Fish On!

February 17^th – February 19^th

After a great dinner with friends and a good night’s rest we were ready to get underway bright and early Wednesday morning.  We pulled the anchor just after 7am and pointed our bow towards the south end of Cat Island. 

Cat Island is roughly just 15 miles north, north west, of Conception Island, but we would need to travel close to 25 miles to safely clear the western corner of Cat Island before heading east and traveling another 10 miles to our anchorage.  With a total travel distance of 35 miles planned for the day and leaving just after 7am, we should be safely anchored by mid-afternoon.

We enjoyed a pleasant sail north. The winds and waves were both pushing us from behind. The seas were again probably between 4 to 6 feet but about every two or three minutes we’d get one that was ‘slightly’ bigger than the others  (8’).  When that happens, the boat picks up some extra speed and feels like it’s surfing down the wave.  (One of us really enjoys that sensation, while the other one would rather avoid it).

While sailing north we put out our fishing line and hoped we’d be able to catch some fresh fish for dinner.  Throughout the day we saw lots of flying fish sailing along, but didn’t get any strikes on our line. We cleared the southwestern end of the island and turned east for the 10 mile run into our anchorage.  With only about 2 miles to go to our anchorage I looked back and noticed that we indeed did have a fish on our line.  Diane was down below, so I hollered ‘fish on’ so that she would know I finally had a fish on the hook and that she needed to come up and take the wheel and I would hopefully be able to pull the fish in. 

We use a hand line rather than a rod and reel while sailing.  The hand line is basically just a bunch of fishing line wrapped around one of those large kite string donut looking things.  To go fishing, we simply drop the end of the line with the lure into the water and then let the line ‘unwind itself’ as the lure floats behind the boat.  Pretty easy.  To get the line back in, rather than using a reel to pull and wind the line back to the boat, we actually have to pull and wrap the line back onto the kite-string-donut-thing by hand.  Up to this point that hasn’t been too difficult since we typically don’t have a fish on the end of the line. This time it was different.

This time, with a fish on the end, pulling it in by hand and wrapping the line around the kite-string-donut-thing was a lot harder.  Diane did a great job steering and slowing the boat down just enough so that I was able to finally pull the fish in close to the boat.  At this point, although I couldn’t tell what kind of fish it was, I knew it was good sized fish.  So, remembering a trick my dad said he used to use, I asked to go down below and pour a shot of rum into a glass for me.  Actually, the rum wasn’t for me but for the fish.  Apparently to keep the fish from flopping around on the deck too much, once my dad would pull a large fish onboard, my mom would pour a shot of rum down the fishes mouth and it would ‘knock the fish out’.  This made removing the hook very easy.

So, as I pulled the fish out of the water and onto the deck, Diane had the shot glass in hand and served the fish it’s drink.  Dad knew what he was talking about.  Almost immediately the fish stopped moving and laid on the deck like it was passed out.  It’s a good thing too, because now I could clearly see that the fish I finally landed was a 3 foot Barracuda! We probably wouldn’t be eating this one. 

We took a few photos and then put the fish in the cooler to sleep off his binder while we quickly searched the internet to see whether or not barracuda were safe to eat.  Although some people do eat barracuda, the general consensus is not to eat any that are over 30” long. Apparently the larger fish accumulate the ciguatera toxin overtime and when eaten, the toxin causes rather severe food poisoning in humans. So rather than take the chance, we decided to toss the ‘cuda back overboard.

We actually managed to land another fish earlier in the day. Apparently one of the small flying fish wasn’t too good at navigation and while we weren’t looking, it ended up flying and landing on our deck. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover the crash scene until later in the day and the fish had long since taken its last breath of fresh air.  So, we tossed another one back into the ocean. One of these days we’ll land a fish that we can actually eat!

After wrapping up our fishing expedition, we made our way into the anchorage just west of the settlement of Old Bight, Cat Island and just a few hundred yards from Rollezz Restaurant and Beach Resort. Our buddy boats had arrived an hour or so ahead of us and were already on shore scoping out the area. Although the resort looked closed, they managed to run into one of the staff who informed them they would be happy to open up the restaurant for us later in the evening if we wanted to eat there for dinner. Since none of the other boats were successful catching any fish either, we all agreed that a nice dinner of local seafood would be great.

We got cleaned up and headed to shore around 5:30 to enjoy the warm breeze and sunset before our 6:30 reservation.  Someone from the restaurant would come get us when dinner was ready.  So, we sat back and relaxed, and relaxed, and relaxed some more.  About an hour and half later, one of the staff finally came out and let us know that they were now ready for us. 

Dinner was definitely worth the wait. We enjoyed fresh fish and lobster, and a nice piece of delicious guava rum cake for dessert. During dinner the owner/chef came out and chatted with us. She filled us in on some history of the area and also gave us some suggestions of places to visit during our stay. She even talked us into ordering a freshly baked pineapple cake that her sister would be making for us if we stopped by tomorrow. It was definitely a nice way to start our visit.

Cat Island is almost 50 miles long, but only a mile or two wide in most places.  At it’s peak in the 1950’s the population was almost 15,000 people and they had a thriving agriculture industry on the island.  Today the population is only about 1600 people and there really wasn’t any sign of industry other than a fledging tourism business. Apparently, the plantations began closing in the late 1950’s and any industrial base closed with it.

Although there weren’t very many people on the island, there definitely were a lot of small churches.  It seems that around every corner another small church sat proudly and ready to welcome and serve anyone who happened to be in the area. 

We spent our first full day on the island walking around the settlement of Old Bight, buying bread from the local bakery, and enjoying the chance to really stretch our legs. After a long day on shore, we all retired to our own boats for a quiet evening.

The following day we decided to take our boats several miles north, and anchor off two small islands that were only a mile or so off the coast of Cat Island to do some snorkeling.  We moved the boats, anchored, and snorkeled around the islands for an hour or two.  While we did see some colorful reef fish, we didn’t find anything that we could snag for dinner. So, after a few hours of swimming, we got back on board and moved the boats another few miles to the settlement of New Bight, Cat Island where we would end up staying for several more days.