We left Oven Rock at 0740, transited Galliot Cut about an hour later and arrived at Georgetown on Sunday afternoon. The cruise was relatively smooth, with head seas of about 3 ft and about a 6 second period. Not ideal, but comfortable! Deep water means fishing! Just out of the cut we hooked a barracuda, more a nuisance than anything, they hit hard but obediently follow the lure to the boat. Out with the channel locks, those nasty teeth can inflict a very quick and painful laceration, so no chances taken! ‘Cuda caught offshore and those less than 30″ are purported to be less likely carriers of ciguatera, but we take no chances, the cuda are not ever keepers. It’s a bacterial infection that attacks the nervous system and can make one quite sick. No thanks!
Within an hour of crossing the cut, we hooked a very nice mahi (dolphin/dorado), clearly visible in the flash of brilliant green, yellow and blue hues as the fish shot out of the water. They can be spectacular when they’re hooked, doing tail walks, and coming completely out of the water. A great catch, and one of the best eating fish around. This one was particularly active, and shot out of the water one direction; unfortunately, the lure shot in the opposite direction, and that mahi was added to the list of the ones that got away. Crap! That was dinner!! No further activity the rest of the trip, so we arrived at Georgetown just minutes ahead of Innu, also skunked. We dropped the hook on the west side of the harbor to ride out the southwest winds predicted for the night, and enjoyed a very calm night for a change! No anchor snubber groaning through the night, no rolling in a wind-blown surge!
The following day we traveled to town to do some minor provisioning, the Exuma Market is the biggest and best in the Exumas, lots of variety and more fresh produce than elsewhere. Still, not a Publix, but good! It’s all relative! Our beach visit to the east side of Stocking Island found us greeting some cruising friends, Wayne & Sharon of My Sharona who have been in the Exumas for months. We also found Dreamweaver and Escapade’s crew, the folks with whom we made the overnight run from Bimini. Always fun to catch up to friends and share news of the cruising community. Orient Moon appeared to the south later in the day. We moved to Sand Dollar Beach later Monday, in anticipation of a wind shift and a short blow Tuesday-Wednesday. Forecasts are for near-perfect weather for the following 6 days, so we will likely set off to another location, there is a possibility a number of boats will also travel to take advantage of the great weather. We will be keeping a close eye on the forecast in anticipation of returning to the Staniel Cay area by the weekend of the 7th to prepare for the much-anticipated arrival of our guests on the 10th! My sisters and brother-in-law are joining us for a week; their 1st visit to the Exumas! We’re very excited to have them, and looking forward to having them aboard!
