Fishing to Rum Cay
Amberisle2
Valt & Sandy
Fri 22 Mar 2013 21:46
>> 23:42:15N 075:20:45W
>> March 20, 2013
>> What to do? We awoke to totally calm waters. But an ominous black cloud covered the north. And the forecast was for good seas today, but west winds tomorrow. West wind can strike terror in the hearts of cruisers in the Bahamas. Most of our sheltered anchorages are on the west side of the islands, so we are open to these less common west winds. But these were forecast at only 11-15 k, not bad by anyone's standards. What if they were wrong and they were stronger winds? Prudence would have us return to the safety of Georgetown. But we had reserved dockage at Rum Cay 30 miles away. If we could get there, we could wait out any weather. Plus we could fish along the way in 6,000' depths. Who knows what we could catch?
>> Pulling out of the Bay, we rounded Cape Santa Maria. To our amazement, the Cape was flat calm. After 7 miles we were in the Atlantic Ocean! The water here was calm, too. There were no wind waves, but a gentle 2' swell gave us an occasional nudge. The wind was 6 k out of the East. A few boats were out, two appeared headed to Rum Cay also.
We arrived at high tide and watched carefully to cross the coral reefs leading to the marina entrance. It was very beautiful. We first tied to the wall, but moved to a slip to get out of the surge. The marina was technically closed, and had seen better days, but we were glad to sit out the west wind here. It arrived at 3 :00am but was less than 15 knots. Very comfortable. The folks were nice, and here was a laid back atmosphere. Fishermen came in with their catch and Jim asked for bait scraps. Of course, they gave him enough fish or our dinner that night.
Next morning we went fishing ourselves with Jim and Janie. We trolled for several hours, but got no reward for our efforts. But the boat ride was fun.
Our hosts said we could stay as long as we wanted. We would see how long that would be.