Island Time!

There are different time zones like Eastern, central, mountain, etc. Well, we have entered "Island Time". This is not an official time zone but very real, a lot like the "Twilight Zone". We and most people around us have lost complete since of time. Yesterday we laughed so loud (this is good for you) when a Yacht beside us asked "Godspeed, what day is it", "Today is all I Got", "I think it's Tuesday another boat replied", "are you sure", "who cares!". Now that is "Island Time".
It took many months and several thousand miles to cross into it. There is no wrist watch or clock on our boat, and the day's length is judged by the position of the sun. We bought four pounds of hamburger and eight pork chops months ago and they are still in the freezer because we eat fresh caught fish. We have no cell phone, TV, and our vessel has not been connected to shore since November. We make our own power from the sun and harness the wind to move with less petroleum used in 6 months than most use in a week or so. Along with several other boats, we are in the Abacos hesitating to make the mandatory move north that will land us back in the US. Not that we don't love the US but we will cross into the "Eastern Time Zone" and "Island Time" will be lost! The nightly blowing of the conch at sunset, waking up at dawn because you want to, being part of mother nature with no schedule and time doesn't matter, will be lost when we cross the Gulf Stream. Jen on Anistasia was on the radio this morning and said to another yachtie: we are so busy doing nothing that we don't have time for anything else". "Island Time" is not a place or line on a map and is very difficult to enter and maybe harder to exit, I hope you all can someday find your way around the "Twilight Zone" and enter "Island Time", at least for just a little while!
Picture: Linda on SeaVeyor blows the conch at sunset and we all sigh with a smile because we are still in 'Island Time".

"Fish On"

OK, let's back up to the sailboat race. There was a prize for the biggest fish caught in the race so when I got time, Merrick's majic lure went off the back. Funny thing was when we were in a couple of miles from the finish line and sewing up the victory, I mentioned the only thing we need now is a fi.... It actually happened like that. "Fish On" I caught a nice Mutton snapper and the prize was mine, until the last boat crossed the line with a bigger Albcore. The race crew feasted on delicious fresh snapper that night.
On to Hog key cut on our way to the Jamentos, when we followed Liberty through. As Godspeed entered this narrow shallow cut "Fish On". Only problem I was already over my head navigating with no room for error. The rod was bent and a little drag pulled out so we left it in the rod holder and proceeded with plans to deal with this "not so big fish' when we could. Suddenly I thought of a "Grey Suit" beating us to lunch on the line that was being tow behind us and I said "Lorrie why don't you reel in that fish before the "Man in the Grey Suit visits". She went to reeling and I kept on truckin when she said "the rod is bending really bad and the line is going out", well there he was the lunch stealer...Snap the "Grey Suit" swam away with our lunch and Merrick's lucky lure-sorry Merrick! No worries, I had a really cheap piece of junk bought at Kmart to replace it with and we did. 15 miles to water key "Fish On" and a nice yellow tail snapper came to Godspeed. Wow maybe Kmart isn't so bad. We anchored in Water key by early afternoom and Dwayne on SeaVeyor said "Get your spear and let's go". We took two dinghys for safety, remember there is no one to save you here, and were underwater chasing fish and lobsters in no time. In juist a few minutes I found a nice lobster under some coral and the hunt was on. It took some doing but he was on my spear and the in the bucket in Dwayne's dinghy in no time. I swam over to Dwayne and he was on his way to the bucket with and identical lobster. We had a fabulous meal of Lobster, yellowtail Snapper, and Grouper that evening on SeaVeayor. Dwayne Could not belive that my rod and reel was still alive because it was about my age and way too small for some of the fish that have been caught so at this time he affectionately named it "Mr. Lucky". The next day we dived and explored and found an "Ocean Blue Hole" There were actually three of them nearby, That evening we invited all four boats in the anchorage over to SeaVeyor for Conch Fritters. After the feast, we dreamed up an assault on the blue hole. By mid morning we had SeaVeayor anchored over this 600 feet wide, circular, vertical walled hole, that who knows how deep it is. It was really spooky because the water is as clear as the air and you can see every detail of the bottom and then it goes to dark, dark, blue in an easily seen 600' circle. No one was up for swimming and I just knew there had to be a sea monster or lock ness monster in this hideout. It started out slow but Tom, Rick and John Wayne caught a few pan sized reef fish that we hooked on Dwayne's "big boy reels" and sent them into the asbiss as bait. "Fish On" I hooked several groupers that beat me to their hole and escaped but not all got away ,and had one monster on that got away as well. Now Dwayne is a Carolina sport fisher and so is his wife Linda and he has all of the toys right there on SeaVeyor. It was Dwayne's day, "Fish On" and his massive Penn International rod and reel were smokin'. Yelling and sceaming all over the boat, Get the lines in, move that dinghy, no move it back, get the gaff... Snap, and their he was...Gone! no worries, Dwayne went into killer mode and reached into his bag of tricks and built a super duper shark leader and Rick supplied him with a three pound yellowtail snapper that went from his hook to Dwayne's and he sent him down the wall of the Blue Hole for Mr. Big."Fish On", I know you are getting sick of hearing that but I like it and it's my blog! Wait till you have to gag though the pictures. Anyway, Screaming and yelling as usual, but this time he was not going to get through the leader. It was more fun watching Dwayne catch this than if I was in the drivers seat. He really knows how to handle big fish and big fishing equipment. "The Man in the Grey Suit" was back. I got the first gaff in him and Tom the second, It was a nice Bull Shark like the one I caught a few weeks earlier but mine was just a little bigger (sorry Dwayne this is my blog and after all, this is a fish story!). The anchorage feasted on clean white shark that night and we went south in the morninig.
After the "rescue of Our Freedom" we left Gorgetown with the compass reading North. With the Kmart special in tow just skipping across the surface "Fish On". Mahi Mahi shot from the water like Brett Favre was throwing a "hail Mary". It was a sight to see! Mr. Lucky was in the rod holder, bent over double, drag spooling out and handling things just fine for now. All hands on deck ( Short for "hey Lorrie can you come up please"). We Turned Godspeed into the wind and slowed her to a couple of knots while we furled in the head sail in and held her too close the wind while Otto was allowed to drive towards Spain very slowly until this was over. A half hour later Lorrie scooped up a nice Mahi in our big net. There were several more fish caught and some not like the five foot Baracuda that hung out behind Godspeed in Staniel cay and let me feed him for two days but would not touch the bait with a hook in it- he won! Spanish Wells was my favorite island and when we left Godspeed led the way with Slow Dancing brave enough to follow us through the "Devils Backbone" and out to sea for a 45NM ocean sail to the Abacos. "Land Ho" that is so much fun to say after land has been out of sight for a long time. "Fish On" was the next shout. Mr. Lucky was doing his thang and working overtime. The usual big fish drill of slowing the boat takes a minute or two and this was no different headed for Spain I Grabbed Mr. Lucky and this was a big fish! We saw him do the football jump and I thought "gee wis he looks small". Still taking line out I looked at the reel and there was the other end of the line. That's 700' stripped off and that's why he looked so small, he was more than 2 football fields away. This was a tough cookie and a real bruiser, I would gain some line then he would take it back. Slowly I gained on him a foot at time and this had turned into a "Bar room Brawl". With him still a couple of hundred feet out and full of fight Mr. Lucky locked up, no more today he said. "lorrie, can You get my leather gloves please" and we went "hand to hand". This had turned into a real "Slug Fest" Mr. Mahi had no intentions of boarding Godspeed and I no quit so we just slugged it out, I was standing ankle deep in stipped mono filament and he would run and I would feed the line back at times in a snarled mess. There was a moment when we were both in our corners just holding on when I took a moment to "Smell the Roses". The simplicity and satisfaction were immense, A fish with a hook in his mouth, a man with the line in his hand, on a vessel powered by wind, with a pretty girl at my side, with land now in sight! Well we got the fish to Godspeed and he was finally tired out so I tied the line to the rod and traded it to Lorrie for the Gaff. Missed the first shot but the second could not have been better and he was on board. Lorrie had to measure it because she always says I lie and she asked how big do you think it was and I responded 25 inches or so and she then measured 51 inches, women!

Fast Turtles and buddy Boats

Racing turtles can be fun if you have the fastest turtle! This is a big deal in Georgetown Exuma where there are more than 300 turtles (sailboats) anchored. The morning of the race Bob on Paragon had to get SeaVeyor to move his boat because his anchor was directly under SeaVeyor, Then Paragon was maneuvered to the side of Godspeed and we "rafted up" (tied the boats together) and they both swung on Godspeeds anchor while a bunch of stuff like spare anchors, fuel jugs, etc were loaded onto Godspeeds deck to lighten up the 15 ton Paragon. We had to turn this turtle into a rabbit! When all the work was done and right on time this sailor named German showed up, tied his dinghy to Godspeed and jumped on, he was the rest of the crew. After a bunch of jocking for position the race committee said GO!!! And that we did. We were first across the start line which was quite exiting until we realized we had no one to follow. This race was 20NM or so and it is around Stocking Island which is surrounded by treacherous reefs. in addition to that it requires rounding certain way points (Latitudes and longitudes). So here we are out in front adjusting sails and such and Bob says: Where are going! Bob was the helmsman (steering wheel guy) German stood on the foredeck and yelled orders, Pat was the brawn on all the winches and lines, Pam and Lorrie assited where they could and were great help. Bob had a wadded up piece of paper in his pocket and he handed it to Lorrie and she read off the waypionts as Pat put them into his handheld GPS. So the next three hours went something like this: German was constantly shouting stuff like, gimmy some ginny, OK stop now gimmy some main, let's work on that mizzen. So while all this constant sail trimming is going on Bob the driver is shouting "where am I going". Pat would yell something like gimme 5 degrees more to port, OK maybe a couple more, looking good Bob, hold that course. It was crazy, thirty or so boats behind us an we held them off. After our victory, We sailed Paragon through the anchorages and were "real big deals" as we took the victory laps between all the anchored yachts. It was definitely the "odd bunch", German was a brilliant sailor, Bob a great helmsman, Pat and lorrie beginners but navigating and trimming sails along with Pam and sending this 1969 41 foot Morgan Yawl to victory. "We had the fastest turtle" so heck yea, it was a blast!
So this was regatta week in Geogetown and there were other events as well. The Blackbeards Sailing club entered the "Coconut Challenge" and needed help so Pat was included in this event. Basically this is designed to make grown men look like idiots! Four guys get in a dinghy with their life jackets on upside down, no motor but each guy gets a swim fin to paddle with, and pick up coconuts that were dropped in the water. We stuffed about 100 or so and it was aload on Blondie with the four of us too. It was a battle but team "Our Freedom" won 2ND place and had a ball.
Shortly after dawn on March 15Th, Bob and Pam from Paragon boarded Godspeed with coffee and breakfast. Out of nowhere came the kazoos and then they played happy birthday! They then gave Pat an official Paragon shirt which is very cool, Great start to a fiftyth birthday. We spent the rest of the day preparing to head south into the Jementos and Ragged Islands. At dawn we weighed anchor and followed Liberty out of Elizabeth harbor and into the wilderness of the Bahamas. We sailed south to Hog Key where there is narrow shallow cut that would save us a day if we could get through. At high tide we would barely have enough water to pass if at all. Liberty has been through before and said "no problem, we will go ahead and call depths back to you, and that he did. Godspeed crossed the cut with maybe a teaspoon under her keel. It turned out to be a great day, we sailed another 35nm and saw several masts on the horizon. As we parted ways with Liberty and wished them "Godspeed" the radio bellered: Godspeed Godspeed, Our Freedom. Well here comes "Our Freedom and Non-linear" from Blackbeards sailing club along with a few other boats we know. We all ended up that night anchored in Water Cay. We spent the next few days lobstering, spearfishing, and Blue hole fishing which will be covered under the title "fish On". We then parted ways with our good friends on SeaVeyor as they headed north and we headed south.
We were within 100 miles of Cuba when trouble struck. The Ragged islands are nowhere to breakdown. There are no services, no search and rescue, and if you have trouble you are on your own. Boaters tend to Buddy up to help each other in case of trouble and these islands are not traveled much due to this. Tom on Our Freedom came over one morning with a jar of transmission fluid that looked like mud and said,"No Go"I have no motor. Well we all talked it over and decided that his boat is a sailboat. The big problem is setting anchors and the numerous reefs will not always be safe to sail, so he said he was heading back north to Georgetown right now. Lorrie and I decided that we would stay by Our Freedom's side until she was safely anchored in Georgetown. So off we went, and as luck would have it the wind shifted and it was dead on the nose. To add to the fun Tom was having GPS problems and this was no place for this. We turned around and led Our Freedom into safe waters while John and Marsha on Non-Linear launched their dinghy into the 2 to 4 foot swells. Tom prepared a tow line while Pat prepared a tow bridle on Godspeed. John maneuvered his dinghy along the underway Our Freedom and took 150' of anchor rode from Tom and fed the coils off with one hand as he maneuvered the dighy to underway Godspeed shouting "get closer, hold your course", stuff like that. Now John is a little guy that is a computer tech with a belt with radios, tools, basically a "Bat Utility Belt" At that moment seeing this unlikely guy pull this off so well we named him "JOHN WAYNE". Well the fun continues as Godspeed Tugged Our Freedom which is twice her weight to Water key and safely to anchor. The next morning Our Freedom sailed off the Hook and was headed for Hog Key Cut 35NM away. Godspeed stayed by her side until we had the cut in site and left her behind as we raced forward with Non-Linear (John Wayne)to get our vessels through the cut and anchored on the other side so we could deploy our dinghys for the next ridiculous feat.
Pat and John Wayne raced their dinghys back through Hog Key Cut and then about three miles across the banks to the now anchored Our Freedom. John Wayne tied his dinghy to the port side and Ollie (Tom's wife and first mate) tied theirs to the starboard aft and Pat and the blond tied to the starboard bow. We all had radios and Tom said "gimme some power, lets do it". So we we started our dinghy motors and gave tom about 40 horse power. This was one violent ride! Ollie and Pat were on the windward side and taking seas that slammed us into the hull. After Our freedom gained speed the Blonde was in the bow wave and within a few seconds was rapidly filling with water. I(Pat) began to analyze an exit strategy when I realized "Hey I'm in the Blonde, she is full of hot air and therefore can't sink" and it was true. The bow wave flowed over her port side and over the stearn, at times only the powerhead of the motor and the bow were above water but she was gittin' it. Ollie took one heck of at beating and John Wayne had it made on the lee side and stood up the whole time, I love that guy! Anyway, a few hours later Our Freedom "set the Hook" safely in Georgetown with a show of excellent seamanship. We would not have missed it for the world! Now let's talk Fishing!