Position of Alesto 2: Anchored off Lynyard Cay, near Great Abaco. N 26:22, W 76:59. (Degrees and Minutes)We just bounced over to the Abacos from Eleuthera for the last seven hours, full strength Atlantic Ocean. Lee says the waves were 6-8 feet, I tried not to look out. Our weather man doesn't work Sundays and conditions seemed worse than reported in yesterday's report. He probably would have said "some people might enjoy these conditions" which is my cue not to go. I'm adding never start a voyage on a Sunday to my checklist. Lee got the fishing out of the way early, with a ten pound something in the tuna mackerel family-they never quite match the pictures in our fish book.
A week ago we had a calm trip across the Exuma Sound from Staniel Cay, Exuma to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. The only mishap was discovering I had left my backpack under the table at the Staniel Cay yacht club, only when it was 50 miles away. Thus began a saga involving some twenty boats on the VHF radio discussing who could pick up my bag and deliver it to some unknown destination in either Eleuthera or the Abacos. Bill on Long Winded had it for awhile, only he was headed to Nassau. Some more frantic communications got it transferred to Finnesterre, who finally pulled into our anchorage last night. For the rest of my cruising days, I'll probably be known for this little mishap.There's a cruise ship stop at the southern end of Eleuthera and we just happened to get to a restaurant last Sunday in time to see a couple of buses from the ship bringing in tourists for lunch on their island tour. We had fun being local color (scruffy cruisers) and watched the entertainment: preparation of conch salad and a little Junkanoo parade. On Monday we shared a car with new friends and toured southern Eleuthera. We revisited the Island School, where mostly American high school students can spend a semester doing academics as well as ocean related projects. It was interesting to see the tanks of farm raised cobia and tilapia, as well as lettuces raised on the tank runoff. They're trying for self sufficiency with cars running on fryer oil from the cruise ship stop and local restaurants, pigs eating table scraps, wind mills, solar, gardens mulched with seaweed, poopoo gardens from sewage. We had a great tour this year, the guide being a technical person. On our way back we spotted a giant pile of perfect red tomatoes in a back yard and stopped to see if we could buy some. The lady insisted on giving some to us and showed us her beautiful garden. It's surprising what seems to grow out of rock and sand. Linda showed us a beach a local lady had taken her to the day before and we got in an hour of shelling before returning the car.We headed up to Governor's Harbor and spent an afternoon finding the bakery (for Lee) and a shelling beach (for Sherry). We met a family from Rhinebeck, NY on the walk back and discovered a mutual acquaintance. This was not a good anchorage for west winds, so we had to move on the next morning up to Spanish Wells. This village fills up its own little island with streets numbered 1 through 31, 2000 -3000 inhabitants, all with the same nine last names, all blond and efficient, descendents of an English vessel that crashed here in 1648. Lobstering is the main industry, now that refrigerated boats can deliver 1,000,000 pounds a year that they catch. The local museum explained that prior to the late 50s, all freight to and from Bahamas was by sail. Fish and lobsters would not keep that long and at the time lobsters were $.10 and the locals used them for bait. Now, they have a new method of lobster farming, "Lobster Motels". They build a 4'X 4' piece of tin roof on 2 2X6 boards and place them in 20-60' of water, the lobsters like to stay under them. One large boat may tend 15,000 of these twice a year. Their location is recorded on their GPS and kept secret. They dive on them with a compressed air hose, just lift the box and sort eligible lobsters. The alternative, Finding and removing lobsters from coral holes is slow, difficult work. Recently they discovered a needed motel renovation: a second set of legs on top. It seems that dolphins wait for the divers to catch the fish that swim out as the diver collects lobsters. The dolphins then learned to tip the motel over on their own, thus the need for legs on both sides. Cruisers Jean and Tom bought a house here in 1996 and welcome visitors to a Happy Hour on their porch every evening, complete with a book exchange and lots of local knowledge. We found out why collections of people were grouped on the docks every day, always with someone standing in the water. Seems a pregnant Florida manatee, now named Rita, has taken up residency. The vet from Nassau did an ultrasound on her Thursday and thinks birth is immanent. Meanwhile she is being hand fed the recommended diet of lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and not too much celery (it binds her up). We were glad to find out why fully clothed women were standing in the water up to their necks. Golf carts are the primary transportation and we felt safe biking. We made it all the way over the bridge and out to the end of Russell Island, the new suburbs of Spanish Wells. We could have spent a few more days admiring all the gardens, but our supposed weather window came along and we took the leap. Every detail of this cruising life is weather dependent, so different from land travels. We positioned at Royal Island for our ocean crossing to the Abacos and had dinner aboard Finnesterre. They delivered my missing backpack, which still contained my camera and money: always our experience in the Bahamas. The crossing was bouncy, as usual for this year, and Lee asked at one point if I wanted to turn back. But I just stayed below and tried to ignore it: better the devil you know. The biggest worry was the cut at Little Harbor. It's always a worry that the waves might be breaking all the way across, then where do we go? But as usual, nothing bad happened. To misquote Will Rogers "I must be a very effective worrier, because nothing I worry about ever happens. Note there are no pictures of Eleuthera because my camera was travelling separately. I thought it should have been sending me postcards of its adventures, but nothing!
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