Chub Cay and rush hour on "the Banks"
We left Bimini on Tuesday, March 22,, motored south a bit to the Cat Cay area and then turned due east into a 12 kt wind directly on our nose—so, no sailing again today—and entered the Bahamas Banks at around 10 AM. The Bahamas Banks is an area of shallow water—12 to 20 feet deep—that connects the interior of all the various Bahama Island chains—the Berrys, the Abacos, the Exumas etc—surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a huge area of thousands of square miles and when on them it’s awesome to consider that you are sailing over 15 feet of water depth in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s quite hard to describe but you can Google it to get an idea of its dimensions and area of coverage. We spent all day motoring due east across the banks. We knew that we would not be able to make it all the way to the Berry Islands that day and would spend the night on the banks. Along the way I tried out my new heavy duty fishing pole and reel with 40 pound line. I hadn’t had it in the water a half hour before I had a hit and something started peeling off line at an incredible rate. Not being a fisherman, needless to say I was quite excited. Once I grabbed the pole from the rod holder I knew I had something big on the other end. It was a chore reeling it in and much to my amazement and disappointment, I had about a 20 pound Barracuda on my lure. After deciding that I was not going to stick my hand in its mouth to retrieve my lure, and Diane got a couple pictures, I pulled it up tighter to the stern of the boat and it finally flipped the lure out of its mouth and took off---a relief—I wasn’t sure how I was going to get it off my tackle without killing it. The 20 pounds is an estimate—could have been more---all I know is it was a struggle landing it. I put the lure back in the water and sure enough within another hour or so I had another strike. And sure enough, another Barracuda, about the same size but a real fighter. This one went airborn a few times as I was bringing it in and also bit through the line once I had pulled it up on the swim platform for its photo op, and took off with my lure in its mouth. At this point I concluded (and verified later in talking with others) that about all I was going to catch on the banks was Barracuda and put my gear away. At about 6PM that evening we pulled off the rhumb line by about ½ a mile—to get out of the way of other boats following the same course that might sail or motor by during the night—dropped the hook in about 20 feet of water, had a nice hot dinner of barbecued chicken, and turned in for an early start the next morning for the Islands. ( The “rhumb” line is a straight line of travel between waypoints. Since the Banks are littered with shallow areas previous navigators have determined safe lines of passage across them and have published a list of waypoints to plug into your chartplotter in order to transit the area with out running into anything. You simply input the waypoint latitudes and longitudes into your GPS Chartplotter and then tell your autopilot to navigate to them and sit back and enjoy the ride---Not exactly that simple but pretty close except for the sit back and enjoy the ride part—you still need one person on watch at all times.---Yes—I was able to repair my autopilot while we were in Bimini, the day we left.) The wind was light and so it was fairly comfortable despite a bit of a roll from side to side due to the small waves. The next morning we took off across a flat, beautiful blue and clear sea to the Berry Islands. Instead of going into Chub Cay we went on past and up a bit north to Frazier’s Hog Cay to a mooring ball area called The Berry Island Club, arriving there around 3 in the afternoon. The facilities were under renovation so we were a bit disappointed, but they did have a shower area that was usable. More on the Berry Island club later. We have concluded that we will not be able to get all the way down to the Exumas this time around. So, we have decided to explore the Berry Islands--a small group of islands about 70 miles east of bimini and 40 miles northwest of Nassau. There are supposed to be some very pretty anchorages there that not so many people have experienced. The most notable destination is Chub Cay at the very southern tip of the chain---it is a popular stopping off and customs clearing place for the faster boats that don't need to stop n Bimini to clear in. We understand they charge boaters $100 kjust to tie up your dinghy in order to provision or clear in--unless of course you pay to stay in a slip at their marina and pay the exhorbitant $5 a footfor the privilege. Although we will take a pass this time, we will probably stray there in order to rewater, refuel and reprovision as well as do a bit of laundry before heading back next week. I’m drafting this post as a Word document as we are truly out of touch at the moment. We are in an incredibly beautiful anchorage about 25 miles north of Chub Cay, surrounded by blue water and white beaches. Since I’m not able to post, I will simply copy and paste this post (I hope) and then try to add some photos. More later---It’s time to go exploring!!
Chub Cay and rush hour on "the Banks" 
We left Bimini on Tuesday, March 22,, motored south a bit to the Cat Cay area and then turned due east into a 12 kt wind directly on our nose—so, no sailing again today—and entered the Bahamas Banks at around 10 AM. The Bahamas Banks is an area of shallow water—12 to 20 feet deep—that connects the interior of all the various Bahama Island chains—the Berrys, the Abacos, the Exumas etc—surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a huge area of thousands of square miles and when on them it’s awesome to consider that you are sailing over 15 feet of water depth in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s quite hard to describe but you can Google it to get an idea of its dimensions and area of coverage. We spent all day motoring due east across the banks. We knew that we would not be able to make it all the way to the Berry Islands that day and would spend the night on the banks. Along the way I tried out my new heavy duty fishing pole and reel with 40 pound line. I hadn’t had it in the water a half hour before I had a hit and something started peeling off line at an incredible rate. Not being a fisherman, needless to say I was quite excited. Once I grabbed the pole from the rod holder I knew I had something big on the other end. It was a chore reeling it in and much to my amazement and disappointment, I had about a 20 pound Barracuda on my lure. After deciding that I was not going to stick my hand in its mouth to retrieve my lure, and Diane got a couple pictures, I pulled it up tighter to the stern of the boat and it finally flipped the lure out of its mouth and took off---a relief—I wasn’t sure how I was going to get it off my tackle without killing it. The 20 pounds is an estimate—could have been more---all I know is it was a struggle landing it. I put the lure back in the water and sure enough within another hour or so I had another strike. And sure enough, another Barracuda, about the same size but a real fighter. This one went airborn a few times as I was bringing it in and also bit through the line once I had pulled it up on the swim platform for its photo op, and took off with my lure in its mouth. At this point I concluded (and verified later in talking with others) that about all I was going to catch on the banks was Barracuda and put my gear away. At about 6PM that evening we pulled off the rhumb line by about ½ a mile—to get out of the way of other boats following the same course that might sail or motor by during the night—dropped the hook in about 20 feet of water, had a nice hot dinner of barbecued chicken, and turned in for an early start the next morning for the Islands. ( The “rhumb” line is a straight line of travel between waypoints. Since the Banks are littered with shallow areas previous navigators have determined safe lines of passage across them and have published a list of waypoints to plug into your chartplotter in order to transit the area with out running into anything. You simply input the waypoint latitudes and longitudes into your GPS Chartplotter and then tell your autopilot to navigate to them and sit back and enjoy the ride---Not exactly that simple but pretty close except for the sit back and enjoy the ride part—you still need one person on watch at all times.---Yes—I was able to repair my autopilot while we were in Bimini, the day we left.) The wind was light and so it was fairly comfortable despite a bit of a roll from side to side due to the small waves. The next morning we took off across a flat, beautiful blue and clear sea to the Berry Islands. Instead of going into Chub Cay we went on past and up a bit north to Frazier’s Hog Cay to a mooring ball area called The Berry Island Club, arriving there around 3 in the afternoon. The facilities were under renovation so we were a bit disappointed, but they did have a shower area that was usable. More on the Berry Island club later. We have concluded that we will not be able to get all the way down to the Exumas this time around. So, we have decided to explore the Berry Islands--a small group of islands about 70 miles east of bimini and 40 miles northwest of Nassau. There are supposed to be some very pretty anchorages there that not so many people have experienced. The most notable destination is Chub Cay at the very southern tip of the chain---it is a popular stopping off and customs clearing place for the faster boats that don't need to stop n Bimini to clear in. We understand they charge boaters $100 kjust to tie up your dinghy in order to provision or clear in--unless of course you pay to stay in a slip at their marina and pay the exhorbitant $5 a footfor the privilege. Although we will take a pass this time, we will probably stray there in order to rewater, refuel and reprovision as well as do a bit of laundry before heading back next week. I’m drafting this post as a Word document as we are truly out of touch at the moment. We are in an incredibly beautiful anchorage about 25 miles north of Chub Cay, surrounded by blue water and white beaches. Since I’m not able to post, I will simply copy and paste this post (I hope) and then try to add some photos. More later---It’s time to go exploring!!
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