Kent and I sailed 35 miles from Sandy Point on Great Abaco Island to Water Cay (formerly Little Bersus Cay) as we continued our journey east to west through the Bahamas. We departed Sandy Point mid-morning, and enjoyed 12 to 14 knot winds and cloudy skies.
Kent put out his hand line in hopes of catching a fish as we sailed. He caught a 4 pound barracuda that he cut up and used for bait. Then he snagged a second barracuda that ate his lure and got away. Then he caught a nice-sized mackerel that had a big chunk out of its underside. We saw a larger fish take a bite out of it as Kent reeled him in. Didn't matter. Kent filleted it and we had fresh grilled fish for supper that evening.
After he filleted the fish, Kent baited out the leftover carcass on a simple rope line on our stern, just to see what might come by. Well, we were visited by a big 6 to 7 foot nurse shark! He swam by our stairs and around our dinghy, and made a few passes at the fish carcass. Then, after a couple of bites, the bait was gone. We watched him for about ten minutes. Kent assured me that nurse sharks are not aggressive and do not bite people, but I noticed he didn't go in for his usual post-sail swim!
At Water Island, our dinghy engine started to give us problems. So Kent had to row the dinghy to take Trooper ashore. As they walked along the sand, he saw fresh turtle tracks about about a dozen nests of eggs. He also discovered a huge conch cemetery and found a nice one to add to our table centerpiece. Rowing back to the boat, he spotted another nurse shark, perhaps 4 feet long. No swimming for me!
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| Our delicious grilled fresh fish supper |
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