M/V MAERIN

We arrived in Rock Sound early afternoon Thursday, about a twenty mile jaunt.Not as rough as the previous couple of cruises, so I dropped a line to troll while we cruised. At some point, I had a strike, most likely from a barracuda, since the line went slack and on reeling it in, all that was left was a piece of severed wire leader. Lost another trolling spoon! The same one that the dolphins seem to hit. Darn!
The cruising guides indicate that Rock Sound affords good holding, and various services for cruisers. The holding is excellent, we dropped the hook, the (still wailing) wind dropped us back and as the slack went out of the anchor, the bow came around quickly, and stopped short. A sure sign of a good set! We headed to shore for an explore, and tied the dink to an old pier, with a rickety set of steps up to the pier about 10 ft off the water. We were almost at low tide, so it was pretty shallow. We did a walking tour of the town, clearly a shadow of its former self. Abandoned and derelict buildings puncuate the landscape, with many closed-up businesses. We stopped and spoke with some folks doing volunteer work spaying and neutering local dogs, doing their part to reduce the problem with strays and uncontrolled breeding. Bless them! They said they’re making some progress, the locals are beginning to recognize the problem, and are more willing to do their part in solving the problem.

We visited the Ocean Hole Park, a local park that surrounds a natural Ocean hole, where the landscape reveals a hole about 100 yards across, unsure of the depth, but it’s ocean water, there about a quarter mile from shore! Fish in the hole came to the surface to beg, and swarmed over a piece of root we dropped into the water. We then did a tour of the harbor which is over 3 miles across, and ran across another hole, this one in the harbor, about 60 ft across, and nearly 30 ft deep! Very dark blue water there! Toward 5PM, the empty concrete pier we landed on earlier became busy, with 10-15 locals congregating there to clean fish, and probably exchange stories of the ones that got away! The activity continued until about a half hour before sunset, when just 2 or 3 fellows remained, and could be seen bucketing water from the harbor to rinse down the cleaning table. During our visit at sunset, a teen on a bike told us it’s pretty much a daily event, as long as they get fish! It looked from the fish heads on the bottom around the pier that the days’ catch was red smapper! Molly & Sammy were happy to scavange any scraps.

A good night’s rest followed; a well-set anchor will do that! Winds are forecast for more of the same, 20 kts. out of the E, SE, and clocking to the S. At bedtime the wind had moderated to a pleasant 15 kts. Morning brought the wind machine cranking back up, with 20-25 kts. out of the S. Our friends Dan & Myla are likely still holed up in Nassau, their window to head east to Spanish Wells or the Exumas has likely closed. We’ll be heading into the settlement here shortly where we can get an internet connection to check in with family, and upload these last three posts and photos to the blog. We’ll also likely trek out to the shopping center to see if we can re-stock some Gosling’s. Not easy to find here, we missed an opportunity in Nassau! Lesson learned!!
That’s the latest from here!