JANUARY AND WEATHER WOES

The best way to describe the month of January this year in the Bahamas is wind, wind and more wind; clouds, clouds and more clouds; rain, cold, and rolling seas.  I don’t like to complain about the weather we have in the Bahamas particularly when everyone up north are dealing with snow and freezing temperature but coats in the Bahamas?

To be fair, we did have a few periods of time when the winds died down and the sun shown its beautiful warming rays down onto the boat.  Those times were rare.  For the most part, we don’t let bad weather conditions deter us from doing what we love to do, snorkel, spearfish and seaglass hunting.  And for the most part, January was no exception.  

Shortly after the first cold front came through, the one where we were anchored at Cormorant Cay, we went out to hunt for dinner.  The temperature was a high of 56 degrees that day and although we knew we would be cold getting back to the boat we would then quickly warm up.  We were a little shocked when we jumped into the water to find the water temperature had also dropped considerably.  We snorkeled around until we found a nice series of ledges with about a dozen lobster hanging out.  Kathi tickled a couple of them out, I got one and took it back to the dinghy.  Another had also come out and Kathi took at least 8 shots at it and missed every time.  As you all know, this is highly unusual for Kathi.  We had to attribute it to the cold water and her shaking hands.  I got 2 more lobsters giving us 3 for the day and called it quits.  We were hoping for 4 because another boat had joined us in the anchorage and we wanted to be neighborly by sharing.  When we got back to the dinghy, we only had 2 lobsters in the bucket.  The only thing we can figure is that when I took the last lobster off the spear and hurried back to the hunting zone I didn’t get the lobster all of the way into the bucket.  If his tail was on the edge of the bucket he could have flipped himself out of the boat; unlikely but that’s my story.  We shivered our way through 2 foot seas back to the boat and warmed up slowly.  The next day we decided to catch our dinner using fishing poles and stay out of the chilly water.

Fortunately, our pole fishing skills are adequate to the challenge.  A couple of years ago, our friend Ron from Idaho, who is a master fisherman, spent a month with us in the Bahamas.  He gave us some great tips for rigging the lines for the type of fish we wanted to catch.  We pole fished several times this month and typically brought back 7 or 8 edible fish.  Kathi has become very good at filleting.

The highlight of the month was the visit of Kathi’s niece Alee, her husband Kale and their two children, Kingsley and Kiah.  They arrived January 17 and left on January 23.  We have never hosted kids on the boat for an extended period and rarely have more than 4 people total staying on the boat.  We normally use the quarter berth for storage but we rearranged a few things and got it converted back to a berth for the kids.  Even though the weather was not the best, we all had a great time.  

A cold ride hom

The first day after they arrived is a good example. We anchored back at Cormorant Cay and although the wind was blowing 30 knots Kathi wanted to take them to the “swim through” that we know of about 2 miles from our anchorage.  The wind was behind us as we dinghied there, it is in a nicely protected area so our trip was not too bad.  Even though the water was cold, the “swim through” has some great things to see so you forget about the cold.  They wanted to do it again but the kids were cold so we headed back to the boat.  The trip back we had the wind and waves coming at us; spray was flying over everyone with every wave we bounced through.  Two miles doesn’t seem like a long way but in conditions such as those, it is.  Fortunately, the good memories of the swim through persist and the poorer memories of the trip back fade to become a glorious adventure.

A Happy Hunter

Proud of Papa's catch

The kids were exceptionally well behaved, polite, and helpful.  Alee and Kale visited us before in the Bahamas, though without the kids,  so they knew our routine.  We found comfortable anchorages every night, hunted lobster, found seaglass, and made the most of the time they were here.  Kale managed to get several lobster including one that tied the boat record for the year, 5.25 inch body and 9 inch tail. 

Fish Cleaning lesson for Kingsley

He and Kingsley spent an evening pole fishing and we could hear them laughing every time they hooked a fish.  They brought back 7 fish which allowed Kale to give Kingsley and Kiah lessons in filleting.  Kiah was a great help learning to be the helmsman during our moves to different anchorages.  We hope that in spite of the weather they have good memories which they will keep for a long time.

Helmsman in training

Our friends IB and Rebecca, from West Virginia, had a weather window the day Alee, Kale, Kingsley and Kiah left for home, to cross from Florida to the Bahamas in their boat, Passport.  They sailed 30 hours straight and made it to Treasure Cay before the next front hit and the winds gusted back up to 30-40 knots.  We were tucked in at Cormorant Cay then moved a half-mile to the north end of Snake Cay. as the winds shifted to the south  We haven’t seen IB and Rebecca for months and were anxious to get together with them.  The weather wasn’t cooperating.  We each sat in our comfortable anchorages for 4 days.  We finally had an 8 hour break in the weather and Kathi and I moved up to Marsh Harbor only 8 miles from Treasure Cay.  That was as far as we could go before another front came through with rain squalls and more wind.  Yesterday, Passport was able to move from Treasure Cay to Guana Cay.  We tried to join them but were motoring into the wind and waves making only 4 knots so we turned around and went back into Marsh Harbor.  We plan to try again today to meet up with Passport but the winds haven’t settled down much although they have clocked to a slightly better direction for us to move.