Wednesday, November 11

Once again listened to Chris Parker before heading off. TS Kate was out of the picture. Soon after departing we were off the Great Bahama Bank and were in water over 1,000 feet deep. Our fishing lines went back over the side. We picked up a hitchhiker somewhere along the way, a sparrow. How it got that far from land I'll never know. He made himself at home above and below deck while we motorsailed almost due east. There was enough wind to help us sail a little, but not enough to turn off the engine.

In the early afternoon both fishing reels started singing at the same time. We slowed down an reeled them both in. Two Mahi Mahi! We brought the biggest one, about 20 pounds is my guess, aboard first and kept the other in the water. Once he was filleted we brought the other one on board. Unfortunately he spit the hook out lying on the cockpit floor and slid back into the water before I could gaff him. Oh well, we still had enough mahi mahi for several meals. We put the lines back out and a little later thought one had caught some seaweed so we reeled it in only to find a small black fin tuna on it. Cleaned and cut him into steaks. As we got close to the Berry Islands we got back in shallow water and our time fishing was marked as over as we caught another barracuda.

We passed Big Stirrup and Little Stirrup Cays, the northern most islands in the Berrys.  Eeach is owned by a cruise line- one by Norwegian and the other by Royal Caribbean. After passing the two cruise ships anchored there we turned south and tucked up under Petit Cay for the night.  There is a great beach here on Great Harbor Cay (always pronounced "key") and were treated to quite a show by 20 dolphin / porpoise playing all around us. There appeared to be quite a few adolescents in the group and one baby about two feet long that never left its momma's side. I tried to take pictures but never caught them. Besides the baby the highlight of the show was one dolphin that jumped out of the water and did a flip before going back in. We thought we were at Sea World. Not sure where our hitchhiker jumped ship but he was no longer with us when we anchored.

Brian