Behemoths below, waterfall, snorkeling Loggerhead, and found dinner

Where to begin today, so much fun!

I have been watching dark behemoths beneath my boat since I arrived, and in a previous email joked about jewfish. Well it was no joke! I hopped in the dink with my new look bucket, and first thing I see is not just 1 but 2 goliath groupers just chilling in my boat's shade. They were each about 5 or 6' long, certainly weighing more than 100#. I took several pictures with my waterproof camera.

I had packed the dinghy for a trip to Loggerhead Key, about 3 miles away across deep water 'open ocean'. It's a little scary to consider being in the deep blue in an 8' boat with a tiny outboard, but I am intrepid. I'm also not stupid, and I had waited for today's weather of 5kts of wind and flat seas. As I get ready to untie my friends Paul and Jill from "Regina Oceani" called me over and asked if I wanted any water? Seriously, of course I want water, and they are in the enviable position of making too much water, so I gave them an extra 5 gallon jug. I then hightailed it across the pass in negligible winds, waves and currents, supremely confident in my abilities to row like death was chasing me, if indeed he was. I took the opportunity to use my new look bucket and saw all sorts of very pretty coral right underneath me all while staying dry. I even noted a place nearby that might be good fishing.

It took about half an hour to cross the three miles to Loggerhead, and there's a big lighthouse there. The island is about 1 mile N/S, 700' wide at best, and maybe 10' tall occupying something between 45 and 35 acres depending on the tides. I was greeted by two nice, obviously crazy live-on volunteers, and they suggested snorkeling spots to include a location called "Little Africa". I had previously been warned that the gentleman had no idea what he was talking about, so I walked the circumference of the island to scout out myself.

It didn't take long to walk the island, and according to the tides I decided to enter the water on the Northmost tip on the westward side and work my way down. There was a great deal of very pretty soft corals in the shallows abutting the beach, so it was a easy nice snorkel. I took a bunch of pictures and also of the hound dog barracudas who followed me with interest. When in the presence of such killers it's important to note that they are not interested in eating me, but they see me as a more apex predator and they want the table scraps of whatever I kill.

As I swam down the beach the near shore corals died out, so I swam into deeper water to search for the lost and elusive "Little Africa". I found something that could be it a good ways off shore, and I think the name sprang from the quite sparse sea fans amidst a sandy bottom. It did in some ways resemble parts of Africa I'd seen on TV, but it certainly was not a remarkable area.

I swam back towards shore and discovered that the southern part of the island has been scraped of life by storms or tides, and I quickly grew bored and got out.

Not to be dissuaded I walked to the north tip again this time to explore the East side of the island.  I was rewarded greatly by abundant sea life, big fish of the non-barracuda type, and large hollowed coral heads that contained tens of lobsters each. I took a bunch of pictures, and some of those bugs could have eaten my arm.

As I swam south the corals thinned out to turtle grass so I beached just in time to meet my friends Pete and Jill from "Regina Oceani" visiting via their dink.  I shared my intelligence regarding the lay of the land and headed back to the anchorage.

After seeing all those huge and delicious fish, the latent hunter-gatherer spoke of his deep desire to kill for gain, so I loaded a baticasting net, buckets and fishing stuff into the dinghy and headed towards shore. It didn't take long for me to refine my casting style (only 40 minutes) to the point that I could actually catch some of the thousands of baitfish that were shoaling along the shores. Then I trudged a full 5 gallon bucket of water and fish to the dinghy and headed to an area that I had previously scouted with my beloved look bucket.

So I don't know how to fish, other than having some understanding of the basics. I quickly lost multiple batifish to multiple reasons. Towards the end of my bait supply I learned where it was right to hook them and how, and I started to catch small snappers and then 2 small groupers. I was getting the feeling that I was fishing in the kiddie pond, and I was on my next-to-last baitfish when I rowed into the channel to attempt for deeper waters.

I must say that what happened next was of no skill of my own, but I hooked a behemoth that began to pull me and the 8' dink around like a skier. Excitement! I have spent so much time attempting to fish and never catching anything that to finally get one was purely awesome. I worked him while he worked me until I tricked him into swimming an orbit around me while I just sat, held on and spun. Five complete orbits later he was getting spent as I had recovered, so I landed the beastie into my 5 gallon bucket, except it was too small, so I held him in place with my look bucket over his head.  See, quite a useful device! The problem now was that I didn't know what he was.

I motored back to the anchorage in a hurry, showed off my catch to the other boaters, then headed to show one of the rangers ashore. In Florida, it's law to 'land' a catch before you disassemble him, so I figured it would be best to show to law enforcement, that way they might not decide to come visit me on their boat.  He was a 32" greater amberjack, perfectly legal, so I took him back to the boat to butcher him on deck.

It was a bloody mess, but it cleaned up easily enough, and I had three big bags of meat, two that I shared with Regina Oceani and the other boat in the harbor. Regina's crew invited me for dinner, so I was obliged to first clean the dinghy as my dead friend had gotten loose and made a tad bit of a mess, then I cleaned the deck of the big boat, and afterward it was time for a shower.

I had been trying since I arrived to get HF emails out to no avail, but miraculously tonight I got all 6 waiting emails out in less than 10 minutes. The 40M band was lit up with spanish voices that I was sad to not be able to fully understand, because a park ranger had informed me that President Obama had issued an executive order to open up relations with Cuba. Why go to the Bahamas, when Cuba is beautiful and unspoil't by the evils of western ca-pita-lism. Hah! Maybe next year I'll go and bring back some Cohebas.

On Regina we had great conversations, and Pete showed off all the work he'd done on his lovely Pearson 424 in the past decade. His boat was fully ready to rock, and now that Cuba's open he knows exactly where he's going when he retires.

We discussed buddyboating to the Marquesas, and I bid adieu to prepare Tardis for her next jump. I have great plans Thursday to get to the Marquesas and catch and kill some Florida lobsters!