REPORTS FROM THE RIP: 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!