Bounty

We arrived in Berry Islands around 8 am, trailing fish tackle behind us in the shallow waters of Great Harbour Cay. Since leaving Halifax we attempted to catch fish whenever we could, but without very good results. Gabe even tried his new spear gun at Peanut Island in West Palm Beach, but the only worthy opponents swimming around were Barracudas, and those guys are off limits as they can be poisonous. Needless to say we've been mollifying our cravings for seafood with store bought fillets of this and that until, finally, a bite. And what a bite at that. Gabe leapt up in excitement, screaming "Oh my God, oh my God", when his yoyo contraption sprung to life. The yoyo was a $2 purchase at a nautical flee market in Ft.Pierce. The flee market is an annual event, scheduled for one weekend on grounds of a local rotary club. The event had the misfortune of getting a torrential downpour that very weekend, but we headed over anyway, just to check it out. We were among very few other souls that decided to brave the rain, and we found many of the stands covered up with tarps, unattended, merchandise unavailable. But what we did find we scored for a great price, and walked away with solid teak spice racks and the fishing yoyo Gabe tells me is the way to go in the Caribbean waters. So now that we were in those waters, yoyo deployed and twitching with a live load, we couldn't contain our excitement. At the end of our line, in those Great Harbour shallows, emerged a beautiful Mutton Snapper. The colour of sunset, it shimmered silver, orange and blue as it struggled against the pull of the fishing line. Once on board we doused it with tequila to tranquilize it and Gabe pulled a plug on the purposeful life of the stunning creature. After filleting our 5 kg bounty we had enough fish meat for 4 meals. Not too bad for second day of cruising. Anchored near Bullocks Harbour we later set out on the dinghy to explore what turned out to be an uninspiring shore line that offered no beach access or opportunity for exploring on foot. Oh well. Instead, the calm harbour offered supper, quiet shelter and spectacular views of the night sky. We caught up on sleep in the stillness of it all and set out to seek our next adventure, moving south along Berry Islands and deeper into the heart of the Bahamas.