By Capt. Rod and Susie Stebbins
Part Two
Oh Those Great Bahamas(Cont.) Susie takes the first stand at the wheel and I make some coffee and do the breakfast dishes. Susie set the radar for a four mile scan and the alarm on the depth indicator at 50 feet. The alarm will sound when we have reached the Great Bahama Banks.
My chores done, I take out the charts and check the weather with the weather channel. All is a go to make the Northwest Province Channel crossing. We have agreed that if the weather remains the same we will take a side trip to explore an area along the north edge of the GRAND BAHAMA BANKS noted on the charts as "Full of Rocky Head" (N25-53.70/W78-39.00). During Susie's second stand at the wheel and about two and a half hours into our first leg we make the decision to take the side trip to do a little exploring and some SCUBA diving. Maybe we can catch a fish or two or maybe find treasure (fat chance).
The chart says that at about N25-53.70/W78-30.00 and on course we ought to be reaching THE BANK. Once there we would feed "Elmo" the new coordinates for the Rocky (N25-53.70/W78-39.00). The depth alarm sounded and in a few moments we arrived at our turning waypoint. We entered the coordinates for the "Rocky Area" and "Elmo" indicated we should turn to 270 degrees and that we would arrive in 43 minutes after traveling the 8.1 nautical miles. This would be just enough time for Susie to ready the SCUBA gear for us to use. The Captain would have done those chores except that Susie knows where she put everything.
The original plan would amount to 102 nautical miles to the Berry Islands. The side trip would add 16.1 nautical miles to this leg of the journey. Our average speed of 11.5 knots would give us a total travel time of 10 hours and fifteen minutes to travel the 118 nautical miles. We calculated that we would arrive at Marker No 2 at 1700 hours (5 p.m.) if we did not stop. This meant we had two hours we could spare and still arrive at Frazers Hog Cay by dark or soon after so we decided to have a ball and do some diving.
We arrived at "The Rocks" at 1340 hours (1:40 p.m.).
Just as soon as we see shallow water, Susie hops to the bow pulpit so that she can look for promising diving. The water is as clear as a glass of gin and as flat as a plate of glass. Susie kept yelling "...here, over there, no over there..." and after a few minutes of searching Susie saw fish and coral heads. As a matter of fact, we could have stopped in a hundred places and had just as much fun. Heaven at last...
Down with the anchor in twenty two feet of water. SANCHO leaned against the anchor and the anchor responded by digging in deep. Susie already had our diving gear laid out and ready. By the time I had secured the engines and managed my way off the bridge, Susie was ready for the water. With her tank on her back, knife strapped to her leg, weights in position and a spear gun at the ready she stepped into the water to check the anchor. In a heart beat or three I was by her side. I was armed with a movie camera in one hand and power headed spear gun in the other. When I reached Susie's side she held up her net bag containing two lobsters, both legal in size and ready for the pot.
We swam to the tag line I had set at the stern cleat and tied her catch. While Susie was looking in and around the small caverns and cuts in the rocks, I played with the many beautiful tropical fish. Engrossed with trying to take movies of all of the pretties with Susie in the background we completely forgot that we wanted to add a grouper or two to our menu.
Horizontal visibility was sixty feet and the boat looked as if it were magically suspended in mid air above us. While looking about and not really paying too much attention to what I was doing Susie had wondered off towards some rocks to do some exploring of her own. I heard tapping on metal (our method of getting each others attention) and when I turned to the direction that I last saw Susie I saw a "small" four foot gray shark swimming near by between Susie and me. Susie's spear gun is fine for thin skinned fish. A shark with skin tougher than shoe leather requires heavier armament. Besides, who in their right mind would want to make a shark mad by shooting it with a toy. Sensing Susie's excitement I turned and not unlike Tarzan I swam as fast as I could to protect my "Jane", and in my haste I dropped the movie camera.
Figuring I would return later, I continued on my quest to dispense the shark and to add a fine compliment to our awaiting lobster. In no time I was near enough and slightly above the head of the sleek hunter. I pulled the safety pin from the power head, took aim and fired. The power head exploded on contact and Mr. Shark with its last flicker of life thrashed about and finally settled to the bottom. I met Mr. Shark on the bottom and examined it for life and took it by the tail and headed for the boat. Boy was I proud of myself, a nice clean shot to the head and I am sure the shark never knew what hit him. Now I could face my mate a hero, a hunter and provider of protection and food. Figuring that Susie was behind me I almost fainted when I saw Susie on the dive platform offering me a line to tie to the shark's tail.
Knowing that where there is one shark, there might be more. We decided to count our blessings clean and bleed the shark and prepare the little feller for lots of dinners. We marveled that we were only in the water for 35 minutes. We had seen so much and already had the makings for a wonderful dinner. That night we would have boiled lobster and marinated barbecued shark steaks, a nice veggie, tossed salad and a glass or two of romance water (wine).
We hoisted the anchor, fired up SANCHO and turned the bow towards our next coordinate. Susie took the helm and I set about the hefty task of cleaning and butchering the shark. Cutting shark skin is about as easy as slicing nylon tires. However, being "aficionados" of shark steaks we are prepared for the mission and in twenty minutes the steaks are ready for the freezer (ice maker) except for a couple of nice ones for the barbecue.
Susie surrendered the helm and went about the business of completing the cooking chores. SANCHO is equipped with a stainless steel barbecue that sort of hangs over the side of the boat. We like using self starting charcoal instead of lighter fluid because of the fire and the after taste it leaves on the food. The baked potatoes and the lobster were cooked in the microwave and the shark steaks were barbecued to a turn. We get a lot of pleasure dining on the bridge while underway. It sort of makes one feel very satisfied to dine on what the ocean has provided capped with some nicely chilled Auslese Rhein wine.
I gladly take Susie's turn at the helm so that she can do the dishes and prepare the SCUBA gear for storage. We always rinse the regulators and the spear guns. The power heads are disassembled and oiled and everything is stored until we need it again. All of the metal parts get a thin film of silicone lubricant delivered from a spray can. One thing for sure, there seems to be plenty of room to live on a boat as long as things stay picked up and stowed in their proper place. A messy boat seems to get very small very fast. All of the chores done, tireless Susie joins me on the bridge in time for a romantic sunset and some serious hand holding.
Being very pleased with ourselves we recounted the events of the day and some where between the "I love you's" and the "Aint we lucky's" we realized that the movie camera was still on the bottom waiting to be rescued. In all the excitement we left without writing the coordinates down. Anyway, after two oops' and a couple of choice naughties we discarded the event as a learning experience and hoped the fishes would enjoy the camera.
Back to the Cruising with Rod and Susie