We arrived at Little Harbour on Long Island and surfed into the anchorage! There was a catamaran at the north end but we normally tuck in the south anyway. We did a brief “drive by” in the north but it was very rolly! We quickly found that cell service was spotty and we were unable to get any internet!
Let me explain about Little Harbour. If you are on Long Island there is one main road and like most main roads in the Bahamas is is named The Queens Highway. This “highway” is 2 lanes with very few streetlights (true on any Bahamian Island) so most cruisers do not travel after dark in a rental car. We have rented a car in Salt Pond on previous years and when you head south you will pass the community of Roses. Should you take a left at an unmarked dirt road in Roses and follow that for about 5 miles then take a path to the left for a few hundred feet you come to Little Harbour! There is absolutely nothing there in the way of houses, stores or civilization! There are a few Bahamian fishing skiffs including an actual fishing boat that was wrecked in a hurricane many years before our first visit here in 2005. There was at one time the wreck of a sailboat on the eastside but now that has totally disappeared.
Waves breaking at the entrance after we surfed in!
Chris Parker – our weather guru had said that there would once again be front after front after front but little did we know! We ended up being in Little Harbour from 2/14 till 2/25! Our last grocery shop had been back in George Town on 2/10! Vegetables are not know to be of the highest quality here but we still had snow peas, green beans and baby potatoes that we did not finish until 2/23! Needless to say were were out of fresh meats but luckily we had purchased well for items that also made great leftovers! Leftover spaghetti sauce became the base for pizza and Curried Mutton (goat here in the Bahamas) is always better the next day. We had no luck fishing in the harbor except 1 little yellow tail Rob through back.
We went for lots of dink rides and one morning we decided to head to the beach for a walk and a swim and there were 3 young Bahamian guys trying to get their outboard started. We went back to the big boat and got some starting fluid. One shot the engine fired right up. As they would be switching the engine off while fishing Rob suggested they keep the starting fluid onboard till they came back & they could drop it by Hampshire Rose. It turns out they had some lobster pots outside and although the tails were spoken for they did give us 3 huge heads! Now, do not scoff at this… If you have never boiled up a Bahamian lobster head you do not know how good it is! There is a great deal of meat inside as well as making a great stock to use in rice. From the 3 heads we had a wonderful linguine with white lobster sauce as well as a lobster pizza!
During the walk we found lots of beach treasures too. Should we ever go back to land on a permanent basis we will have one great tiki bar!
Ocean side at Little Harbour
During our time there we also met the family on the catamaran – Marty, Dawn and 5 of their 6 kids in age from 8 to 16! We also met Eric & Cathy on Erica who are 10 years into their circumnavigation starting from their home in New Zealand. They were all great folks! Finally on 2/23 the other boats left. We decided to stay for the night and leave 2/24. We noticed a rater large fish under the boat and decided he was probably why we were not catching. It may be hard to see in the photos but he is a 4-5 foot barracuda!
No swimming with him around!
By morning the waves were considerably smaller so out the inlet we went. As usual we dropped our lines in the water as soon as we hit 50+ ft. depth and within 20 minutes they were both singing! Not 1 but 2 dolphin (mahi) were on! Rob set his hook & came to help me get mine lassoed. As we do not have a gaff we will put a line around the fishes tale should he be too big for our bucket. We do not want a fish that is too big as we have no freezer. After a great deal of time & patience I got him to the boat and Rob got him tied. Next came the other fish…. while he was smaller than the first he had a great deal of spunk and was quite the jumper. Then he got calm. As he got closer to the boat we noticed yet another dolphin by the boat. For those who do not fish let me explain that for some reason if a dolphin is hooked you should not get him out of the water for awhile as other dolphin will come! It must be true as the free fish was right there at the back of the boat! We were wondering if we could get the second fish off the hook as we really did not need him for food. Better to let him swim another day for another meal!
If ya can’t gaff ‘em, drown ‘em! REALLY too big for the bucket but a great “dinner fish”.
By 9am we had him in the boat and lines up!
So now we are on the way to Crooked and Acklins and perhaps we will see some flamingos too!
Arrived at Landrail Point on Long Cay – not to be confused with Long Island! Great little grocery store. After the dolphin was cleaned there was enough for 6 meals for the 2 of us! It is good to have some fresh veg again.
I do not know why but once again we have a barracuda under the boat!
Later!
No comments:
Post a Comment