Sailing Ohana

A handful of the kid boats (including us) left Long Island to go to Flamingo Cay in the Jumentos, and then further south to the Raggeds. As always, we wanted to sail on the outside so that we could fish. We had a pretty decent day considering it was a little bumpy, but the sailing and winds were good. We stuck with our usual fishing technique which is to sail on the outside edge of the shelf between the shallow (less than 100 feet) and the deep water, which goes into the hundreds and thousands. We have a theory that the big predator fish like mahi and tuna hunt in that area. Unfortunately, a couple of times we got too shallow and caught two barracuda and lost a few lures to barracuda and probably shark. Our friends have told us that barracuda tastes just like mahi, and that a lot of restaurants serve barracuda but tell the patrons that they are eating mahi. We decided to keep the small one, thinking that would be a safer, healthier fish to eat, because they also can have Ciguatera.

We had three fishing lines out as we were sailing along, and Tommy and I were at the helm looking around as we like to do, when he yelled out (probably some expletives… I don’t remember), pointing behind our boat. I turned around and saw two magnificent fish torpedoing through the water chasing our lures. It was stunning to see one of them jump out of the water and land right on our lure, as both of them caught and the lines went buzzing out! As Jackson and Tommy each grabbed a rod and started bringing in the fish, we could see that they were mahi by the bright green and blue colors. Both fish fought hard, and at one point the lines got crossed because I had to turn the boat into the wind to slow us down. Tommy was able to gaff the feisty mahi and get her aboard. Jackson unfortunately couldn’t overcome the crossed line against our davits on the back of the boat and that fish got away. All in all, it was the most exciting day of fishing we’ve ever had. We returned the barracuda to the ocean, and thanked the ocean and sharks for the generous trade.

Our anchorage at beautiful Flamingo Cay was a swelly little cove with a nice beach and a really cool cave nearby. We definitely want to go back to Flamingo Cay and do some more exploring. Our friends were having a bonfire on the beach so we loaded up our family in the dinghy to join them, but the dinghy lights didn’t come on. Since the lights weren’t working, we starting looking it over to troubleshoot, and noticed that water wasn’t coming out of the outboard engine. Water is pumped through the engine to  cool it. If the impeller is broken and isn’t pushing water through the motor, you can overheat the engine and burn it out. It was too dark to do engine repair work, and everyone was exhausted and surprisingly cranky, so we called it a night. That decision resulted in a giant freakout by the boys who desperately wanted to go to the bonfire. It was a really upsetting situation because without a dinghy Morris would be trapped on the boat, plus since repair parts or new dinghys are not available anywhere here, we would have to end our trip. Spencer is also developing a scary-looking rash on his legs which is spreading. I’ve tried everything from Neosporin to Cortisone to Benedryl and nothing has worked. It starts as a blister which itches and then hurts, then pops and leaves a sore which doesn’t seem to heal. Even if our dinghy could be repaired, the thought of continuing on to the Raggeds with no diagnosis for Spencer and no internet or phone service was concerning. The are no medical resources either, for the 60 people who live on that chain of islands. The Explorer Charts, which are sort of the Bible of cruising in the Bahamas and the Caribbean, has an entire section about how you have to be completely self-reliant if you’re going to the Raggeds. I had a totally sleepless night.

The next morning Tommy was able to fix up the dinghy motor by simply unclogging the tube that the water runs through, and the light outrage was just due to some corrosion on the connections, thank goodness. Jackson and I held each other and cried a little with relief. I took Spencer over to Grace, where Susie looked at his legs and speculated that it is a contact reaction rather than something bacterial or viral. She also said that she’s heard there is good cell/internet at Hog Cay so we could continue south as planned, and email our pediatrician from there.                                              ***turns out it’s poisonwood which is like poison oak or poison ivy. We found this out later, but I didn’t want anyone to worry until I post the next blog entry. Treatable, and not the flesh-eating virus I imagined.