Judy Bramhall

A beautiful sunrise start to our journey. By 7:50 we were hooked into a 300+ lb blue marlin in 6,000 feet of water! Freaking huge fish gave Andrew a really tough fight for 25 minutes and three deep runs before it broke the line. Our gear was just no match for this beast…. But it was epic non the less. And we were getting pretty concerned about how to deal with it if we actually got it up to the boat…. The the wind died and the swell was about 2’-4’ and a bit steep, but right on schedule the front moved through from the north and we ended up with 15-20 kts on our port beam and we sailed a broad reach at 7-8 kts the rest of the way. 74 miles and we pulled into Highborne with a bunch of other cats looking to hide from a big North Easterly blow for the next 36 hours. Look forward to scoping this place out tomorrow!! An awesome day and our little four person crew is getting pretty good at making everything work smoothly! It’s seven now and we’re showered and ready for the evening.

Jay from Below Decks, took us on a tour of North Andros. The island is pretty organized with newish roads and local amenities that proved to have all we needed. At a local mennonite vegetable and fruit farm, we stumbled upon their machine shop where we found 100 old generators and one brand new one in a box. This particular new generator was exactly the model that Andrew and Sophie had been eyeing in Florida, but didn’t have the cash at the time to grab it. So it just seemed like fate and we bought it to allow us the extra power to make freshwater without depleting all of our solar energy. We went back to the boat later that afternoon and fired it right up and it instantly proved to be an excellent purchase. I spent most of the afternoon with my head down, changing out a macerator pump in my bathroom and on the fifth attempt, having taken the brand new one apart and finding some crappy gaskets, I was able to rebuild the new one and put it into the toilet and finally get a leakless flush. A grand accomplishment as the mystery smells in a boat need managing all the time…. Once again Willow got lots of love today and we all brought the effort tweaking her one more level, checking of the long list that is rapidly getting shorter!

The Joulters are by far the largest expanse of flats I’ve ever seen. I read an article online that lead to a guide named Carlton. Great guy who knew the area well but other than him…. not a person in sight. Stepped out of the boat and was into fish immediately. First cast was short but the next was near enough and the fish charged. I had a manta shrimp on and that proved to be the only pattern I needed all day. It was a walking day which I love. High tide was mid day which would seem undesirable, but all day long I fished ankle deep water…. Landed about 8 fish. None larger than five pounds but many were in small groups of 4-5 fish. Great barefoot walking and stalking. Hit myself in the bridge of the nose making an ill advised cast and stuck the fly in the bone but not past the barb. Luckily I had glasses on…. All in all The Joulters are un imaginably gorgeous and I’d love to spend more time fishing them. Back in Morgan’s Bluff, we dinghied in to the local beach bar called “Below Decks” run but a local couple named Jay and Kizmee who treated us to “yellow birds” the local rum dumb, and fresh conch burgers. A truly salty place complete with “Robbie” the dreadlock cat captain that had lots of good advice and plenty of “tricks” in his bag of fun and his buddy “Forest Green Leaf Grass”and “Lady Dianna” the 85 year old weathered ex pat who’d lived in the for most of her life. All these characters were book worthy. Morgan’s Bluff wreaked of the old Bahamas…. A throw back to the days of raw adventure.

Light north west winds over the Bahamas bank. 8-12’ of turquoise water the entire 50 mile journey. Caught a small jack and lost a good sized wahoo along the way. We found a reef toward the end of the journey in 15’ of crystal clear water and stopped the boat for some snorkeling and to cool off. Finding our way into a large cove / harbor, we anchored up in Morgan’s Bluff in front the Below Decks beach bar and settled into some yellow birds (local rum drink) and met some fellow sailors and the local owners Jay and kizmee who were really nice. They’re gonna take us to find fresh eggs and veggies on Wednesday. Just a great day!

Nice downwind run but it was a dying easterly so eventually we had to dump the sails and motor in from coca cay…. Gorgeous day with great snorkeling on Petite Cay. Saw a huge manta ray that was magnificent!

Beautiful down wind to cocoa cay then turned the corner and headed south into a stiff breeze and lumpy sea. We had to suck in for lunch and a zoom meeting around 1:00 but then motored onto to shark creek where it’s truly gorgeous and decently protected from the south wind.

A beautiful day for permit fishing. Travis Sands was my guide and one of the best in the business. We fished all the way down to Chubb Cay and he put me on a bunch of permit after lunch. I was waiting in waste deep water chasing rays had three charge my fly, but didn’t eat and had another couple of cast, but never hooked up. Still a beautiful day on the water.