Bill and I left Georgetown with Sunday’s Child the morning of January 29^th.  The wind was favorable but the seas were fairly rolly.  I picked up Bill a few days prior at the airport in Georgetown and Arcturus was finally (and unfortunately!) heading back north.  This was Bill’s first sail on board and luckily he took some Dramamine that morning just in case it got rough.

Ted from Sunday’s Child had helped me pick out a few things at the tackle shop and rig up our fishing gear.  The fishing on the sound side of the Exumas is better than the shallower bank side, so we were excited to try and catch dinner.  I had a monster fishing lure that Greg gave me at Norman’s Cay that I had on the fishing pole and an orange squid lure on the Cuban yo-yo.

We threw out the lines and waited.  The monster lure had a large spoon on the end and our fishing rod could barely handle it.  It was bent over double right away when we threw it in the water.  We kept sailing for a while and watching the lines.  After about 45 minutes, we looked back and noticed something dragging behind the fishing rod line.  We figured we must have caught a plastic bag or some seaweed and started the slow process of reeling it in.  The reel for fishing rod could not handle the lure so one of us would pull in the slack on the line while the other would reel.  About half way in we realized it was a fish on the line and not trash!  We finally got the fish all the way in and it turned out to be a large barracuda!  Apparently barracuda will strike just about any lure but you cannot eat them.  They accumulate a toxin called ciguatera which is much like mercury poison in fish.  Bill wrestled the fish into the boat and removed the hooks before throwing it back in.  It didn’t put up much of a fight because I think we accidently drug it for a couple of miles!  We threw the line back in and ended up catching another small barracuda right after that but nothing worth eating.

We continued to sail and keep in contact with Sunday’s Child.  They were not having any luck fishing either.  We sailed for the rest of the day and entered into Galliot Cut in the late afternoon.  Sunday’s Child is faster than us so Ted was already checking his anchor when we pulled in.  As we passed by he popped his head out of the water and held up two huge conchs!  They had not been anchored for more five minutes and Ted already found dinner!  Incredible!  We dropped our anchor and I hopped in the water to check it.  I quickly discovered Ted’s secret.  Conchs covered the bottom of the entire anchorage!  They were everywhere!  I swam over to his boat and we formed a strategy.  We searched for the largest we could find and Ted served as the filter to determine which ones made the cut.  We ended up with ten nice sized conchs and went to the beach to clean them.

Bill ended up being a natural at extracting the conchs from their shells (which is convenient because I am terrible at it!).  He extracted most of the conch while Ted and I cleaned them.  The sun was beginning to set as we finished up and the bugs started coming out on the beach.  That motivated us to quickly finish up and we went back to the boat to “crack” the conch (tenderize it with a hammer).  We prepared a delicious dinner of conch burgers and went to bed happy.

We woke up the next day and decided to go out and search for something besides conch for dinner.  There was a nice reef on the northern side of Galliot Cay so we went over there to try our luck with the fishing poles.  We trolled back and forth in Ted’s dinghy for awhile but did not have any success.  We went over and anchored near the drop off and hopped in the water with our spears.  There were a few fish but most were too deep for us to go after.  All of a sudden the wind picked up and it started pouring down rain.  Ted and I both popped our heads out of the water to check it out.  I looked over at him and he just shrugged with a “We’re not going to get any wetter” kind of look.  We kept searching but could not find any fish.  As I am looking around I notice that the dinghy is not where we left it!  It had started a slow drift away from us as the wind and waves kept pushing it backwards!  I signaled to Ted and we started chasing after the dinghy.  The rain was really coming down and I was short of breath by the time we made it back to the runaway dinghy.  We were both a little cold so we decided to head back to home base to warm up.

Too much conch and no fish, so after the rain died down a little bit we went off to a nearby island to search for lobster.  We had some success there in the past so Ted figured it was as good a place to start as any.  Bill came out with us this time so we had three sets of eyes on the lookout.  I purchased my own spear inGeorgetownand was excited to try it out for the first time.  We looked for a while but had little success.  We found a few lobster but they were too small to take.  We left that area and went around to the southern side of Galliot Cay towards the inlet.  We hopped in a few times and worked our way clockwise around the island back towards the boats.  We speared a few lion fish near the inlet and decided to put some distance between us and the blood in case any sharks were around.  After about an hour of searching Ted swims over with a medium size lobster.  Nice work!  It wasn’t enough to feed four people for dinner so we continued to search.

I had not shot a lobster yet so Ted told me if he saw one he would signal for me to take the first shot.  We were all spread out and Ted was leading the way.  I was focusing on the bottom edge of the reef when I suddenly swam up on Ted.  There were tons of bubbles coming from his snorkel and he was pointing wildly at something behind me.  SHARK!  I was ready to flee!  I looked all around and couldn’t see anything.  We popped our heads up and I asked him what was wrong!  He told me to follow his spear and we dove down.  I searched where he was pointing and saw what he had found.  I turned towards him and bubbles started streaming from my snorkel this time as I screamed “That’s the biggest lobster in the world!”  He was not on the floor like most lobsters but was in a cave in the side of the rock.  It was completely exposed broadside in the cave.  It was a monster!  Ted told me to take the first shot so I took a deep breath and dove down.  The cave was deep so I did not want to miss and scare it into the back of the cave.  The ideal spot to hit a lobster is through the head because they have a powerful tail that can shake a spear loose if you hit it there.  I approached slowly from its backside and aimed for its head (quite a large target actually!).  I shot and hit my mark!  Ted came up immediately behind me and shot it through the tail.  Great shot!  Ted grabbed both spears and wrestled it out of the cave.  We both surfaced and started swimming back to the dinghy.  We quickly declared that this was the biggest lobster any of us had ever seen!  We called it a day and made our way back to Sunday’s Child.

Once we arrived at the boat we presented our find to Maggie and Chessie (their dog).  Ted removed and cleaned the tails.  This lobster was so large that we decided to try and use some of the meat from the legs and antenna as well.  Maggie boiled the legs and antenna and we spent the rest of the afternoon picking the meat.  The leg meat was much richer than the tail and tasted more like Maine lobster than Spiny lobster.  Maggie made a lobster curry from the leg meat that was delicious!  Ted grilled the tails and we had another amazing dinner!

The next day was our last at Galliot Cay so we set out to see if we could find any fish.  Bill’s skin was still in US winter mode so he took the day off from snorkeling in the sun.  The rest of us piled in the dinghy and set off to the reef near the north side of the island.  It was a warm sunny day and the reef looked beautiful!  The water near shore was about 10 feet deep and quickly dropped off a ledge to about 30 or 40 feet deep.

As we were swimming over the deeper part we noticed a large nurse shark hanging out on the bottom and a group of six Manta rays were circling around as we swam over top.  Wonderful!  As we were getting ready to leave a nice size amberjack swam right over to Ted and just stopped!  A fish at last!  He cocked back his spear and was ready to shoot.  Ted hovered there for a minute and then swam away.  When we surfaced, I asked what was wrong.  He made a wise decision and decided not to potentially attract any sharks since we were so far away from our dinghy.  Oh well, no fish from Galliot Cay!

The next day we set off to Farmer’s Cay to attend the Five F’s (Farmer’s Festival First Friday in February).  There was promise of live music, a Bahamian C Class race and lots of good food and drinks.  We planned on meeting up with several friends there and were looking forward to a fun time!  That story to follow soon!

I met Ted and Maggie, a young couple on board Sunday’s Child, while anchored out near Staniel Cay.  They had been traveling since October with their dog Chessie and were working their way down the Exumas.  We got along well and decided to travel together for awhile (we actually ended up staying together for over two months and making our way back to NC together!).

They were a couple days ahead of me (thanks to a running aground experience near Staniel Cay, that story will come later!) and had stopped at Galliot Cay.  They ended up dinghying up to Little Farmer’s where I stayed the night and riding with me down to Galliot Cay.  While in transit, we talked through our hunting expedition.  Ted and I planned on going out to search for conch, lobster and fish.  I had not caught any of these creatures yet on the trip and was excited to have an experienced teammate to lead the way.

We ate a quick lunch and hopped in their dinghy.  We went around the corner towards the sound side and threw out the anchor.  Ted found a few conchs here last time so it seemed as good a place to start as any.

Conch Side Note

In some ways conch are the easiest of the three food groups to find.  They do not move fast at all and don’t put up much resistance once in your possession.  The primary trick is being able to spot them in the sand and being able to dive down deep enough to grab them.  They can be in almost no water in some areas and deeper than we can dive in others.  The lip of the shell flares out once the conch is mature, making it legal to consume.  Cleaning them is an entirely different issue I will cover later!

We spit in our masks, put on our fins and hopped in the water.  The water was a little cool but we adjusted quickly.  We began to swim around and look for conch.  The water was about 20-30 feet deep with a slightly grassy bottom.  We swam around for awhile without much success.  I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for but I figured I would know a conch if I saw one.  We kept swimming around and searching.  Bingo!  Conch spotted!  It was in about 20 feet of water and looked to be a big one.  I dove down, making sure to clear my ears as I descended and grabbed the conch.  I swam to the surface with the large conch and presented my find to Ted.  He immediately deemed it King Conch for its size and said he had not found one that large before.  I swam the shell back to the dinghy and continued to look around.  Ted dove down a few times and collected two or three more conchs before we moved on.

Our next stop was a shallow cove with a beautiful reef to look for fish.  There were tons of beautiful fish but most were not ones that we would eat.  I was following Ted when all of a sudden he pulled his sling back and speared a fish.  It turned out to be a lionfish and I surfaced next to him as he was flinging the fish onto the rocky shore.  He pointed at a couple more nearby and we went back down to go after them.

Lionfish Side Note

Lionfish are an invasive species that are a big problem all along the East coast, especially the Bahamas.  They have venomous spines and no particular natural predators (except us!).  They kill all the fish on a reef and are destroying the local fishing industry and reef ecosystem.  I remember hearing of one study that says lionfish can kill three quarters of a reef’s population in just five weeks!  Cruisers are asked to help eradicate them by removing as many as possible while diving.  They can be eaten but you have to be very careful not to touch their spines as the effects of the venom are very painful. 

We both shot a couple more lionfish and then swam back to the dinghy.  It was around 2:30 pm at this point so we returned to Sunday’s Child with King Conch and his cronies to grab our cleaning tools.  Now for the fun part!  Ted’s first conch cleaning operation was performed in the cockpit of the boat a few weeks ago.  Maggie and he quickly agreed that this procedure was best reserved for any sandy beach well away from the boat!

Conch Cleaning Side Note  

I think there is an inversely proportional relationship for conch between the ease of collection and difficulty in cleaning.  The conch retracts and holds itself in the shell using its abductor muscle.  There is a long fingernail looking claw called the operculum that seals it in the shell and I suppose is used as some sort of defense.  The trick to extracting them is to chisel a hole in the shell two rows of spires from the back so that you can access the abductor muscle.  Once the hole is made you can take a fillet knife and sever the muscle.  They should come out of the shell easily after that (I was not very good at this part).  Then you take them to the water and begin to clean them.  They are really mucusy, gross looking creatures!  They have crazy, long eye balls and colorful entrails.  I’ll skip most of the gory details but you basically remove everything that is not the muscle.  The next step is to remove the brown skin on the muscle.  At this point in the trip we were peeling them like a carrot (we found out later that there was a quicker way!).  It would take about 10-15 minutes to clean one.

We pulled up to the beach and Ted prepared for his Conch Extraction and Cleaning demonstration.  Ted took care of the first one and was able to easily remove it from the shell.  I took the chisel and grabbed one of the smaller conch to try first.  King Conch would have to wait!  The shell was very hard but I was able to chisel through with a few strikes.  I sliced what I took to be the abductor muscle and the conch came out easily.  Nice!  We cleaned the conch in the water and threw the cleaned portion in a bucket.

Now for King Conch!  I chiseled through and sliced what I took to be the abductor muscle.  I grabbed the operculum and tried to pull it out.  Not happening!  I tried slicing again, still nothing!  I battled with it for about 10 minutes while Ted cleaned the rest of the conch.  I finally had to tap out and call for backup.  Ted worked with it for awhile and was finally able to remove King Conch from his shell.  We finished cleaning all the conchs and went back to the boat to tenderize the meat.

The edible part of the conch is basically just a large muscle.  We put it under plastic wrap and hit it with a hammer until it was soft.  This takes awhile but is not difficult.  Maggie planned on making Cracked Conch with it for dinner that night.  She planned on making a beer batter mix to roll them in before frying.  We needed an egg or two for the recipe but did not have any on board.  We went over to the only other boat in the anchorage and asked if he could spare two eggs for our batter.  Luckily he had plenty and gave us a couple to take to Maggie.

It was about 3:30 pm so Ted and I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon looking for lobster.  Ted had found a few at a nearby island last time he was through so we started there.  We threw out the anchor and hopped in the water.

Lobster Side Note  

The spiny lobster that we were looking for are different than Maine lobster with the large claws.  Their primary defense is a good hiding spot under a rocky ledge and the small spikes all over their body.  You have to dive down and look under the rock ledges, being careful not to stir up sand on the bottom.  Once a lobster is spotted (usually from its long antenna sticking out), you try to get as close as possible and shoot it through the head.  The tail is powerful and sometimes they are able to shake loose from the spear if you shoot them through the tail.  If you miss on the first shot they can retreat further under the ledge and it can be difficult to get a second shot.

We started swimming around and diving down to look under ledges and probable areas.  We searched for a long time and did not have much luck.  The reef around the island was beautiful though and I enjoyed seeing all the fish.  I finally spotted a lobster and signaled to Ted to make sure it was large enough to be legal.  He gave me an OK signal and I went down to take the first shot.  Big miss!  Not even close!  I stirred up a little sand and it was difficult to see.  Ted went in for the second shot and managed to hit it.  It shook loose however and burrowed deeper in the cave.  After several more attempts, Ted was able to get the lobster.  He was a decent, medium sized one.  We were able to get one more before heading back to the boat.

We climbed aboard Sunday’s Child and cleaned the lobster.  The inverse relationship exists with lobster as well.  They are difficult to catch but very straightforward to clean.  The tail is the part we are interested in and it removes from the body easily.  We poured our first batch of drinks (with ice!) and started prepping dinner as we listened to an ACC basketball game on their satellite radio.

We had a feast that night!  The cracked conch was the first course and was delicious!  There was plenty and we were able to eat our fill.  Ted prepared the lobster tails with a garlic butter combo and grilled them to perfection!  We sat around the rest of the night telling stories and enjoying a few drinks.

I headed out ahead of them the next morning on my way to Georgetown to pick up my next crew mate, Bill.  We met back up in Georgetown a few days later.  More adventures to come soon!