Jumentos, Double Breasted Trouble

We think we found Paradise then  we get to a new anchorage! Double Breasted is one of those. A shallow bay with 1 meter below the keel surrounded by shell filled beaches and reef teeming with fish what more could we ask.

One thing we have seen a lot of here are shark and we agreed, being so far form any medical assistance, shooting fish for supper would be done with care and with a plan.

Heading out to a small island we dropped back into the water free diving. As usual, the 'meet and greet' committee here in the islands is a huge Barracuda we call Barry for normal size and Baba for the huge ones. Well a Barry greeted us with his evil smirk, trailing behind us like some sort of stalker.

 I confess Barracuda scare me more than shark. When a Shark shows interest and you swim at him giving him the 'what you looking at' attitude, he usually responds with an 'oops didn't notice you, sorry' attitude and swims away or at least turns away. When you give a Barracuda the same look, his response is more of a 'you, I'm watching my lunch, what you going to do about it?' attitude. He keeps coming with that horrible grin on his face like he has a secret you don't want to know about.

Anyway, we were swimming along, me looking for shells, searching under rocks for kreef and watching out for lurkers. I spotted André hanging under a rock and saw his spear hit target. I was a little uncomfortable to see it was a good size Nassau Grouper! The dinghy was far away!! 

Thinking the plan would be to put the fish on the stringer as soon as possible, to get it away from us, as we returned to the dinghy, I swam to the float, grabbed the stringer and handed it to André. 

Then I casually turned to keep watch and looked straight into the face of a five foot shark about five meters away swimming at us with a goal in mind!  I reached back blindly and frantically patted André on the shoulder. I believe I literally felt him jump out of his skin and back in. I couldn't help chuckling, scared as I was. 

Thinking he was still busy trying to thread the stringer through the fish I swam at the shark smacking the top of the water and he eventually turned away. As soon as I started swimming back towards André he came at us again. I repeated my water smacking charge at him till he turned away again.

I glanced back to see if André had got the fish away from us yet, only to see him about 10 meters away swimming with said fish on the spear above the water. I never knew I could swim so fast backwards still making charges at shark when he got too close. My final charge and he seemed to swim off. I finally caught up to find we had other followers hoping for a bite of our fish. A huge Snapper and a Jack as well as smaller fish. 

I confess to feeling a little like a chameleon as we swam around the island and back to the dinghy. I kept expecting Mr Shark to appear and couldn't wait to get fish out of the water, then I felt much better.

We swam a little longer but decided to move over to another reef. Got ourselves some kreef for dinner starters and headed back to the boat for sundowners.

Jumentos - Paradise found!

Water Cay
We lifted anchor from Thomson Bay, Long Island just before 0800 hrs, hoisted the sails and set our track for Water Cay, Jumentos. We managed to sail about half way before the wind dropped and we had to motor sail the rest of the way.

Just after four that afternoon we dropped anchor off Water Cay. Gin clear waters beckoned and we had no sooner settled the boat when we went in to check the anchor and explore. Two large Remora had take refuge under the hull, their funny upside down heads and mouths looking for scraps. We snorkeled over then walked the length of the beach and got back into the water to swim back across the bay to the boat.

Showering on the sugarscoop I glanced down to see a big Nurse shark hovering under me. She swam through between the hulls and over to the shore where we could see her fin in the shallows and she went looking for dinner.

Such a perfect evening called for a braai / bbq and as the meat cooked we lay on the sun bed on the back of the boat chatting. Once again I glanced down to see a huge Hammerhead shark swimming lazily by. At least twelve foot / four meters long he was spectacular. The first hammerhead we have seen in the wild. We jumped up to grab cameras in the hope he would turn and do another swim by but no such luck. As we were watching we heard a blow and a huge head appeared. It was so large for a split second I thought it was a seal, then realized it was a huge turtle. He eyed us then ducked under water to surface about five meters closer then ducked down and disappeared.

By this time the sun had gone down and we had switched on the spotlight to shine down into the water. Two beautiful blue needle fish swam into the light and under the boat when there was a splash and bang under the sugarscoop and the needle fish leapt up and away. We realized the huge turtle must have been lying under the boat and he and the needle fish had scared each other. We watched him swim away into the darkness.

Jumentos - Duncan Town

The Ragged Islands are simply out of this world.

From Water Cay we stopped at Flamingo Cay, Nurse Cay (what can I say), Bona Vista Cay, Hog Cay and Ragged Island's Duncan Town. 

This place is spectacular! We met up with our friends on Panache, Ryana and Island Explorer but most of the time we were alone at an anchorage or the bay was so big we felt alone despite having friends nearby. stunning.

Photo credit Ursula Du Toit; Island Explorer.

 In Water Cay we went out in the dinghy to snorkel and had the weirdest sensation. The water was like glass and gin clear. The sky and sea blended into each other on the horizon making it difficult to see where one ended and the other started. As the dinghy got onto the plane we got the peculiar sensation like we were airborn. Freaky funny out of control feeling as we sped along to the dive site.

Water Cay has two 'Blue holes' a few miles off the anchorage and the stunning Triggerfish reef. The reef and the shallower blue hole Andre and I free dived. The reef lived up to its name with hundreds of Triggerfish swimming around. We learned how aggressive they can be on a feed. Not toward us but the prey. André shot a fish that got off the spear and the Triggerfish went after it with a vengeance. 

Nurse Cay was another favorite. A tiny little bay with 2 meters of water virtually to the shore. We tucked in let out just enough chain to allow us to swing without touching sides for if the wind changed and went ashore. Walking the beach looking for shells, snorkeling and lazing in the shallow water. Heaven!

The boats all met up again in Hog Cay. It was a beach for 'Talking heads' and we took advantage. Our friends on Purrfect arrived from Cuba and we all got together for a braai on the beach. The local's have built a Boma or what they call a Tikki Bar for the cruisers to use and we took advantage. 

Duncan town is about a half hour dinghy ride down a channel in the mangroves. This is the only settlement in the Ragged islands. In its time a thriving Salt industry keep it busy but since the decline of the salt industry the few families who stayed support themselves from the sea. 

Well known in town is Maxine and her husband who own the small store which is restocked from Nassau, brought in by the mail boat. The main problem is Maxine never knows how many people / cruisers will be in town so she can't order ahead. But she is very willing to place and order for you that will arrive in a week.

We also met Cephas who owns the Ponderosa Bar. Although the it was Mail boat day and everyone was unpacking supplies, Cephas opened the bar for us to sit in the cool, use their free wifi, drink beer and chat to locals.

We met the infamous Edward who lives on Bona Vista and was visiting his children in town. What a character he had us laughing at his stories and antics. His curly blonde hair and huge smile are not forgettable. We promised to visit him on Bona Vista.

I was wondering around town and noticed a man staring at me curiously. I waved and said hi and he was astonished. With my tan he thought I was a Bahamian woman and he couldn't figure out who I was. In the tiny town of 40 or so residents he was trying to work out who the new woman town was. Lewis and I got chatting. He is a fisherman and lived on the island all his life. He and his friends were fascinated that we sailed all the way from Africa. Later that day on his way out to check his traps he stopped by to see Rat Catcher to see what boat would sail all that way. He had found some mollusk he didn't use in his traps and kindly allowed me to choose some beautiful shells. Thank you Lewis.

We sat out some weather in South Side anchorage off Duncan town and then upped anchor and headed North. 

Conception Island

We had heard Conception Island was not to be missed so as soon as the weather allowed we sailed out of George Town eastward and made a stop at the northern tip of Long Island for the night. After a quick morning snorkel at the nearby reef which established there was not much to find; we lifted anchor and set off for Conception Island.
There was a long rolling sea and we pitched, yawed and rolled our way across to the West end anchorage. After a quick lunch we set out to the nearby reef, it was 15h00, an hour before low tide and the Fire Coral heads were breaking the surface as the swell rolled in. Perfect conditions below water with coral heads like mushrooms surrounding us.
We had just started swimming towards one when a call from André stopped me and i turn to find him holding up a large Crayfish / Lobster. Not even 3 minutes into the dive and dinner was taken care of. The first Coral bombie we dived on a large Nassau Grouper peeped out of his cave. A bulls eye shot from André’s hawaiian sling and dinner waas set!
We spent another two hours exploring the reef. It seemed to have been damaged and broken in the last hurricane but was re-establishing itself and was teeming with colourful reef fish of all sizes.
Le Maitresse crew, Rosaire and Neena joined us and we headed for the reef in the anchorage to explore.
A few minutes into the dive and once again huge Crayfish were spotted in the reef. My ace hunter once again did his thing and we had two for the pot. He was no sooner on the dinghy in the bucket and returning to the same hole in the reef another Lobster had taken his place and was added to the catch. Unbelievably we went back and found a third in the same spot. Each person had their appetizers provided.
Then strolling across the sand another Lobster giving Rosaire his first oppotunity to use his hawaiian sling. it was fn and a learing experience but this one got the chance to live anther day by wedging himself into a small tight space under the coral.


Dinner was on Rat Catcher, freshly cooked Nassau grouper. As is our custom we then take the carcass of the fish when it is filleted and tie it with string to hand beneath the boat. We love watching Ray and Shark feed off it. Nothing appeared immediatly but not long after we had eaten the squeek of the line on the handle indicated something big and strong had it in their mouth. Grabbing a spotlight we saw a large shape in the water that swam off as we aimed the light at him. lifting the carcass all that was left was the head with the line tied through its jaw. We had given up watching and just settled down chatting when a ‘ping / snap’ sound drew us back to the line.
The first time ever the stgrong line we used to hold the fish carcass to the bpoat had been snapped like a piece of string. Sadly we never saw the perpetrator but it musty have been a big boy!
Neena and Rosaire were very very careful climbing back into their dinghy for the ride home.