My friend, Toby, flew into George Town hoping to be able to do some spear fishing.  He lucked out!  The weather, which has been windier than any other time that I've been down here, calmed down 2 days after he arrived.  The forecast showed a 2 day weather window with little to no wind, a perfect time to go to the Jumentos... Yeah Baby!  Once again, I took advantage of the MC30's shallow draft; and we took the inside route to the Ferry, now a low bridge, that takes you to the South side of Great Exuma Island.  This route is taken by the local fishermen in flat bottom Carolina Skiffs and small Boston Whalers to get to the Jumentos.  We negotiated this route a couple hours before high tide, never hit the bottom and still had 5" or 6" of clearance under the bridge with the bimini top and antennas down!  The South side of the island is quite shallow within a mile of shore, but we were able to tuck up in the protection of a small cay for the night and wait for the predicted 10kt (light) winds the next day before heading on. 

We woke up early in the morning and were delighted to see that the seas had flattened to a mere 6".   After coffee, we upped the anchor and headed towards the Jumentos on a route that would take us through the largest concentration of coral heads.  After less than an hour of running south, we started seeing isolated heads rising up out of the sandy bottom  - most in about 25' of water coming to within 12' to 14' of the surface.  As we went a little further, we got into an area where the heads were so close together that we could anchor the boat in the center of 4 or more large heads (these heads average about 50' in diameter) so that's exactly what we did.  Man!  These heads are so beautiful with their green, red and yellow corals... purple sea fans... large schools of colorful fish of all types and sizes... Octopi... crabs... sharks...  Yeah, sharks.  This area being fairly remote, with lots of wildlife, is of course going to attract predators like sharks and spear fishermen.  For the most part, the sharks tend to only be curious and after observing the other predators, we spear fisherman, they quickly disappear into the surrounding blue.   Occasionally they get territorial acting, in which case you get out of the water and move on to the next set of heads.  This only happened to us once on this trip and of course it was at the very nicest most colorful set of coral heads with the largest schools of large fish that I've ever seen... makes sense...  This is where I should be telling the story of Toby being chased from the water by one of the sharks but, out of respect for the shark, I won't. 

In the evening after anchoring off of one of the Cays, we took the dinghy around to do some diving on the sound side of the Jumentos after which we grilled fresh grouper with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, garlic etc. on the grill and had a cold Kalik... It really doesn't get any better than this!

The following morning the wind had died completely leaving the water surface looking oily slick.  We dove on heads all morning, shot a few more lobster and hog fish over near the Dryers before breaking for lunch.  This consisted of grilled double cheeseburgers with the Irish cheddar cheese melted between two beef patties.  Served on a toasted bun with tomatoes and a full range of condiments... man!  An ice cold Kalik to wash that down and... well... what more can I say!

Finally, it was time to head back to Elizabeth Harbor before the weather turned.  On the ride back the conversation was lacking as we individually reflected on the awesome beauty of the area.  The smooth water blended into the sky without any distinct horizon, and the coral heads flashed under the boat with such clarity that one could believe that the boat was traveling through the air above them.  This was truly the best Christmas present that I could have wished for.  Can't wait for another chance to come down to this very special place...

Happy holidays everyone!