Week Number 2

We are in Hope Town. We have now traveled 408 miles. We left last Friday and traveled 88 miles across the Little Bahama Bank. Most of the time we were in water 10 to 15 feet deep. The paper charts depths are in meters. It always spooks me a little when I look at this crossing and all I see for depths are 2's and 3's and 4's. There are a few 5's and way too many 1's as well. We were tied up at the Old Bahama Bay fuel dock when they opened at 7:00 as the tides were falling and we wanted to get across the channel beginning at Indian Rock before low tide. There is a narrow, unmarked cut through to the Little Bahama Bank that at low tide is 4 to 7 feet deep. We were on edge as we ran this 5 mile stretch to reach the bank which is still only 6 or 8 feet deep for another 5 miles or so. From that point on it was a pretty relaxing ride to Spanish Cay. We spent only one night at Spanish Cay. We missed it the last time in the Abacos and found it to be a pretty neat stopover. It was private but now open to the public. It is owned by some Texans. They have a 5000 feet long landing strip that they fly in and out from. They have one of the most well stocked ship's stores we have found. They had a nice restaurant and bar at the marina and a newly re-opened one called Wrecker's just over the hill, right on the ocean. We cooked some of our Mahi on the back of our boat that night and pulled out for Hope Town the next day to join up with the Looper's and Kinscherf's. The weather was much better on Saturday so we pulled out on the Atlantic side and got to fish most of the 50 mile run to Hope Town :):)

We only troll 2 or 3 lines when it is just the two of us, or I guess I should say CJM only let's me troll that many lines. We had a trusty Billy Bait, a rigged ballyhoo on the surface and one a little deeper on the wire. We no sooner had started trolling and we had a hit on the wire. A nice Wahoo:) Boy was this going to be a good day. Well, about 4 or so hours later and a couple small Blackfin Tunas and we were at Hope Town. What a disappointment:( However, enough to eat:)

The winds have been 15 to 20 since arriving in Hope Town so we have not been offshore yet. We have trolled a little in the Sea of Abaco and caught a couple nice Mutton Snappers and some assorted other snappers. Also fished a little deep hole just outside Hope Town and caught some Gray Snappers and with a small Yellowtail for bait and a balloon for a bobber we hooked what we think was a pretty good size Grouper but could not get it out of the rocks.

Some touring of Hope Town and a phenomenal tour of the lighthouse and week two is complete. I think we are going to put our big girl panties on and go offshore tomorrow then moving to Treasure Cay on Saturday. Treasure is another stop we missed last time in the Abacos so we are looking forward to it.