Great Exuma Bahamas take #2

The wind just does not seem to want to let up.  We had one really calm day during which Keith was able to fish and we also rode the dinghy down to Stocking Island just off Georgetown to the Chat 'n' Chill for lunch.  The next day it started to blow again.  No worries.  We do not really have any schedule that is pressing.

Chat 'N' Chill on Stocking Island (A top 10 Beach Bar)

Beach at Chat 'N' Chill

We found fresh conch salad being made

Yum

A few words about Queen Conch

The conch is a tropical marine mollusk; in other words a marine snail.  And although there are many types of conch around the world, the most common in this region is the Queen Conch.  It lives inside a spiral-shaped shell with a glossy pink to orange interior.  A conch's main food sources are algae and tiny marine plants.  It takes a queen conch about 5 years to mature becoming up to 12 inches long and about 5 pounds.  It is a long-lived species and can reach 40 years of age.  The main predators of the conch are nurse sharks, eagle rays, other snail species, loggerhead turtles, spiny lobsters, and blue crabs.  The old trick of listening into a conch shell to hear the ocean is not really the ocean you are hearing, rather the blood rushing through the veins in your own head.  The conch has been so popular that it has been severely over fished.  In 2015, just over 400 metric tons of conch was harvested in the Bahamas.  At the current rate of decline, it is estimated that there may be no more conch in the region in another 10 years.  The Bahamian Department of Marine Resources is trying to put steps in place to protect the Queen conch.

After lunch at the Chat 'N' Chill we rode the dinghy back to the marina.  Along the way Keith wanted to fish so we put out two lines.  Not 5 minutes after getting lines in the water we had a hit.  An ENORMOUS barracuda.  He was longer than our cooler and about 25 pounds and all teeth.  I said as Keith got him close to the dinghy "you aren't bringing him in the boat are you?"  And Keith's response was "I am not letting him have my lure".  Crap, crap, crap.  With fishing poles and a cooler, and 25 pound Mr. Toothy where was I suppose to go to stay out of the way of fishing hooks and teeth.  If that fish got loose in the dinghy, somebody was going to loose a toe, or worse. 

I perched on the back of the seat toward the engine while Keith wrangled the barracuda into the cooler (by the way he would not fit all the way in as he was too big).  So then we had most of him in the cooler with his tail sticking out along with the gaff that was stuck in him.  I grabbed the gaff keeping him from thrashing and possibly coming out of the cooler.  Keith wanted that lure, but I was afraid to let him open the lid and stick his hand in there.  I hated to hurt the fish but it was us or him I felt.  We left him in the ice of the cooler and with the gaff in him until we got almost back to the marina.  Turns out when Keith went to get the gaff and lure out, it was very difficult even once poor Mr. Toothy was expired.  We would not have been able to do it with him alive anyway.  I think I am done with dinghy fishing.  Not enough room in that boat to get out of the way of fish with lots of teeth.  In spite of the bad luck dinghy fishing, Keith did hook and land a nice Mahi on our way to Great Exuma last week.  That one has been eaten already.

Keith's Mahi catch

Back at the dock, we found out nobody had much luck fishing that day except our one neighbor.  He had hooked a giant squid of all things.  Never saw anything like this before from the end of a fishing line.  This was the squid on the back of the marina golf cart just before a local restaurant picked it up.

Calamari anyone?

By the next day the wind was howling again.  Even my walk on the beach was nautical.

Sporty looking seas and an ominous sky as I walked the Beach

During our second week on Great Exuma we biked to the Grand Isle Resort.  We wanted to have lunch and sit by the beach pool for a bit.  The wind had the waves kicked up so much that swimming in the ocean would not have been pleasant.  No matter, the view from the beach pool did not disappoint.

Beach Pool at Grand Isle Resort

Beach

Keith was also able to get in a round of golf while here in Great Exuma at the Sandles Resort.  The golf holes along the water are very pretty.

It is looking like the wind may quiet down for a day or two at the end of the week.  If this happens, we are planning on making a run to Cat Island for several days.  Hope to be able to go on Saturday.