Sailing the Deep South - Bahamas Wild Side

Are you ready? You ready? Singha. Singha, we're going sailing. We're going sailing. You have to go inside now. Let's go. Good job. Are you ready? I'm ready. Past ready. Are you ready? Take two. We're sailing. I'm sure you're wondering where. Jumentos. Jumentos. J-U. J-U? J-U. J-U. Jumentos. Everyone calls it the Jumentos and it's just this tiny little string of islands. Almost no protection so the winds have to be perfect and they might be perfect. We're hoping. There's no internet there so of course we're gonna have to use the iridium to connect and try to use predict wind that way. So that'll be a good challenge. It'll be the first time we've had to do that. In a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Oh it's famous for spearing, lobstering. Which is now out of season. So don't get lost. But we can spear some stuff. Yeah or just snorkel and enjoy and explore the little tiny rocks that are there. I don't think there's much land. I think it's just some rocks out in the middle of the ocean and that's that. There's supposed to be lots of sharks and then from there if the weather continues to cooperate we want to go to the raggeds. Not sure what happened to today. It went from 10 knots of wind first thing in the morning-ish to now we're getting like four knots of wind. So we're motor sailing and we probably flew the spinnaker a little longer than we should have because now we're kind of hustling because we don't want to get to our anchorage at night. We've got both sails out doing about six and a half knots. The swell's just starting to kick up because we're kind of exposed to the ocean now. But it's generally wonderful and calm. I just wish there was more than five knots of wind. It's gonna take it all. It's literally... It is massive. Damn. And uh that's it. No more fishing. Nope. I mean that is like on fire. Welcome to the gementos. Crazy first day. Right. There you go. Tomorrow's gonna be good. Considering the fish we caught it better be good. That's okay. So we're gonna go spearing tomorrow. We're gonna choose our fish. There's our anchorage. There's a couple other people here. She's trying to love you. Okay so that was water key and our next stop is flamingo key and I don't know if there's really flamingos there or not but that would be awesome. There are supposed to be flamingos in the Bahamas. Sometimes. Sometimes. Man that current it was just we didn't go at the right time. It wasn't slack tide. We knew that. So we knew the current could be bad but when you get close to that shallow like I jump in the deep stuff and I'd be like oh it's not bad at all. Start swimming and then all of a sudden you get to where the shelf is and it's like oh oh oh so I never really could get my zen you know meditation thing to to get down and really stay down and spear fish. We were going for specifically snapper or which one? Oh hogfish. Hogfish. We came out with a lion fish and I feel like whenever I see one I feel like I have to get it. They taste good but anyway I'm still learning and every time is practice but that was pretty wild. All that current right there by the shallows. Geez oh and plenty of grouper but Nikki I think Nikki doesn't really like grouper that much anymore. Maybe she's groupered out. 14 13 knots of wind at seven and a half speed. Cruising baby. As long as we don't hit any coral heads we're good. We are doing visual navigation here. Can't always trust the charts although it hasn't been wrong. We are dodging landmines left and right. See these little spots all those those those all of that those are all different reefs or rocks things that are submerged and can destroy our boat. See that dark spot there that dark spot there and one over there they're all around. Okay that was exactly two hours. We sailed 13.7 nautical miles and we used the engines for a whole whopping 0.3 hours really just to pick up the anchor and put it back down. So that was it. Good timing. Excellent sail and it flew by. See you tomorrow. Mm-hmm We decided to swap our anchorage because this has less swell and better sand. The other one was a rocky bottom so we weren't caught like super awesome. Anyway this is two palm beach and two palm anchorage which really is now one palm and a stump and it looks like the second palm is going to go at any moment. This is a pond. Obviously it's supposed to be filled with pink shrimp and that's why it's so red and that's where the pink flamingos would come and eat and I guess turn pink. Well we've been looking and Nikki's been poking with a stick like she always does to see if there's any shrimp in there but we haven't seen any shrimp. They're still red but the locals here are extremely friendly. I mean they'll sit down and have a beer with you and just walk all around do push-ups, the Humpty Dance, you know pretty much whatever they need to do to entertain you. So you can spend hours just watching all the lizards or I mean I could spend hours. Yeah. We got a lot of lizard footage. Yes. A lot of lizard. Do you think that maybe because there's no more shrimp maybe that's why there's no more flamingos that come? Very interesting. Houston we have a problem. It is like dead dead. Dead. The big question is do I swim back or try to paddle and lay flat? Oh no. Did you do that just for dramatic purposes? I'm just really happy our boat is this close. I guess I'll be back. Oh. I think I found the problem. Look at that. Man. Dang. Oh. We did see a shark earlier swimming around the boat so I think he's got a little extra motivation to hurry up and get there. You can see his little head bobbing up. He's getting close. If it's fine by you, I'll take the passenger seat. We can drive along to the sky and see meat. If it's fine by you, I'll take the passenger seat. I got my head up on the roof in the ocean breeze. Add that to the list of things I didn't think I was going to do today. I just want to sympathize with everyone out there on YouTube. I would have much rather seen Nikki trip down and swim as well. That's what you got to do when you're a man. Thanks. My hero. Going snorkeling. There's our sad board. Yeah. But I have to say even though it died a very inconvenient, but could have been worse death. I'd still rather have an inflatable board over a rigid board just because it's so much more convenient and it's easier to store on the boat and everything else. So we're going to have to get another. That'll replace it. It's still under warranty. Oh, the bucket. Oh, okay. Is you. If it's fine by you, I'll be beside you staring out the window, looking at the some of you fine by you. I'll be next to you. If it's fine by you, I'll be beside you. Speeding down the highway with the wind blowing through everything around us. Feel a minuscule. If it's fine by you, I'll take, take, take the passenger seat. Seven feet of water with reefs all around to get your heart rate going first thing in the morning. It's a good start to the day. Lobster season is supposed to be over. So I have no idea what those pots are. Well, I'm assuming they're pots. Anyway, there's markers all around here, everywhere. We're dodging them left and right. Fortunately, we haven't gotten stuck yet. Knock on some serious wood. It is cooking up a storm in there. It smells divine. I wish, I wish, wish, wish it was smell-o-vision, but at least I can show you, maybe. What are you cooking, Nikki? The Long Island Bahamas special, because we have sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, and eggs, all from the farmer's market in Long Island, grown there by those awesome ladies and gents. So that's what we're having, a little hash and fried eggs. Thank you. Those are the guys dropping all the pots, probably. Raccoon Key. I know. So this is Raccoon Key, and there is a little bit, not really a blow. It's just, there's a wind shift that's going to shift to north, which is not great for all of these anchorages. It'll leave us exposed. So we're going to move further down, like all 12 miles of it, to Ragged Key, which will be the end of the Raggeds. Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of, if I'm totally honest, they all start to kind of feel somewhat the same. It's another rock with another beautiful sandy beach and great snorkeling. Nothing to complain about. Nothing to complain about at all, for sure. But it's just the same. Yeah. And that's okay. It's all still fun and enjoyable, but we're kind of, we did this just because we wanted to do it. We just wanted to come and see it. And it's kind of more remote, which is cool. And then, yeah, I think we'll make that stop and then we're going to start to turn around, most likely, and make the trek back to Florida. We've got a lot of work we need to do on the boat to get it ready to really take off. Well, you just dropped a bomb. I did. I didn't know we were going to do that. Well, it's just happening, right? It's like, that's what this last little bit was about, like make it as far south as we could in the Bahamas. And then go back so we can hurry up and get the boat fixed. We can hurry up and take off before hurricane season is like in full swing. So yeah, there you go. Do you want to tell people why? Yeah, Nikki just dropped a couple big bombs. And one being the Bahamas is a bunch of the same. We keep getting that comment over and over on our website on YouTube. People are saying, It just looks like more of the same. Well, honestly, it kind of is. Lovely, but the same. Okay, so that little bit of housekeeping is done. The other thing is we're going back to Florida because we have two big things. One, damage with our keel and running rigging and standing rigging. I guess that's three big things that need to be done, and we want them done by people we trust, and we trust the people at Just Catamarans, and that's why in the grand scheme of things, sailing 200-300 nautical miles back to Fort Lauderdale is not that big of a deal. Get the boat prepped, then we're confident it's ready, and then we really set sail, like she said. You like that? Yeah. Really, really, and we get crew on board, and we go. We load with beer and food, more food, cheap, good food. Yes. Oh yeah, so it's not going to all be bad. Although where we're headed, I think good food will not be a problem. Oh yeah, yeah. That's a power line. Not the time to trip or be ungraceful. Just in case. What's on the other side is town. Pretty crazy when you have to look up both directions before crossing the runway. So this is Ragged Island. We've been here for, I don't know, three, four days, something like that. Yeah. Maybe. Spent the first day spearing, and of course, I speared my first fish. Did not catch it on camera, and well, probably because Bull Shark showed up immediately with like his ocean IRS badge wanting his cut. So it was more like we ran. You can run in the water. I know because we did it. Ran to the boat, but it was exciting, and then let's see. Oh, we came into town here to Ragged to top up our BTC, which is our cell phone. So we got to talk to the lady who was in there, who was, I guess, like the post office, city council. I don't know. It's an all-in-one building. So she was really nice. They were super helpful, really welcoming. Everybody in town waves, like all five people that we've seen. But the first day we came in, there were goats everywhere. I mean, like on the lawns, on people's porches, like just walking down the street. Everywhere. And roosters. So I mean, it's got to be at least like a five to one ratio of like goat and rooster to person. It's interesting. It's an interesting little place for sure. Salt ponds and everything else. But anyway, we are taking off tomorrow. This is as far south in the Bahamas. As we're gonna make it for now. But I think we should stop in the bar because it sounds Bumping in there. Bumping. That's the bar. Yeah, it's the lunch. Of course. So this is Kyla and she's, well, trying to get us trashed. All day, all day. Time to go. See you in Nassau. Nassau, baby. Well, that was an interesting night. Wow. But I will tell you about it tomorrow. Really? Yep. I thought this was the end of the video. No. I'm not in any sort of condition to give an end to the video. I had some amazing conversations though. And it was such a great hint to the, to the trip and eye opening. And yeah, it's just, you had to be here. And that's the worst part of it is because I wish I could somehow like package that up and share it with everybody. But it's just one of those things that you have to come and experience it for yourself and just dive right in. Let's go to the boat that's not lit up.