Sailing Ohana

We caught a mahi mahi on the passage from Puerto Rico to Great Inagua, which was exciting after such a long time without fish, and we had a delicious dinner at sea that night, and re-filled the freezer with more. But mostly during the passage we laid around and snacked. I was reminded of this Japanese word I learned during the pandemic shut down when everyone was stuck at home.  The passage was long and boring, until the last night when we had to dodge thunderstorms from about midnight to sunrise. Excitement like that, on the last of 3 nights, is hard.

Our check-in at Matthewtown on Great Inagua was made easy by very friendly, helpful agents who efficiently got us through customs, along with the captain of the other boat that had been dodging the storms with us the night before. We anchored a bit further north in Man of War Bay where we were welcomed by perfect Bahamian blue water and a beach in a protected anchorage. The Office of Tourism for the Bahamas has a slogan, “It’s Better in the Bahamas”, and there are many days that we agree.

Great Inagua is home to the world’s largest colony of West Indian Flamingos and a Morton Salt factory, which employs most of the 900 or so people who live on this small, remote, out island. We were able to get a tour of the island by truck by reaching out to the Bahamas National Trust office that is responsible for the protection of the flamingos that were once hunted to near extinction. It was Earth Day, so they were offering free excursions all day. Our driver/guide was Casper Nixon, the fourth generation of men in his family to have the job as the head of the Land and Sea Trust on Great Inagua. We were able to see the spectacular flock of flamingos, but they were so far away that we could not capture good photos of them. We learned a lot about the salt process, marveled at nature’s colors and man-made equipment, and had a great time.

Our anchorage in Man of War Bay had excellent snorkeling in surprisingly shallow water, right off the back of our boat. The boys and I went wakeboarding and because everything was so calm, it was an easy time to start. The only downside was that on our last night there, the boys and I awoke to a full-blown mosquito attack. Tommy isn’t effected by mosquitoes and they don’t like him much, so he mostly slept through it. I hate mosquitoes, and react really badly to their bites, almost like an allergic reaction. We had to close all the hatches, try to kill all the mosquitoes (impossible!), and then turn on the generator and a/c, since it was so hot and humid.

Since the weather and seas were fairly calm, we decided to take another shot at Hogsty Reef. It was definitely much calmer than last time! Spencer threw in a fishing line and caught a huge jack within minutes. We were able to anchor inside the reef and swim from the boat to the reef where the snorkeling was good and we saw a lot of large ocean fish. Tommy and Jackson speared a big grouper. We were far from the boat when they speared it, and had to swim as fast as possible (with Tommy holding the fish above his head out of water) back to the boat. Shortly after we got on board with the fish, two large bull sharks arrived and stayed with us for a long time while Tommy fileted the fish. They could definitely smell the grouper from a long distance, and we were relieved that we were not in the water with them. We moved to anchor near the tiny strip of exposed sand, hoping to block some of the waves. It was fairly calm for a while longer, so we went ashore where the boys skimboarded and we all walked together looking for shells and treasures in the sand. I challenged the boys to find the coolest shell or sea glass, with bonus points if it was a heart shape. They were so sweet, excitedly bringing me all sorts of little things. Spencer found a heart-shaped coral rock and Jackson  found beautiful shells. The next morning we snorkeled on the most prominent shipwreck which was interesting, but also a bit creepy… There are over 200 wrecks in the area, including a slave ship or two. That’s a lot of souls lost at sea in 15 square miles.

On our way to Acklins Island, we caught our first tuna in a long time and there was much celebrating. It’s good to be back!