Eleuthera Tours

J and I scheduled this day for an outing with Eleuthera Tours.  The plan was to do a half day of spearfishing (J’s choice) and a half day of hand lining (my choice). We touched base with Kristel a few times beforehand because the weather had been rather unpredictable. The morning of Kristel called her contacts at the harbor and they said they though the wind should die down by early afternoon so we decided to go for it.  There was a cold front that was supposed to arrive the next day and last most the week we figured this was our only window.

D & S decided not to join us and instead spent the day exploring some of the beaches down south just the two of them. We met up with Donald and Josh, his mate for the day, and off we went.  It was so nice just to get out on a boat, I really miss the open water.

Our first mission was conch and lobster.  Donald took us out a ways and Jeff and Josh jumped in.  I had planned to follow them around and GoPro their adventures but the water was still a little too rough for me. 

Donald explained to me that the current was going one way (I can’t remember if it was in or out) and when it switched the water would become calmer.  Normally that would have been the case, but on this particular day the wind decided to pick up instead.  At first it was a subtle increase and we did not really notice how rough it was getting until Donald and I had to start outrunning the waves with the boat.  He kept joking that it was “The Perfect Storm”.  Some of the waves almost felt that way except we were in a tiny boat and having much more fun.  I knew we were safe and in good hands so it was actually a tremendous amount of fun watching those waves creep up on us and watching the boys bob around out there.  After a few hours and 4-5 lobsters later we decided to it was time for lunch.  Jeff and Josh had been in the water almost the entire time so they did not realize how big the waves had actually gotten till they go back on the boat.  Donald decided we better head closer to shore where the water was calmer.  I was told hand lining was out of the question with the winds the way they were so it turned into J's spearfishing day.

On the wild ride back we had the best fish sandwiches I have ever tasted (thanks to Kristel) and tried not to chip our teeth as we attempted to chug a few beers while traveling over rough chop at high speed.  Luckily everyone’s teeth survived and very little beer was spilled, thanks to Donald's boating skills.  

We found a calmer spot close to shore and I decided to snorkel around with the boys and watch them spearfish.   Not long after entering the water we saw an eagle ray with a remora attached to it (pics did not turn out), and what I think was a cowfish, it looked a lot like a stouter, blue-green scrawled filefish.  This was the only bright blue/green one I saw the entire trip, all the others were purple.  J and Josh had a bit of a competition going so I just kept snorkeling around while they “hunted”.  While they were preoccupied with a lobster another eagle ray came by and I swam with it for a while.  I could not flag J and the GoPro down since he was so fixated on the lobster so I took a little video with my Pentax.  It did not turn out nearly as nice as it would have with the GoPro, but it still gives you an idea of how they look like they are flying underwater. 

I also found a nice conch, the only one of the trip.  We never seem to see live conch, only the shells of old ones.  I hauled it around to show off my prize to the boys and we gave it to Donald to take home.  After that we saw a big Green Moray Eel.  Josh had speared another lobster and kept waving it in front of the eel and it would come out of its hole and bite it rather viciously.  I tried to get some pictures but every time I tried it would duck back in it's hole.  Once Jeff had landed a grouper and Josh a lobster we hopped back in the boat and headed back toward where our friends were going to pick us up.  They were not supposed to come get us for another hour so we played around in a little cut by the Island School.  Josh jumped in and chased some more lobsters while J, Donald and I enjoyed some rum punch.  Another ray swam by, then a shark so Josh worked his way back to the boat.  We still had some time to kill so we decided to head up the beach to where Kristel was waiting and just texted our friends to tell them where to meet us when they arrived.  It turned out they were waiting at our original location the entire time and we just could not see them from the boat.  They had been yelling at us but we could not hear them so they figured it was someone else when we did not respond.  They had arrived early because everywhere they went was windy so they figured we would probably be done early.  Plus to top it all off they had accidentally given us all the beer, and it was Sunday and they could not find a place down south to get more.   It turned out their cell was not working that far south so they did not get my texts.  So they sat for an hour and a half while we goofed off and drank way too much rum punch.  After they were not at our new location about a half hour after our scheduled meeting time Kristel gave me a ride up to where we had originally planned to me and there we found them bored and sitting around with NO BEER.

Luckily we discovered that they sold beer at the little store down at Cape Eleuthera and remedied that situation immediately.   We had to be escorted to and from the gate to the little store by the guard at Cape Eleuthera but at least they got to have one ice cold beer after their long wait.   We returned and sat around and chatted it up with Donald, Kristel and Josh for a while.  Then we gave Josh a ride back to Rock Sound and headed home to cook up our catch.   Despite the rough weather to start we had a really great time and will definitely be booking another trip with them on our next trip.