Thursday May 8: West End - Revisited

Wednesday morning we pulled out of Allans-Pensacola and continued to head West. The plan was to travel 45 miles to Rosie's Place on Grand Keys.

The sky was cloudless, the sun hot and the water calm with ripples. Perfect day to travel.

And of course the fishing poles were out! For a long time - nothing. Several hits but it would either be a small fish of some sort or a half eaten ballyhoo bait. I can't figure out how a fish can bite these rigged ballyhoo in half and not get hooked.



Finally though - a real strike and a REAL fish!

This is a mutton snapper - great for eating. All 7 pounds, 26 inches of it! Crazy thing was HUGE.



Steve's foot in the picture on the right is approximately 12 inches long. Gives you some sense of the size of this fish.

How's that for a snapper, Dave and Joyce?!!

We arrived at Rosie's Place in the Grand Cays - one of the northernmost cays on the western end of the Little Bahama Bank. I'm not sure how to describe this place though - maybe just leave it at "interesting."

There is basically one street, one bar, one restaurant, one marina and a hundred thousand sea gulls that squawked at each other from sunup to sundown - literally. It was a sensory overload from the cries of "mine, mine" :-)

There was a defunct barbecue place that looked like it was fun at some point in time. Most of this harbor seems to revolve around the fishing in the area as these cays sit right on the ocean side so there is easy access to the deep sea fishing.

A huge eagle ray was gliding around by the boat any number of time - along with several large bull sharks. Apparently they come in to feed when the fish caught for the day are cleaned.

Once the sun set and the seagulls quieted down, we were set for the night. We finally had a chance to talk with the folks on the catamaran that has been anchored near us for the past couple of nights.

They are also headed for the West End and then back to Florida. The trip to the Bahamas is an every-other year for them as they move their boat back and forth from here to New Hampshire.

And that is a LONG way by boat.

Steve got us moving early - the water level under the boat was reading 3'7" and was going to go lower. Get out while we can!! Mmmm... which way was the way in? Thank goodness for charts and GPS plotters.

It was 7 hours with nothing in sight for most of the time. A total of 58 miles to the West End. It continues to amaze me that anyone can make any kind of a living at some these really isolated cays at the north end of the bank.

Walker's Cay (next cay west from Grand Cays) used to have a marina and dive business but that was wiped out in a hurricane in the mid-2000's and has never been rebuilt. Some of the 200 people living on the Grand Cays used to work there. Now what do they do?

All was quiet until I heard the fishing pole line with it's distinctive "zing" as it plays out line. Lots of it. Big fish. Really big barracuda with really big teeth.

Can't eat them but Steve still enjoyed catching it!

And then he discovered the other line had gotten wrapped in the prop while we were being tossed around while he pulled the giant fish in!

Oops .... this of course waited until we were in and tied up to the dock. Definitely not smart to be under the boat as it's being pushed up, down and sideways by the waves.

As it was, he had to get the snuba stuff out to be able to cut everything away from the prop and the shaft. It's a really strong metal leader and needed a wire cutter to get it all off.

The West End finally appeared over the horizon but it seemed as though we would never get there!

The winds were still strong from the east with waves of two feet or so pushing us around.

It was going to be good to be in and tied up :-)