From: BrianGale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:BrianGale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 11:27 AM
To: celebration_news@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [celebration_news] fishing with Tom
Hello from Nassau. The boat is getting quiet, with Ryan having left on the morning BahamasAir flight and Tom leaving on tomorrrow's. We pulled into Nassau yesterday afternoon, taking 6 days to do the run from Georgetown. As I said last week, we expected Tom to improve our fishing technique, as we kept catching barracuda. I had asked Tom to bring a couple lures, and he came on board with half a fishing store's worth - hooks, swivels, leader, line, and lures in every color imaginable.
Our first day was a long one, 40 miles or so to Farmer's Cay. But we had great wind for sailing, and we trolled for fish at 7 knots, catching 5 barracuda but nothing edible (though the islanders tell us differently). On day 2, however, Tom proved his worth with a mahi, which, cooked three ways proved to be quite a feast! The next day while sailing we caught another edible fish, this one a bo. Many of you may not be familiar with a bo, and I had not seen one until we caught this guy. We!
were sailing along and got a bite, the biggest of my journey. It hit the lure, ran out some line, stopped, and then the line started SCREAMING off the rod. Definitely not a barracuda! Ryan was on the rod, and for some reason the fish no longer had any fight left in him, and when we got him close to the boat he was just skipping along the surface of the water. All became apparent when we got him in the net.
The fish that ate the lure turned out to be a bonita. After the initial small run, something big - Tom's guessing a mako, but in any event, a LARGE shark - decided he liked the looks of our bonita, and with one giant bite he took the back 2/3 of our fish. After that, all we reeled in was a head and a bit of body. It was absolutely incredible to see these enormous teeth marks and realize the speed and power involved in turning our bonita dinner into a bo- for a snack.
We had another great sail, but after listening to the weather forecast we realized we were in for 25 knots for the last two days of the vacation. We tucked into Norman's Pond, which I knew to be well protected. We tucked ourselves into a little cove, with 100' between ourselves and the shore where the prevailing winds would be and 50' behind us to a dock. We set two anchors and started playing hearts.
Tom and I are marathon hearts players. We have often played hearts all night, gone out to breakfast and straight to work. We taught Ryan to play at the beginning of the vacation, and by now he was pretty good. We played hearts for hours, finally throwing in the towel at 5am. We were tide restricted in our anchorage and couldn't leave until noon, so we could sleep the morning away.
At least that was the plan. But at 7:00 I woke up to screaming gusts of winds. I lept out of bed and jumped into the cockpit where tom was sleeping. We looked at each other and Tom said, " I think we're moving. Yep, we're dragging." With a lee shore 50 feet away and, as we later found out, 40 knot gusts, that's bad.
Tom got the engine going as I worked my way to the bow against the wind and rain. When I got there I looked back to see the dinghy wrapped around a piling at the dock. Tom finally got the boat going and, broadside to the wind, slid past the dock with five feet to spare. The dinghy was able to untangle itself and I pulled up 2 anchors in 30 seconds. We headed for a different anchoring location - less protected but with a half mile of water downwind in case we should drag again! Tom and Ryan were back asleep 20 minues after the excitement began. Me, I was to jazzed up to sleep again that day. We pulled our anchor up a few hours later and motored to Highborne Cay for a night at a marina while the front blew through later that day.
The Bahamas does not generally experience much rain, and in fact it had not yet rained in February. But as we tied up at Highborne it began to pour and continued for the next 24 hours. We were time constrained by Ryan's flight, so yesterday we motorsailed through the rain and 20+
knot winds with a double-reefed main. We were able to run safely around the coral heads and arrived safely in Nassau at 3:00
Ryan left first thing this morning, and Tom leaves tomorrow at noon. I'm sorry to see them go, but I'm happy to have a few weeks to myself. I'm heading to Eleuthera for a few weeks before I have to be in the Abacos for the next wave of visitors. I will be taking it slow and easy, making sure I don't keep any schedule whatsoever.
Thanks again to all who have written recently. You can reply to this message to write to me, but please remember to delete my original message
before sending it to me. Let me know how you're doing!
Brian
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