Licked by the Tongue Again!

The weather looked good for heading to Nassau Friday, so we pulled out of Bimini really early, like 6:30, if you can even believe it. Leaving Bimini we ran south to Triangle Rocks and then cut southeast to Cat Cay waypoint before turning east to make the 60 mile run across the Great Bahama Bank to the Tongue of the Ocean. We have made this crossing many times, but it is always a little intimidating as the depth is usually 10 to 15 feet deep and you can't see shore for most of the journey. I guess the good thing is, if our boat sank the tower would be above water so we could sit there until someone came along and we could catch a ride.

Like I said, there was no weather in sight when we left, but there is always a chance of those thunderstorms building during the day and well, they did. So, as some wise old sailor once said, "smooth seas never made a skillful sailor". We studied our charts to see how we could avoid the advancing storms and watched them closely with our XM weather and on board radar and made it safely to the Tongue with only a little rinsing from the rain.

From 2012-05-18

From 2012-05-18

XM radar....

From 2012-05-18

On board radar overlay....

From 2012-05-18

The Tongue was not as generous as Mother Nature. It licked us pretty good. If you have ever read any fishing magazines or seen any fishing shows about this area, they say at times the "Big Dolphin" are so thick they are a nuisance if you are looking for Billfish. It is called "The Pocket", the northwest corner of the Tongue of the Ocean, the area between Andros and New Providence. Well, we were looking for anything but what we caught, Barry Cuda times four. We saw one other boat that was hooked up to a Billfish we thought. We did not see it for sure, but looked like something big.

FF III just entering "The Pocket" of the "Tongue of the Ocean"....

From 2012-05-18

After 3 hours of trolling I finally gave in and reeled up. We headed on across towards Nassau thinking we might pull in along the shore and troll for awhile like we did two years ago and maybe catch a YF Tuna, but the rains had started up again. The Tongue once again "licked" us, but I will have my "licking" of that Tongue some day.

CTM