A Sail in the Park

A Sail Thru the Park – January 6 to 15, 2011

We had used a relay on the VHF (another boat) to put us on the waiting list for a mooring ball as we approached Norman’s Cay and were still out of radio range with the Exuma Park office. As members of the Bahamas National Trust, the organization that administers the park system, we would be given some priority on the wait list but knew from the radio transmissions that many boats were headed for the park and we expected to have to wait at Norman’s for a few days until space became available.

At 9 AM we listened for Darcy (we were now within radio range) and were pleased to be assigned one of the six spots in the south mooring field, our preferred location to sit out the western blow that was in the forecast. The park rangers stopped by on their morning patrol to let Tom know that his job list was waiting. 

 

Just bring me a good book and one of those umbrella drinks.

 We landed the dinghy at Boo Boo Beach and took the trail across the island to the office. Once the weather improved we would put our name back on the list to move to the north mooring field which is a much shorter commute for those doing volunteer work, especially when the Boo Boo Hill Trail is under water at high tide.

Tom and Randy gave one of the patrol boats a new paint job.

Warderick Wells Island is one of the locations where the hutia, the only mammal native to the Bahamas, has been reintroduced. Their presence in the park has sparked a controversy between scientists. In the desire to bring back a species that has no natural predators in the area, the vegetarian hutia population is now in the process of denuding the island of vegetation which consequently increases erosion. In time all that will be left is the poisonwood which they do not eat. 

The hutia have stripped the bark from this branch.

They are fond of the thatch palms and are good tree climbers.

 Hutia Highway. One of the more rugged walking trails.

On the other hand, banana quits are not threatening the environment, 

… nor are the hermit crabs.

The main event while we were at the park was Tom’s exciting fishing trip, but I will let him tell that story....

Tom’s Fish Tale

Hi there, Tom here.

Well you haven’t heard from me on the blog before because I haven’t had much to say. Yeah, I can hear you guys in the background saying “What!!”  Well it’s true, because Chris has been doing such a great job and also because she wouldn’t let me. Anyway, she has decided that I should write my own story of the Great Eleuthera Fishing Trip.

Here it is, we were standing around drinking rum and other drinks one Saturday evening with the other cruisers and the rangers at Warderick Wells when Chris and Henry (the rangers in question) asked me if I wanted to go fishing on Sunday. O f course I replied that I would love to as I hoped to learn something from them because I suck as a fisherman. I then asked them innocently “where are we going?” to which they replied “Eleuthera”. “Holy ****” said I. “Eleuthera”, I said again like some brain damaged cruiser. “Yes “, they said. “OK” I said. (This is starting to turn into an episode of 24.)

Now you have to understand that Eleuthera is about 35 Nautical miles from the park across the sound. It takes about 7 to 8 hours under good conditions for us to sail there. Fortunately they don’t sail, they have a 25 foot boat with two 150 horse engines on it. The boat belongs to Chris and can go at a very comfortable 35 plus knots, ergo 55 minutes to Eleuthera. Now comfort is a relative thing, on the way there we spent a significant amount of time semi-airborne.  Did I mention what we had been dong the evening before? Anyway we got to Eleuthera and started to fish, where upon I discovered that they use the same hooks and rig that I use, they just use it a LOT faster. We got our first hit in about 15 minutes. It was a mahi mahi. Then in quick sequence we caught a wahoo, a barracuda, a king mackerel and 2 yellow fin tunas.  This took us about 75 minutes. The interesting thing is that I was the one steering when all the fish were hooked, so now they call me Fish Killer.

At this point we decided that we had contributed to the decline of the fish stocks enough and headed to Compass Cay Marina. On the way there we saw a pod of Pilot whales and 2 schools of tuna. The seas had settled down so it was like glass.

Compass Cay is just south of the park and is an unbelievable place. We cleaned the fish here and fed the sharks with the scraps. There are about 8 resident nurse sharks that you can swim with and the sure gather when the fish are being cleaned.

 Fish cleaning station at Compass Cay

It took all three of us to hold the wahoo up.

Tuna sushi for dinner tonight!

 I also found out part of why they invited me, it was so I would fall in love with the place and volunteer  here, which I did and where we are right now as I type this up. It is quite unique in the islands and having a boat here is like tying up in an aquarium, there are fish everywhere. Unfortunately we have to leave in 2 days, but that’s another story. Now if they will just give me back my keys to the boat!

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At the end of it all we were invited to share a fish feast at the rangers’ residence with all the typical Bahamian side dishes, peas ‘n rice, mac ‘n cheese, Cuban rum and Bahamian beer.  The fresh tuna sushi was amazing and everything was absolutely delicious. 

Sunrise over the park office.