A Week of Losses

Look at the determination on his face!

Mahi Mahi that was lost.

On Monday, March 14^th we finally departed George Town to head back.  We wanted to go to Cat Island but the wind did not co-operate so we and several other boats decided to go up the Exuma chain to Black Point and then cross over to Eleuthera from there.  Al threw out his fishing lure and had a nibble but it got away rather quickly.  A while later, we heard the whiz of the reel and he had on a nice mahi mahi.   While I tried to slow the boat down by heading into the wind, Al struggled to reel it in.  I grabbed my camera to take some shots.  Good thing I did because as soon as it was to the back of the boat and Al was ready to gaff it, the hook broke away from the lure and bye-bye fish.  Oh well, at least he finally had a hit!  And I was so looking forward to fish for dinner!   

Anchorage at Black Point

Once in at the anchorage we had dinner on Discovery with Carl and Marilyn and Sondra and Chuck on Eliora whom we met on Christmas day at the restaurant and again in George Town and whom we are traveling with for a while.

We stayed put another day in Black Point and discovered that Bill and Marge Goettle, long time sailing association friends, were in the harbor.  We did some hiking and enjoyed dinner on Blue Heaven with them.  We had fun catching up on what each had been doing during the winter.

The next day we left to go out Dotham Cut to cross over to the island of Eleuthera.  Unfortunately it was not slack tide so we ended up going through what they call a rage.  We had all ports and hatches closed but somehow missed our favorite Teva sandals (that are perfect for walking beaches) wedged onto the deck next to the cockpit.  We hit a wave that flowed over the bow giving us green water over the deck and our shoes must have flowed right out the back with it.  We are thankful we did not see them go over, because your first inclination would be to try and save them, and there was no way we could have safely done that with rocks on both sides of the cut.  The green water also found its way into our forward head.  We are not sure if it came down our dorade vent or our ventilation fan.  We also had the seat knocked out of the dinghy which was tied on deck on the bow, but luckily got caught on the furling line and so we were able to save it.  The plastic cover on the port bow light was also knocked off and lost.  We will definitely go through cuts a bit differently in the future.  Live and learn!

We anchored in Rock Sound and just chilled once we got in.  The next day we walked to an interesting cave and blue hole.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures because I took my camera but had no memory card in it because I downloaded pictures that morning and left it in the computer.  Live and learn again!  Later that day everyone in our group went in for Happy Hour at a nice place called Four Points.

Chris from Tilt, Sondra from Eliora and Marilyn from Discovery

The guys enjoying Happy Hour

So we lost various things all week, but nothing compares to the loss that we got word about by email that night.  Al’s father died unexpectedly from a brain bleed.  It’s so difficult being so far away.  Al’s mother planned for him to be cremated and have the service when we get home.  We are comforted by the fact that it happened so quickly that he never suffered.  We will miss him dearly.

We hope next week is a better week.