Finally the weather is starting to break! As I mentioned earlier, we've had the windiest weather, that I can remember, since I started coming down here in 1985. I come to the Bahamas for the clear waters and great diving, but this year my diving has been very limited because of the winds so I'm very excited for the break!

On Monday I fueled and watered up the boat, went grocery shopping and sharpened my spears. My other friends, heading for the Jumentos, were leaving at first light in order to take the high tide through Hog Cay Cut. Since I don't have to worry about things like the tides with my shallow draft and since I'm so much faster then my friends slower sailboats, I didn't leave till almost noon. I slept late, enjoyed my morning coffee from the new French press (given to me by my friends on Borrowed Horse when mine broke), finished up reading a New York Times' bestseller, "Free Fall" by Kyle Mills, and basically "lazed" the morning away. About 11:30 I hauled anchor figuring that I should get to Water Cay, in the Jumentos, a good 15 or 20 minutes before my friends. I would have, too, but the winds and seas were on the nose and strong all the way to the cut so I lost a bit of speed. I still made Water Cay, when my friends arrived, only I wasn't first so I couldn't give them nearly the amount of grief as I had planned... next time.

After anchoring, we all went diving on the banks side reefs and shot a few fish. (Mostly Hog Snappers, Grouper and one large Spider Crab which are all very excellent eating! That night I cooked and picked the crab so that Pam, on Dejarlo, could make her famous hot crab dip. This, of course, was served with icy margaritas, cheese and dry herbed sausage. (Yummmm...) And all of this was BEFORE dinner. Dinner guests, on Dejarlo that night, were Oliver and Pam's charter guests, Michel and Chantal, a very nice couple from Canada, Willis and his wife Cathy from the sailboat Whistling Winds and of course myself. Tom and Amy, from Dream Catcher, were invited also but were a bit worn out from the days activity so they declined (it's hell getting old, huh, Tom?). Pam's cooking is always fabulous so the evening meal was scrumptious to say the least

The following day our first dive was planned for the Blue Hole at slack tide about mid morning. There were several dinghies following Oliver that morning as he had the GPS with the Blue Hole location entered. The water clarity was amazing as always. The depth around the Blue Hole is ~15' then it drops to ~47' in the hole. When we first jumped in, there were two sharks circling the bottom of the hole so of course Michel and I started chasing them trying to get some good pictures and video. Since lobster season is over, all of the lobsters now just walk around in the open and taunt us. Not very nice of them, if you ask me, but all in all a great dive. From there, everyone split up with some heading back to their boats. Oliver and I headed in our own direction. We did a drift dive through the cut with the outgoing tide and then a reef dive on the outside of the Cay where we got some grouper. That afternoon, we did a different reef dive on the outside and were able to get a few more Hog Snappers.

After about 6 hours of diving, we got back just in time for the impromptu beach party with the rest of the boaters. After the beach party, a few of us did dinner on the beach and were rewarded with a fabulous sunset. I went to bed early that night being worn out from all of the diving and hunting.

The next day, as much as I hated to, I had to leave early in the morning and head back to the relative civilization of George Town because of prior commitments. It's looking like the weather may cooperate for a while so I'm just going to turn around and go back for the rest of this week. Yee Ha!

The next update will be next week and written below this line as it takes place in the Jumentos.

Two weeks in a row, it just doesn't get any better than this!

Posted 4/15/07

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For a diver like myself, this was a real treat. The weather last week was excellent and provided for several days of unparalleled diving down in the Northern Jumentos. This was only a few days after getting back from the Jumentos from the prior week. My guest had arrived on the afternoon Bahamas Air flight and was ready to see the clear waters that make up the Jumentos. My cruising friends left Saturday morning even though the winds had not yet abated. We left about noon the same day and got through Hog Cay Cut about an hour later. My friends Tom and Amy, on Dream Catcher, were anchored on the backside of the cut because they didn't have enough time to sail to Water Cay before dark that same day. I just didn't want to pound through the slop when the following day promised to be calmer so I anchored there too.

Since there was much of the day remaining, we went out to dive what few reefs and rocks surrounded the cut. I was able to spear a small 5 pound Nassau Grouper which was made into Ceviche that evening. When we returned from the dive, we found that Brian on "Heart of Gold" had come through the cut and grounded hard on the shoals. We went over and took a kedge anchor out into the channel for him so that he could pull himself off at the midnight high tide. That evening we had dinner with Tom, Amy and the ferrets.

The following morning was calm as predicted. After morning coffee and a leisurely breakfast, we weighed anchor and headed South. A while later, we passed Tom and Amy who were sailing under spinnaker. They were gliding along so serenely that it made me a bit envious. When we got off of the shallow bank, we started trolling for fish. We got one Barracuda and two Jack all of which we released. Actually, we only got one and 1/2 Jack as a shark took out half of one of the Jacks as we were reeling him in. We arrived at Water Cay before noon and prepared for our first dive. One note here, when I say dive I'm talking about snorkeling. Since we're regularly going down to 30 feet and better, working the area for fish and then coming up just to repeat the process, I call it diving... semantics.

The week consisted of diving on lots of beautiful reefs and shooting Grouper and Hog Snapper. On one of the dives, Oliver shot a Nassau Grouper when we were about 300 - 350 feet from the dinghy. We swam back to the dinghy with Debbie leading the way. Oliver was swimming while holding the fish out of the water, and I was staying back looking out for sharks and backing up Oliver since his hands weren't free. We had just about made it to the dinghy when a small 4 foot reef shark came racing towards us from the side. A larger 6 - 7 footer shark came in from low and from behind. The little one swam just inches under Oliver's chest and then circled around and came for me. I was able to kick and connect with him but, in doing so, put up a wall of bubbles that temporarily obscured my vision. When the bubbles finally dissipated, I saw the grouper floating down about 10' in front of me. (Apparently, Oliver decided that these sharks were aggressive enough to warrant giving them the fish in order to give us enough time to get out of the water). Before the grouper was more than halfway to the bottom, both sharks hit it at the same time and tore it up in as close to a "feeding frenzy" as I ever hope to see in person! I backed toward the dinghy and got in just before the little shark made a close inspection of where I got out of the water... whew... time to get out of here!

Dinner parties that week were on Willis and Cathy's "Whistling Winds" and on Brian and Sharlene's "Tonga Time." Great fun, wonderful food and very nice people.

After a week in paradise, Cat's Away reluctantly headed back to George Town. The final night on the trip back being spent at Pigeon Cay to reacclimate to "civilization. A truly wonderful week!

In a little over a week from now we will be enjoying the 54th Annual Family Island Regatta! Stay tuned!

The next update will be sometime during the first week of May.

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