say as we're getting blown upon the rocks...

We returned to Nassau to pick up Nisa, and immediately headed southeast towards the chain of islands known as the Exumas. The first stop was Allen's Cay, which is well known for its agressive locals, the rock iguana. I swam ashore and within a few minutes the locals were beginning to hiss and surround me, at which point I bravely fled to the safety of the water.

The next morning on the way out of the anchorage we finally did the inevitable; I finally ran aground. I was at the helm and Truman was on the bow looking for shallow spots. Truman turned around and said, "It looks ok, what's the depth?" "10 - 6 and a half...(reversing engines)" Bump. We bounced a couple times over what locals now call Truman's rock, and we were on our way. I earned a good hard look from Nisa, who was brushing her teeth at the time. 2055 miles without grounding , a good run, though some might say I'm not trying hard enough.

We had a great week together. Truman and I did an AMAZING wall dive - the coral shelf just drops vertically from 65 feet to probably 200 feet, before it drops further into the depths. We went through an amazing archway and down to about 100' where I saw the most incredible and varied coral I have ever seen. Later in the week we went to Thunderball Cave, a natural grotto which was used in such movies as the James Bond movies "Thunderball" and "Never Say Never Again" as well as the timeless classic "Splash". To enter the cave you have to snorkle underwater through an archway, arriving in a round opening approximately 30 feet across and 15 feet tall. There are holes in the limestone roof with moss dangling and the water is teeming with fish waiting to be fed. We had brought a few scraps of bread, and when offered the swarm of fish was so intense that it had a clostrophobic effect. I had a grand time tossing bits of bread across the grotto to where Truman was swimming and !
watching him squirm. Sailing further south, we managed to land a 35" mahi mahi, great eating for two dinners.

We finally arrived in Georgetown (23 deg N, 76 deg W) on Great Exuma Island, a town of 900 residents and 200 cruising boats, quite large by Bahamian standards. We rented a car and toured the entire island, from the town of Rolleville on the nothern tip to Rolletownn on the southern tip. Who is this Rolle guy, anyway?

With my guests gone, I am provisioning and waiting out a bit of weather before I turn my attention to the far out islands where towns and cruisers are scarce. I return to Nassau to pick up more crew on February 10, but until then I'm free to cruise as quickly or slowly as I wish.

I hope this email finds everyone well. Please send a line when you have a moment.
Brian
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