Back in the Bahamas

We have spent the past few weeks in the Southern Bahamas. Having lost much of the early summer due to lock down because of Covid, we figured we would try and squeeze out a little marlin fishing.

Historically  the marlin bite tends to slow down by mid July.  but we have managed to have a steady bite thru the second week of July. 

We arrived in Clarence Town long island after being locked down in the Dominican Republic for three months,Threre were a few other boats fishing out of Flying fish marina. Other than the requirement to wear a mask, It was basically back to normal. The boss  flew in and we were back to fishing. we caught a blue marlin nearly every day that we fished. The Yellow fin Tuna bite was sporadic but good when you could get the fish in before the "tax man" ( sharks) got them. 

The boss tight on one

We headed over to Crooked island one night and spent the night at Crooked Island Lodge Marina. The new marina there is going to be world class, All the sea walls and docks are in but they don't not have power yet or fuel. Chris Higgs is managing the build there and is doing a great job of making it a top notch marina. I fore see it being a new destination for sport fish boats and yachts alike. 

After fishing out of Flyingfish Marina for a week, we decided to head over to Riding Rock Marina on San Salvador. We fished our way across. Off of the NE point of Rum Cay, we caught a nice Blue marlin and lost two other Blues as we Neared Sandy Point at San Salvador.  Over the next few days we caught a few more blues at Sandy Point. 

I have said all along that the Bahamas will likely tighten up the travel restrictions again if the Covid cases increase. On Sunday the government  of the Bahamas Announced that since reopening their boarders on July 1, The  have had a big jump in Covid cases. In response, The banned any further commercial flights from the United States.The good thing for us though is that they are continuing at the point to allow private planes and private vessels to continue to travel to and from the Bahamian islands, The Prime Minister did say that they will access the situation by weeks end. If there is an increase in cases they will consider further restrictions. There are currently no cases of Covid on San Salvador. Everyone arriving here has been Covid Tested. 

The boss has flown home for a few days and we spent the time repairing a few things on the boat and doing a few road trips around the island. San Sal is such a pretty island and the people here are so friendly. I hope for their sake that no further restrictions are imposed

Tuna Time

Nice pair

Sunset on Crooked Island

Adam getting it done

Adam with a nice tuna

Happy 4th of July

Flying Fish Marina

Miss Michele

Miss Peaches

Adam on the wire

Blue Girl

US Navy

505 foot Destrouer

Sunset at Riding Rock

Columbus Monument

Finally back at it

In early March of this year The Blue Heaven and crew were in the Dominican Republic for the fishing season. As you all know, Covid 19 came to a head at that time.
We were faced with some tough decisions, The Boarders of the Dominican Republic were due to close and Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos had already closed.the weather was forcast to be tall and terrible and unsafe to transit. We could have made the long trip at 10 knots to the Bahamas ( they were allowing vessels "safe transit' to fuel and keep going ) but facing a 60 hour transit with only 2 of us on the boat was an unsafe proposition. There were a few boats with crews of 3 or more crew members that waited for the winds to subside and made the transit to the US safely. We weighed the risks and options and decided with a few other crews to just fly back to the united states and let they new virus thing blow over. Little did we know that we would not be able to regain access to the boat for three months.
We exhausted all resources over the past few months trying to just get a flight back to the Dominican Republic. But after countless calls to the embassy and a number of other options that failed, we settled down and just waited for the boarders of the Dominican Republic to re open.
I don't need to tell you all this was a very stressful three months, not being able to access thee boat. But our trusty Dominican mate Duarte Paula did a fine job of looking after our boat,  We arrived yesterday to find the Blue Heaven shining and sitting pretty.
The last week of June was trying. The Dominican Republic said that they were going to open to international travel as of July 1 but after so many disappointing attempts to gain access to the Dominican Republic, we spent the last few days on pins and needles worried that something was going to fall through.  Yesterday we flew on a private plane with the crews of the Goin Gault and another boat directly to La Romana DR. We all breathed a big sigh of relief when the wheels hit the tarmac.
After arriving we went through on board systems and found that everything was functioning. Today were are going to Provision the boat and change out fuel filters and run the boat for a bit. Tomorrow we will depart and shoot for Ocean World in Puerto Plata, Dr. We then Plan to make the run to Flying Fish marina in Clarencetown Long Island in the Bahamas. We plan to fish out of the Bahamas for a bit.
Adam and I got Covid Tested on Monday before we departed with a negative result. I have submitted an Electronic health visa to the Bahamian government and we should be good to go,

New Season 2019 for the Blue Heaven

Its a New Year, a new boat, and a new lease on life. Some things have changed but all in all its all for the better,

This past year has brought some changes. First and foremost,  The Blue Heaven has been upgraded, She is now a 66 Viking with a lot more bells and whistles. Galati Yacht sales came thru and provided my boss with an opportunity to improve on the old Blue Heaven. Thank you Carmine Galati and Chris Carere for coming thru for my boss on this deal.
The New Blue Heaven will be starting its season in February in The Caribbean at Casa De Campo Dominican Republic. We look forward to sharing our adventures with all of you. We will be departing February first. We are looking  forward to it.
On a personal note, I had a health scare this past September. I suffered a stoke, I was fortunate to be surrounded by lots of close friends and great heath care. Being relatively young and strong headed I have regained all of my motor skills and speech. I was very fortunate. I have lost a considerable amount of weight and made significant life style changes. I am grateful to everyone that surrounded me with love and support.
This coming season promises to be full of great times and a lot of Pictures from our adventures Stay tuned.

Casa De Campo Blue Marlin

 The time here in Casa De Campo Dominican Republic has flown by this year. We have had some good fishing and some slow fishing, but the time we spend here is always wonderful. The sunsets at the point, dinners in the plaza, Cooking on the dock or even just going to Playa Manitas to have an after noon Pina Colada on the beach. Casa de campo is a hard destination to beat.

We have been here since mid February But its almost time to move on In just a few weeks we will be heading further east and south to island hop for a bit before the bite in St Thomas turns on. We are looking forward to visiting our friends in the hurricane ravaged islands of St Tomas and St John, all of the British virgin islands, St Martine and St Barts. When I asked my boss last fall where we were going to spend our season this year, He said to take the boat to all the islands that were damaged by last seasons storms. As I mentioned All of the islands I mentioned were ravaged by cat 4 and cat 5 hurricanes.  I told him that some of the places that we go to are still hurting a bit and conditions may be less than perfect. He said that the people on those islands need our support.  So here in a few weeks we will make our way thru most of the islands that took a hit 6 months ago. It will me challenging at times but I'm excited to see all the friends we have made over the years of traveling to those islands. We are even considering going a bit further south to explore more fishing waters and islands.

Below are a number of shots of Blue Marlin we have caught while in Casa De Campo. I look forward to posting a lot more fish pics and the fish will only get bigger from here on out.

Headed for the Dominican Republic

Nice Wahoo for Scott

Tasty Crustation

First Blog of the season. We departed St Pete on the 30th of January with questionable weather facing us down the road. Our crew for the trip down was of course super mate Dan Condron and we had a buddy of ours Scott "the potato chip eating machine" Burgess along for the ride.       

 

Day one we made it to Key Largo and the weather was beautiful. Day two, We had yet another day of smooth running to Atlantis in Nassau Bahamas. Day three we We departed Nassau and headed for Clarence town, Long island. The winds had caught up to us a bit and we took quite a bit of spray, but all in all it was not to bad. once we got to the Northern tip of Long Island, we began trolling the rest of the way to Flying fish Marina. We caught 574,482 Barracudas and one King Mackerel. As the afternoon progressed the winds increased so we picked up and ran into Flying Fish marina. 

The forecast for the following day was pretty stiff so we decided to lay up at the dock for the day. It was after all Super Bowl Sunday. On Sunday the winds were indeed pretty strong so we did a little road trip to Deans Blue Hole. Deans Blue Hole is a few miles north of Flyingfish marina. We found Earnest Majors ( a local driver) and hired him to take us there. Deans Hole is a deep hole in a bay that is famous for the clarity of the water and the rock bluffs surrounding it, Dan did actually go up and swan dive off the cliff. The restaurant   at the marina is very nice and had two big screen tvs with the game on. Dan And Scott made a bet before the game started.. Dan took the Eagles and Scott took the Pats. whom ever lost, had to shave one leg from the Knee cap down. Scott is still recovering from the razor burn. 

Monday the winds let up and we made our way to Mayaguana island trolling along the way. As evening aproached we trolled our way into Abrahams bay. There is no marina or docks at all in Abrahams Bay. But it is one of the most beautiful anchorages in the Bahamas. The 12 foot of crystal clear water surrounded by a barrier reef  makes it a perfect anchorage. On the way in to the harbor I stopped at a coral head and let Scott and Dan jump in and see if there were any lobsters. this particular head nearly always holds big lobster, It indeed produced again. We had a great lobster and Wahoo dinner.

The weather I had been worrying about was suppose to be still two days away. In fact the weather did hold all night, and into much of the next day. With the Sunrise the next morning, we put the outriggers and began trolling for wahoo. The next 2 1/2 hours were crazy. 50 to 80 lb wahoos ate everything we put in the water. pretty amazing fishing. By 9:30 am I decided to ease away from the reef edge and let Dan regroup in the cockpit. As I trolled across Horse Pond Bay, The Left rigger came down. A feisty Blue Marlin took to jumping all around behind the boat. Scott did a great job of fighting the blue but at the end of the fight Scott asked if he could wire it as well. So Dan took over on the rod and Scott released his blue. Right about then the winds began to increase. .... and increase. They only called for 14 -17 knots. Instead it picked up to 25 knots and got shitty fast. We pulled all the lines in and began the last 40 miles to Provodenciales Turks and Caicos. It was pretty rough but tolerable. I was only able to make about half speed.  About 2/3 the way across to Provo, I saw a big wave come up on the port side of the boat. It did not really break and hit the side of the boat as much as it jacked straight up and blasted the clear EZ2CY clear curtains I have on my bridge. It blew a hole right thru the curtain and threw shards of sharp Plastic my way. Fortunately I deflected the piece that came at my face. over the last half of and hour the entire port side panel slowly shattered and shredded. It was just kind of a freak wave. Needless to say, I was drenched with every wave for the last 45 minutes without the protection of my curtain. 

We made it into Blue Haven Marina and cleared customs and got settled in. The weather that has been chasing us south finally caught up to us. The forecast for the next 5+ days is terrible. When I woke up this morning I started second guessing myself as the winds were not that bad. But after rechecking the forecast, I knew we are NOT going anywhere. There are two yachts here that were suppose to depart this morning. One of them never left, and the other one just came back after leaving an hour ago. Oh well I have been stuck in worse places. I predict a road trip to Da Conch Shack and a Rum Front tonight!

Scott wiring his blue Marlin

Dans Wahoo

Ed waiting to see if Dan will hit the rocs on his Cliff dive

Dan survived the cliff dive at Deans Blue Hole

Deans Blue Hole Long Island Bahamas

Don't worry! We just went up the steps to check out the view

Dans soldiers ready for battle

another big one for Scott

twins

another nice one off Mayaguana

Deans Blue Hole

Scott at Deans Blue Hole

Boat crews weathered in at Flying Fish durning the Super Bowl

Fileting fish off Mayaguana

Add caption

First Blue Marlin of the season

serious Dan

Beautiful sunrise in Abrahams Bay

and another

Blue Heaven Sunset