We now sit swinging on the hook off of Harbour Island. Here for the deep, flat pink sand beaches and abundant grocery stores, it’s also great people watching. As previously mentioned, the fat cats of the US use this as a quick escape, and the giant sun hats and stylish beach cover-ups are always on parade.
We crossed down over the Providence Channel from Little Harbor on Thursday, leaving just before dawn. It was a lovely day at sea, but we came up short on the fishing front, sad to say. We had two lines out all day, and had not one strike until about 3nm off of our waypoint at the start of the Devil’s Backbone. We watched in serious excitement as a blue marlin first stalked, and then attacked one of our ballyhoo before snapping our 150lb test line at the cleat, and giving us a show as he realized the error of his hunt. The poor thing flailed and streaked out of the water, trying to shake the painful lure. (And now we’re really trying not to imagine the fact that it has a hot pink squid lure in its lip, and 50ft of line trailing behind it. Sad face.) The good news is that we got the entire show on camera, the electric blue of the fish flying through the air, the bad news is that our freezer is still void of fish, and our fish taco night swiftly turned to grilled pizza night. (*Pro Tip that I learned that day: proof dough in the cabin closest to the engine- perfect temp!*)
We did have an electrical gremlin that stopped our alternator from charging for a time, but after opening everything up and sourcing every wire with some level of frustration, Andy shrugged, put it back together and figured he’d work on it once we arrived here. After the last screw was in the panel, he bumped it in that ‘hit the side of the TV for better reception’ move, and voila! Tach was functioning and batteries were charging. Still something to add to the work list…
Our new kid boat friends are here as well, and Andy and Emiel spent yesterday on the hunt for lobsters. They geared up, speared up, and dinghied back to the Devil’s Backbone to try their luck. Of which they had none. Hilariously though, the large catamaran in-between our boats saw their efforts along with their empty-handed return, only to wave them over to offer them the lobster in their freezer. They had ‘serious hunters’ for guests last week, and they don’t eat much of it themselves. Better still, they invited us to dinner, where they cooked it for us. While frustrated for the shortest while that they hadn’t done what they set out to do, in the end.. they did get lobster on our plates, and gathered new friends as well. (Thank you, s/v Cameo, and well done, chaps!)
Looking for winds from most any direction but south, our plan is to work our way back along the Devil’s Backbone (a very narrow corridor of good water between the shores of Eleuthera and a nasty reef) tomorrow, and anchor somewhere near Egg Island for more lobstering. Then on through Current Cut, and south to the Exumas.
This will give the girls a hopeful two more days of solid WiFi connection for joining in on their classes (which while in the moment they’re never that charged up for, but the knowledge that they’re in line with their peers and actually getting to lay their eyes on them is huge for them both), and will give us easy work days without worrying about data plans and gigabyte usage. Both Andy and I are working quite a bit more than we normally do on this trip, which has been good and productive, but also a dance between who’s using which computer, what its charge is, and what time classes are. It’s a good thing I like to handwrite drafts, because I have to make very efficient use of my ‘laptop time’ and blast things out quickly.
Back to finishing Kon-Tiki in the cockpit with my coffee. While I would have actually loved to have been a crew member on their raft, I’m pretty grateful for this buoyant fiberglass number giving me this cozy perch!
