fetchinketch

A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

So much of the art of seamanship (as opposed to the science) is sorting through and dealing with information that might be missing, or contradictory.  When you are the Captain there really is nobody else who can tell you what to do, it is your decision.

One example of this is in open ocean weather forecasting.  On our boat we typically get the results of four or five different weather models.  Almost all the time, for the next 24 or 48 hours the results are essentially the same.  Sometimes they do differ and you have to decide what to do.  I have actually seen people complain about having multiple sources of weather forecasts.  They want “someone” to give them ONE answer.

Another place where we get multiple sources of information is from our charts.  We have three sources that we use regularly.  Some of our detailed electronic charts come from a company called Navionics.  They are well known and one of the larger players in the industry.  They supply the chart data that is displayed on the screen at Harmonie‘s helm.

We also have a program on an iPad called iSailor that uses data from Transas, a Dutch company that mostly supplies chart data to commercial ships.  As far as I know the iSailor program is the only way for a recreational boater to get their data.

Finally, we use paper charts.  The source of these varies depending on where we are.  In the Bahamas and Caribbean we have been using NV Charts, published by a German company.

What we have found… in Florida, and in the Bahamas, there is no comparison. If the charts offer different versions of the truth, you should always bet AGAINST the Navionics chart.  The Transas data through iSailor has been, by far, the more accurate.  You might wonder what prompted this post…

We decided to sail from Little San Salvador over to Eleuthera.  Part of the reason we decided to do this was to go to Rock Sound where we would have better protection from winds that were going to be a bit variable in direction for the next few days. Based on the depths we saw from our Navionics charts, we expected Rock Sound to be shallow, but nothing we couldn’t handle.  (Reminder: we draw 6 feet 7 inches).  No depths reported on our route in less than 7.5 feet, and we will be there when the (rising) tide should have depths 8 to 12 inches deeper than shown.

Navionics data FAIL!

Well…  guess what… the ocean has not read the charts, or at least not the Navionics charts.  Let’s have a look at the depths reported by Transas in the same area…

Transas nails it.

Based on this chart we’d expect to be just barely clearing the bottom at this stage of tide, and maybe touching a bit…  We bounced against the sandy bottom at least 5 times…  pretty much exactly where the Transas data would tell you we should.

This is not the first time we have found the Transas data significantly better than the Navionics.  In fact the only place we found Navionics better was one place where Transas showed “unsurveyed”.

What happened here?  Because the whole bay is charted just about a foot deeper than it really is, I’m betting the survey Navionics used was done at high tide and then not corrected for that fact.  In other places we see Navionics with bad data that is WILDLY improbable just to look at.  That tells me they do not have cartographers actually reviewing data, but just plug raw ugly garbage into an algorithm, and (surprise!) they get pretty garbage out.

But… all that drama and whining aside…  we are in Rock Harbour waiting for a convenient high tide so we can get out–without polishing the bottom of our keel.

Lat: 24º 33.85’N
Long: 75º 38.84’W
Benett’s Harbor, Cat Island, Bahamas

We are anchored in the lee of Cat Island after a delightful sail down from Abaco.  As we approached through the narrow, but very deep cut of ocean that separates Cat Island from Eleuthera we were treated to the spectacle of a school of tuna feeding with the accompanying cloud of birds:  boobies, frigate birds, tropic birds, assorted terns…  We we a bit pressed for time to get to our anchorage approach before dark, or we would have stayed to see if we could pick off one or two…

Tuna from below, and birds from above, making life very difficult for a bunch of little fish.

We’ll be headed back to the waters between Eleuthera and Cat Island to see what kind of tasty seafood we can bring onboard.

In the meantime we explored some of the tidal creeks here by dinghy.  What can I say?  It is just another one of the string of beautiful places we have had the pleasure of visiting. I was scoping out the creek as a possible place to hunt down some bonefish.  We didn’t see many… (OK, ONE!)

Yes, it really is this pretty. Crowded too…

One downside to this island, is that there are very few places to anchor securely if the wind switches to blow from the west.  That’s not a concern for the next few days at least, but we do need to keep an eye on the forecasts.

We have been anchored at Moraine Cay (again) for the past couple of days. It still is one of our favorite places. 

It receives bad reviews as a relatively unprotected anchorage in the guide books, so people don’t come here, which is fine with us!  Today another sailboat did come up and anchor while we were exploring in our dinghy.  We stopped by to say hello.  They were planning to spend the afternoon swimming and snorkeling before heading over to the crowded “recommended” anchorage an island or two over… We told them about the sharks… they left.

One of our buddies at Moraine Cay.  This guy was determined to eat the camera. (Don’t worry, I am NOT holding the camera!  It’s on a pole over the side of the boat.)

It wasn’t our plan, to make them leave… Honest!

I have given up on trying to get fish for dinner here after hooking a nice sized yellow snapper, and losing (most of) him to a big barracuda.  I am definitely not proving to be the top of the food chain here!

Fortunately, Karen stepped up and managed, after a dramatic chase on the shallow turtle grass flats, to bring down some conch and whelk.  I know that conch is the “glory boy” of the marine snail world here in the Caribbean, but honestly, I can’t tell the difference between conch and whelk on the table.  They all make GREAT fritters! You might have seen whelk on the menu at a fancy Italian restaurant as “scungili.”

A large knobbed whelk.  

Whelk and conch ready for the pot.

Although superficially similar in appearance, they are quite different critters.  The conch is a grazing herbivore, while the whelk is a carnivorous snail that uses the edge of its shell to pry open clams and other bivalves.

For a lot of people fishing is a competitive sport.  All one has to do is see the amount of time, money and energy that goes into some of the big fishing tournaments.  And was there ever a fishermen who never felt the competitive need to stretch the size of his catch in telling a story? (Other than yours truly, of course…)

But this kind of competition is new to me!  Around the reefs here, the sharks have the game all figured out.  As soon as I show up in the dinghy, there they are… two or three 5 to 6 footers shadowing me.  Waiting…

Yesterday I was two for three.  I landed two small fish–small enough I could get them on board right away.  When I hook something a bit bigger that I couldn’t muscle right up to the boat…  my competition was all over it.  He grabbed the head, cutting the line instantly with his teeth, and then leisurely came back to scarf down the back half of MY fish as it slowly sank toward the bottom.  Of course the water is so clear you can see all this going on under your boat.  Not sure yet how I am going to work around this…

Today was a calm and quiet day, so we took Harmonie out in the ocean to try some deep fishing for snapper and grouper.  I had no luck there, but while we were drifting, there was a flash of blue, green and gold in the water.  So bright, you’d swear it reflected more light than landed on it.  Mahi!  I grabbed a spinning rod with a white jig, and had him right away.  

It was a lot of fun landing him on lighter tackle than the heavy trolling gear where we usually hook them. He put on quite an aerial show.

Fresh Mahi-Mahi for dinner!