Spanish Wells to Allens/Leaf Cay

Friday, January 14, 2011


We released our moorings at 6:45am as twilight became lighter shades of gray and pink. Aurora waved as us and said they’d be out later and if not, then tomorrow. Azaya was first out, then we followed, and then Georgia E followed us out. We had 2 hours until low tide so getting out was no problem. The winds seemed a bit stiffer than we thought they’d be and the clouds were with us all day except for a few times when the sun broke through. It was roily at the beginning and with the winds behind us we were breaking 8 knots at times while motor sailing. We caught a barracuda when we left the shallow bank area and dipped into the deeper Northwest Passage. It was a good size fish (almost 3 ft) and we had a problem getting it off the line (oh what sharp teeth you have my dear!) until it was almost dead (I didn’t like that but it would be worse if Wayne had been bit). Our second fish turned out to be a mackerel, like the one we caught last year – so that one was a definite keeper! I remembered how tasty that one from last year was!

When we came to the area where all the coral heads and rocks were, the sky was still overcast and it was difficult at times seeing the rocks. Most were quite visible but some we couldn’t see until almost on them. At one point all 3 boats seemed to converge at the same area at the same time, trying to avoid rocks and coral heads. Had I known we’d all selected the same spot, I’d have chosen another. I was franticly waving, signaling and pointing for Wayne to make a sharp left and speed up to go around a rather large rock but we got cut off at one point and I thought for sure we were going into the rocks. We all managed to get through the area okay and it made for an exciting day. I think we were all trying not to jester the wrong hand signs LOL! My hands and arm muscles are sore from clutching the bow pulpit trying to hang on. It was a wild ride from side to side as the waves slammed us on the beam and quite a few times I thought I was going to be air born as the bow went skyward and plunged down. I thought for sure that everyone could hear me screaming Wooooooaaaahhhhhh!!!! Each time the bow pointed up and slammed down leaving my stomach in the air I thought, “this is better than any roller coaster ride I’ve been on”! Whew! I’m just glad I didn’t get plunged into the water as the boat slammed back down. It was a wet ride. Definitely…

Wayne had two lines out and of course we got hits on both of them when we hit the coral/rock banks that lay on our course. When things finally quieted down and we were through the danger zone I was able to come back to the cockpit and he was able to bring the lines in. One was empty, we must have dragged it for so long the fish broke free and the other line – our lure was gone, so whatever it was took our newest lure with it.

As we approached Allens/Leaf Cays I could see 2 masts over the island and another ketch was approaching the anchorage. There were only 3 boats anchored. I think that’s the least we’ve seen here. Our 3 boats brought the total to 6 and as we were anchoring two of the high speed boats came in and on the beach with the tourists to feed the iguanas. They only stayed 10 minutes and then took off – must be a record fast time to get the people off and back on again. We didn’t see many iguanas but it’s kind of cool out. Stu and Tony dinghied over to the island and stopped by to say hi too.

Since they’d caught a fish and Azaya didn’t we offered to share ours with Azaya. They were going to grill chicken and said to bring it on over, so I chopped up some tomato, onion and cucumber to make a vegi-salsa to spread on pita bread and we could top that with the fish. Mary Clare had chicken thighs and made coleslaw. It turned out to be way to windy though, so Axel broiled it in the oven – wow a broiler! It was all very tasty. We all enjoyed a beautiful sunset – and me without my camera aboard Azaya.

I can’t believe how windy it still is! The wind generator sounds like it wants to take off! I’m going to have to turn it off for the night so I can hear the anchor alarm if it goes off! We seem to have a good hold, but I never got to check it with the looky-bucket Wayne made. I remember last year, we’d only caught the tip of a rock so if we’d swung with the tide, we’d have probably broken loose. It’s been a long day, but I love being able to look across and see lone-palm island. It feels like we’re back in the islands again. The ones I consider the decompression islands. Time to slow down to island time again :)