Bahamas Day 5

The weather forecast on "cruisers net" indicated that the big swells had died down on the ocean side so we pulled up the anchor and headed out to sea. This involved motoring out of the lee of Stocking Island and taking a dogs leg course around a couple of reefs and out a cut between two little islands. Debra, followed the line on the chart on Andy's I-pad (currently his only chart plotter) perfectly and we were out in very deep water.

Debra on the helm during the anchoring procedure

Sometimes you can see the waves breaking over a reef, sometimes not.

After getting into the ocean we set three rods with lures that Andy and Debra refer to as "cheerleaders" due to their resemblance to the pom poms.

Cheerleaders

We motored for a while, to charge the batteries and then set the sails. It was not windy enough, however, to troll. So we furled everything up again and motored at about 5 knots, trolling. We went into the marina at the Sandals resort because we had heard mooring there was only $1 a foot. This proved to be true but you had to stay for 3 days so we decided the use of the laundry facilities wasn't worth the price. We got fuel, water and pumped out and headed back for Georgetown. I was on the helm, most of the time that we were at sea.

Andy took the helm to come back in through the cut and I set a rod out. The fish struck just as we were anchoring. "I don't have time for a fish now" was Andy's response "bring it up to the boat but don't let it go underneath, the motors on". So the poor thing got dragged around for a while until we were safely at anchor and then I bought it in.

A grouper, such a pretty fish.

He was only about 14 inches long and there wasn't much meat on him but he's in Debra and Andy's freezer ready to be added to other catches for a fish dinner. My first deep sea fishing experience and I caught him at anchor. Needless to say we had chicken for dinner that night.