Pengi's Survival Guide to Corona Virus

So with the current health crisis around the world, and many people nervous and not being able to get out and about as much as normally, Pengi thought it would be a good idea to lighten the mood a bit.  Be assured that when he is running errands around others, he is being careful.

Pengi in his mask

Most of the time like all of us, he is on the boat.  So here are some of the things he has been doing to entertain himself.  Maybe it will give you some ideas.

He ordered a few good puzzle books from Amazon

He also likes to sit and enjoy the outside with a good magazine.  He can sit on the front of the boat and see the sky and feel the breeze, while enjoying reading material. 

He has also loaded several new books onto his kindle.  This one by Julie Bradley is quite good and he recommends it.  An amazing true story about a military couple who retired and sailed around the world on their sailboat.  Truely an adventure.

There is also solitare if you are by yourself.  He likes gin rummy as well when Keith and I are willing to play along

Pengi has been a big help with me in doing some quilting projects.  If you are not a quilter, there are many other hobbies that might be good to try while staying inside.

It is also a good time to call friends and family via phone (or shell phone, get it?....... shell phone/cell phone).  Maybe even reconnecting with someone you have not talked to in a while.

Even though it is not terribly exciting, what a great time to get those closets reorganized and finally get rid of the clothes you are not wearing anymore

If trying on clothes is just too much to think about, maybe simply reorganize the kitchen or pantry

And remember, getting outside is not a bad thing.  Go for a walk or bike ride.  Pengi is going to go with Keith and I to play some tennis (there are tennis courts here at the marina).

And every now and then a little drink-e-poo is not a bad thing when done in moderation.

Pengi says stay safe and be kind to one another.

The Best Laid Plans

Well as often happens with boating plans, our schedule changed.  The night before going to Harbor Island, we were looking at the weather forecast.  For once there were 3 days of nice weather and fairly calm seas.  There were also several things we have been looking to get done with the boat.

Sooooooooooo, instead of heading to Harbor Island we decided to make for the good old USA, coronavirus and all.  We would rather get back and have all our service work done with enough time to get to Ocracoke for the month of May than have 3-5  days at Harbor Island but get delayed with boat work and miss time in Ocracoke.  So we went from Spanish Wells over to Great Harbor in the Berry Islands on Thursday, March 12th.  Then Friday, March 13th we went from the Great Harbour Cay to Bimini.  Finally on Saturday we crossed back to Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Leaving Spanish Wells Thursday morning for the Berry Islands

Leaving Bimini and heading out Saturday to cross the Gulf Stream back to Florida

We had a good ride and even caught two Mahi

It was a great couple of months in the Bahamas.  We experienced some expected things like beautiful water, friendly people, and some good fishing.  We also experienced some unexpected things such as unusually windy weather this year (even according to the locals) and sadly more poverty than we had expected.  We certainly will go back and hope to have more friends visit next time as we will be old pros next time around.  For now, there are several boat projects we would like to accomplish here in Florida and then head to NC.  The plan is to be in Fort Lauderdale for about a week for one set of projects and then make our way to St. Augustine for another round of projects that will likely take a week.  I will be making my way to Pennsylvania to visit family while Keith is moving the boat to NC in the interim.  For the summer we hope to go back into Canada, across the Trent Severn Waterway and into Georgian Bay and the North Channel again.   I will keep everyone abreast of the progress of projects and our  trip up the coast.

Just an Update

Well we have been in Spanish Wells for almost two weeks.  Not that it is a bad place to be.  Here there are several small, but very nice restaurants in case I do not feel like cooking.  There is also a nice grocery store with all the essentials and a few extra items, even fresh vegetables like broccoli.  The settlement here is also clean with freshly painted houses and lawns that are free of trash and have been landscaped and mowed.  The weather ( read as wind) has been quite blustery however; and so we have stayed put.  I have kept busy with sewing and Keith with boat chores and fishing videos.

It looks like the wind will give us a little break on Thursday, March 12th, so the plan is to head around the corner on Eleuthera, through Devil's Backbone and into Harbour Island for a few days.  Harbour Island will be our last official stop on our winter in the Bahamas.  After this we plan to go back to Great Harbor in the Berry Islands (where we checked in, back in December) and then a quick stop-over in West End, Grand Bahama.  As soon as we can get a decent weather window from there we will head back to the United States.  I will post again from Harbour Island.  Hopefully we can get some settled weather to enjoy our last island to explore.

Spanish Wells Fishing

We are staying in Spanish Wells for another week.  There have been many days with pretty gusty winds so moving was not ideal.  This is a nice spot with lots of restaurants and things to do.  We also wanted the chance to do a little fishing from Spanish Wells.

Once we did get a day of calm weather, Keith and I did some fishing.  We took the big boat out instead of the dinghy and it was probably good we did as the seas were a bit bigger than forecast.  Keith really wanted to catch a Wahoo as it was the only meat fish we had not caught as of yet.  Today we finished the fishing "grand slam".  We have now landed a Tuna, Mahi, Grouper, and finally a Wahoo aboard Southern Style.

There were a lot of barracuda biting today, but we also hooked into several Wahoo.  One broke the fishing rod right off.

The damaged rod

Unfortunately the one that broke the rod we were not able to land in the boat.  The other rod went off as well and that fish broke our 50lb braid line.  WOW!  Keith is now going to invest in some bigger fishing tackle.

After the broken rod and line, Keith spent 30 minutes regrouping and repairing the damage.  He took the nice reel off the broken rod and put it onto another surf rod he had in the engine room.  Then he re-spooled the other reel with new line and he was back to fishing.

There were two Wahoo, however, that we did get into the boat.  We had both rods go off again at about the same time.  While I reeled on one, Keith was working on the other and the boat was on autopilot.  My fish got its tail end bitten off, I assume by a shark.  Keith got his in all in one piece, but it was a Barracuda.  Oh well, that is how it goes sometimes.

About 30 minutes later as we took the boat over the same spot, the reel went off again.  This time Keith got Wahoo number 2 to the boat in tact.  We had some Wahoo sashimi for dinner.

Keith with his Wahoo - not big, but glad to have it.

The two Wahoo we got in our cooler ready for cleaning.  

You can see my half of a Wahoo... darn sharks.

Two nice days in a row is a luxury around here.  Keith wanted to fish again the next day with a 17 foot rental boat that was available.  Unfortunately, we awoke to an explosion around the head/toilet pump.  Keith worked on this problem all day in (as I would politely say ) less than ideal working conditions.  He manage to get the "situation" fixed, but not until 4:30 PM.  So much for fishing that day.  While he was rebuilding the head, I was able to take a little kayak ride around the island.

Going into the mangroves

The one lane bridge connecting St. George Island to Russell Island

Lobster boats are common here along the docks of Spanish Wells.  Harvesting Caribbean spiney lobster is a large part of the island's commerce.  If you think the boats look like shrimping boats, you would be correct.  Most are old shrimp boats brought from the states and converted for the lobster industry here.  There are some interesting videos about the lobster trade here on Spanish Wells if you google "bahamas lobster pirates".

Lobster Boats

Looking east over the docks of Spanish Wells

Lobster boat docked just in front of us

There was also a small cruise ship that came in one day.  Everyone on the dock came out to watch him turn around in the small, narrow harbor area.

St. George's Island, Bahamas

At just 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, St. George is not the biggest island in the Bahamas; but it is bursting with delights Keith and I have not see in 2 months.  Better known as Spanish Wells for the settlement that occupies the island, this darling spot has several restaurants (the more typical beach bar and grill type places), even several small gift shops.  It is clean and well kept up and there is a nice grocery store available on the island.  There is something to be said about civilization.  We arrived here on Wednesday, February 26th.

The first British colonist to the area were the Eleutherans.  These were British from the island of Bermuda that left there seeking religious freedom.  Their boat wrecked on the reef nearby known as the Devil's Backbone and the colonists lived in a cave known as Preacher's Cave for a period until they were able to build more permanent structures.  Eventually the settlement of Spanish Wells was formed.  Today about 1,600 people live on Spanish Wells.

On Friday, February 28th, we decided to book a private charter with a local to see some of the less visited cays and get a real feel for the area by boat.  We selected Tyman's Fishing Charters which is a local, family run business.  The owner, Tyson and April Newbold along with their daughter Brianna, were wonderful to us. The weather was not ideal with heavy cloud cover and temperatures around 68 in the morning, but we put on our big boater pants and jumped in for some snorkeling.  One spot they took us to had a wreck that we got to snorkel.  This boat was hauling fertilizer when she hit a reef and sank.  No one lost their life, but the boat was a total loss.  It once stood well above the water, but over the years it has rusted and sank lower into the 30-40 feet of water in which it now lies.

Wreck snorkel

Tyson also put out some lines to troll for a bit and we caught a nice Tiger Grouper.

I found a few small shells and some sea glass, but Tyson and his wife April give us some shells from when Tyson was a lobster fisherman.  How thoughtful of them to do this.  The shells are super cool.  Here are some of them.

This is a picture of a Flamingo Tongue Snail.  This snail lives with his body outside his shell unless he is attacked by a predator, at which time he contracts into his shell.  We found several of these guys on our snorkel trip and were able to keep a few of the shells.  The picture of the snail below is from the internet as they are only about an inch long and difficult to get a picture of with the Go-Pro.

These are my Flamingo Tongue shells

The next shell is what I believe is a Nautica shell.  Similar to a Moon Shell or Shark's Eye.  I could be wrong but I believe these are Gaudi Nautica.  These guys are also similar to the Nautilus shell.

These colorful shells are very unusual.  They are spiny on the top shell and flat on the bottom where they attach to coral or rock..  It is a bivalve.  Tyson called these a jewel box shell.  These are much more colorful than the ones I have seen from the western Florida beaches.

 Top view

Bottom View (smooth where they sling to coral or rocks).

Getting bigger are two examples of the Tulip shells Tyson gave us.  There are 8 species of  these large, tropical to subtropical sea snails.  The are predatory and will eat other mollusks and gastropods.  I think their spiral shells are beautiful.

Finally the giant Helmet shell.  There are some 80 species of this sea snail (a lot of types of snails in the ocean).  This specimen, the King Helmet, can be found in waters from the Carolinas to Brazil.

The underside is as cool looking as the top

Once again it looks like the wind will keep us in port for the foreseeable future.  This is certainly a nice spot to stay for a period of time.