Clarencetown, Long Island

Our plans had always been to sail the east coast of Long Island down to Clarencetown before we head over to the Crooked/Aklin Islands.  Ray/Sandy wanted to take the side trip to Rum Cay.  We’d researched Rum and the shelter from weather is very limited.  There is a little harbor with a marina.  Rumor has it that the marina is going thru renovations and they let you dock up for free.  Sandy tried contacting the marina via phone (at the resort in Callabash Bay) and by Internet and VHF.  Nothing worked.  She got no response.  We were uncomfortable sailing the 35 or so miles to Rum, only to find out we had no protection from the weather, the marina wasn’t free or it was full.  We decided to stick to our original plans around the tip of Long Island and south to Clarencetown.  Ray/Sandy sailed off to Rum with Novia.  Novia didn’t plan to stop but continue on south from there into the Caribbean.  We said our goodbyes to Megerin and Novia and parted ways just off the tip of Long.  We hope to see them again in the bight of Aklins but only time will tell.

It was supposed to be south winds so we knew we would be motoring directly into it.  Megerin and Novia should have had a nice sail easterly to Rum.  However, the weather is never quite like it says and we could hear Sandy all morning complaining about the conditions … not what they’d forecasted, she kept repeating.  I guess they had a hard pass on it and weren’t any better off than us???  Our motor-sail was not as bad as we expected but still too close hauled to kill the engine and go by wind alone.

We trolled two lines behind the boat.  We hooked 7 fish in total but only 4 were brought on-board.  The other 3 got away before we could reel them in.  One was huge and broke the line, taking lure and hooks with him!  Of those 4 fish, two were barracudas.  We spared the life of one and set it free, our good deed of the day.  The other, wouldn’t survive with a big lure securely in mouth/gills, so we would use it for bait.  We also got 2 good-eaten fish.  The very first fish we caught was a nice size Little Tunnie.  We never thought to weigh him.  The last fish we caught was a Blackfin Tuna (6 lbs).  Once we were safely anchored in the bay at Clarencetown, Larry set to filleting dinner.  The catch netted us several lbs of premium tuna (after Larry carefully filleted them to my liking).  We always have a ton of scrap when Larry filets a fish.  Not because he doesn’t know how to do it better but because he knows only to keep the BEST of the fish for me or I’ll be turned off and not want to eat that kind of fish again.  I’m very fussy on my fishies.  We put most of the scraps into a container to use as bait.  Now, we just need a place to bottom fish so we can use the bait and catch MORE!!!  (On our way to Crooked/Acklins we will troll with strips of barracuda.)

Tonight we are nicely anchored just off town in Clarencetown, Long Island.  About 10 other boats are anchored the other side of the channel near a small island.  We are by ourselves.  Even though town is only about ½ mile away, it’s nice to feel alone after the mayhem of Georgetown.

And a side note … today we are officially in the tropics.  We have passed the Tropic of Cancer (the dividing line between the tropics and YOU) … ok, there’s a more technical description about the highest point the sun reaches or whatever but none of that matters when we’re sitting on our boat in paradise and can say … WE’VE MADE IT TO THE TROPICS!!!