We ran the 120 miles over to Grand Cay in the Abacos in the far north of the Bahamas from our home dock in Ft Lauderdale for the long Memorial Day weekend. This map shows West End where we stopped to clear Customs, re-fuel and have a great lunch of fresh conch down at the local beach bar/restaurant.
It's a 70 mile run across the Gulf Stream to pull into the nice Marina at Old Bahama Bay in West End on Grand Bahama Island. Seas were a bit sloppy at 2-4 but we all stayed dry and comfortable at 23-24 knots in our 2001 Marlin, the HEY MON!. Once I cleared in with the Bahamas Customs folks we headed over for lunch at "Teaser's" which is right on the beach. My friend Ed had a 1987 Grady that he put over 4,000 hours on before he moved over to a new 25 Contender some years back. After lunch, we topped off with about 95 gallons of gas at $5.45 a gallon! (Don't worry, it gets worse!) Here's Ed, Jan, my wife Jenn and myself........
We had to walk past the incredible pool there at Old Bahama Bay to get to Teaser's! Jenn and I will return here for a long, July 4th weekend as we have in the past.
We finally pulled out of there to make the 50 mile run across the Little Bahama Bank, passing just west of Sale Cay and on into Grand Cay which is right between Walkers Cay and Double Breasted Cay in the map above. Totally running time was just over 5 hours...... Here, our trusty and alert tail gunners are making sure that no sword-swinging Pirates sneak up on us from astern! :goodjob
We stayed once again at "Rosie's Place" and Rosie himself pretty much runs this tiny island of just 200 Bahamians. He has a nice Marina, rooms, cottages, fuel dock ($6 a gallon there!), two bars, a restaurant, small grocery store, ice ($12 for 2-20 lb bags) and a liquor store. What else do you need? This photo is from last year, but we got the same slip. Behind us is "Jolly's Bar" in the blue......
After a fairly long first day, moving into our little 2-bedroom cottage, etc, we headed down to Jolly's Bar for a rum drink and they have their very own aquarium since the bar is built out over the water. We saw bonefish that were easily well over 15 pounds in the large pen there! We also saw a 6-foot tarpon in the Marina as well as plenty of 2-4 pound mangrove snappers!
Also taken from Jolly's you can see the little Whalers that the locals use to fish for lobster, fish and conch. The HEY MON! is just beyond.
Day Two was fishing! We looped out into the ocean and trolled NW up past Walkers Cay with a nice spread of four, proven dolphin and tuna baits. After 2+ hours of zero hits, we pulled the lines in and drifted over some nice bottom where Ed jigged up a nice, 10 pound Nassau Grouper!
We also jigged up some delicious Strawberry Groupers. As a proper host, I always encourage my guests to catch most of the fish.......
bang ) Here, you can see the folded frame of my retractable aft Bimini top.........
After catching more than enough for a fresh fish dinner, we headed back to Rosie's to clean fish and enjoy a cold beer. I've made a custom bait board to fit where the aft bench seat fits and it's large enough for two guys to sit and fillet some fish........ I stepped aside to give Ed room to slice up his nice Grouper.
That night, after some rum drinks down at the marina-front outdoor gazebo bar, we took a bag of fillets up the road to "Ron's Hot Spot" for dinner! This is the main road on Grand and we've yet to see a full size car or truck...... just golf carts!
We ended up with a platter of half fried and half broiled fish with potato salad and Bahamian peas 'n rice for dinner down at Ron's.
Day Three's game plan was a few more hours of trolling, some more bottom fishing and then to hop in the water at the gorgeous Double Breasted Cay to cool off with a cold beer or two. Trolling again was dead so we pulled in on the reef near Strangers Cay (pronounced "key") and we slowly put some fish in the box. Here's Ed with a big, colorful Queen Triggerfish.
After jigging some more, we finally anchored up and dropped the chum bag over the side and Ed soon hauled in this very nice, 20 inch Yellowtail Snapper!
We caught plenty of yellowtails in the 14-16 inch range but never really got into the bigger flags of 20 inches or larger. We kept enough for dinner and for a few more meals at home.
We finally made the run into Double Breasted Cay, dropped the hook near the Sand Bar and hopped in to cool off.
That night it was again fresh snapper and grouper and with the wx forecast picking up, we wisely decided to go ahead and punch out a day early and come home. Getting ready to shove off the dock here....
We hit the fuel dock there at Rosie's the next morning to take on an additional 70 gallons to ensure a safe ride home. Here's the fuel dock and office.
Rosie gets his own fuel by taking this landing craft/barge to Freeport (about 75 miles away) to load up with fresh gas and diesel. His generators provide his own electricty for his "complex" as well. It's very common in the Bahamian "out islands" for the electricty to go out...... sometimes for hours on end, so Rosie provides his own power! You can see the two big, round tanks right behind those two guys........
Rosie's caters to all boaters and lots of sportys hang out here as well..........
Running across the Little Bahama Bank we passed just north of Old Bahama Bay (West End) but just kept going to hit the Gulf Stream on our non-stop trip home.
Part way across, we stopped for a break and when I pushed the throttles back up, a large pod of dolphin showed up in front of us, playing in the bow wake! We slowed down and they stayed with us for about 15 minutes while we all got plenty of photos!
Here's Ed having his go at some photos.........
We ended up in some fairly sloppy 2-4s but with a following sea and winds, we stayed dry and comfortable......
And after just about 5 and a half hours non-stop, we tied up back at the house dock. My call to US Customs went right through and we were all cleared back in. It was another fun trip but the fishing was a bit disappointing for us. Luckily, we had great weather for both fishing days, the boat never got pounded on either run across the Gulf Stream, we ate some incredible food, enjoyed some nice run drinks down at the marina, met some interesting people and overall, we all four had a really nice time! This was the HEY MON's! twelfth trip to the Bahamas since we bought her in 2006 and we have at least one more trip to do this summer.....this time back to Old Bahama Bay in West End!
It's a 70 mile run across the Gulf Stream to pull into the nice Marina at Old Bahama Bay in West End on Grand Bahama Island. Seas were a bit sloppy at 2-4 but we all stayed dry and comfortable at 23-24 knots in our 2001 Marlin, the HEY MON!. Once I cleared in with the Bahamas Customs folks we headed over for lunch at "Teaser's" which is right on the beach. My friend Ed had a 1987 Grady that he put over 4,000 hours on before he moved over to a new 25 Contender some years back. After lunch, we topped off with about 95 gallons of gas at $5.45 a gallon! (Don't worry, it gets worse!) Here's Ed, Jan, my wife Jenn and myself........
We had to walk past the incredible pool there at Old Bahama Bay to get to Teaser's! Jenn and I will return here for a long, July 4th weekend as we have in the past.
We finally pulled out of there to make the 50 mile run across the Little Bahama Bank, passing just west of Sale Cay and on into Grand Cay which is right between Walkers Cay and Double Breasted Cay in the map above. Totally running time was just over 5 hours...... Here, our trusty and alert tail gunners are making sure that no sword-swinging Pirates sneak up on us from astern! :goodjob
We stayed once again at "Rosie's Place" and Rosie himself pretty much runs this tiny island of just 200 Bahamians. He has a nice Marina, rooms, cottages, fuel dock ($6 a gallon there!), two bars, a restaurant, small grocery store, ice ($12 for 2-20 lb bags) and a liquor store. What else do you need? This photo is from last year, but we got the same slip. Behind us is "Jolly's Bar" in the blue......
After a fairly long first day, moving into our little 2-bedroom cottage, etc, we headed down to Jolly's Bar for a rum drink and they have their very own aquarium since the bar is built out over the water. We saw bonefish that were easily well over 15 pounds in the large pen there! We also saw a 6-foot tarpon in the Marina as well as plenty of 2-4 pound mangrove snappers!
Also taken from Jolly's you can see the little Whalers that the locals use to fish for lobster, fish and conch. The HEY MON! is just beyond.
Day Two was fishing! We looped out into the ocean and trolled NW up past Walkers Cay with a nice spread of four, proven dolphin and tuna baits. After 2+ hours of zero hits, we pulled the lines in and drifted over some nice bottom where Ed jigged up a nice, 10 pound Nassau Grouper!
We also jigged up some delicious Strawberry Groupers. As a proper host, I always encourage my guests to catch most of the fish.......
bang ) Here, you can see the folded frame of my retractable aft Bimini top.........
After catching more than enough for a fresh fish dinner, we headed back to Rosie's to clean fish and enjoy a cold beer. I've made a custom bait board to fit where the aft bench seat fits and it's large enough for two guys to sit and fillet some fish........ I stepped aside to give Ed room to slice up his nice Grouper.
That night, after some rum drinks down at the marina-front outdoor gazebo bar, we took a bag of fillets up the road to "Ron's Hot Spot" for dinner! This is the main road on Grand and we've yet to see a full size car or truck...... just golf carts!
We ended up with a platter of half fried and half broiled fish with potato salad and Bahamian peas 'n rice for dinner down at Ron's.
Day Three's game plan was a few more hours of trolling, some more bottom fishing and then to hop in the water at the gorgeous Double Breasted Cay to cool off with a cold beer or two. Trolling again was dead so we pulled in on the reef near Strangers Cay (pronounced "key") and we slowly put some fish in the box. Here's Ed with a big, colorful Queen Triggerfish.
After jigging some more, we finally anchored up and dropped the chum bag over the side and Ed soon hauled in this very nice, 20 inch Yellowtail Snapper!
We caught plenty of yellowtails in the 14-16 inch range but never really got into the bigger flags of 20 inches or larger. We kept enough for dinner and for a few more meals at home.
We finally made the run into Double Breasted Cay, dropped the hook near the Sand Bar and hopped in to cool off.
That night it was again fresh snapper and grouper and with the wx forecast picking up, we wisely decided to go ahead and punch out a day early and come home. Getting ready to shove off the dock here....
We hit the fuel dock there at Rosie's the next morning to take on an additional 70 gallons to ensure a safe ride home. Here's the fuel dock and office.
Rosie gets his own fuel by taking this landing craft/barge to Freeport (about 75 miles away) to load up with fresh gas and diesel. His generators provide his own electricty for his "complex" as well. It's very common in the Bahamian "out islands" for the electricty to go out...... sometimes for hours on end, so Rosie provides his own power! You can see the two big, round tanks right behind those two guys........
Rosie's caters to all boaters and lots of sportys hang out here as well..........
Running across the Little Bahama Bank we passed just north of Old Bahama Bay (West End) but just kept going to hit the Gulf Stream on our non-stop trip home.
Part way across, we stopped for a break and when I pushed the throttles back up, a large pod of dolphin showed up in front of us, playing in the bow wake! We slowed down and they stayed with us for about 15 minutes while we all got plenty of photos!
Here's Ed having his go at some photos.........
We ended up in some fairly sloppy 2-4s but with a following sea and winds, we stayed dry and comfortable......
And after just about 5 and a half hours non-stop, we tied up back at the house dock. My call to US Customs went right through and we were all cleared back in. It was another fun trip but the fishing was a bit disappointing for us. Luckily, we had great weather for both fishing days, the boat never got pounded on either run across the Gulf Stream, we ate some incredible food, enjoyed some nice run drinks down at the marina, met some interesting people and overall, we all four had a really nice time! This was the HEY MON's! twelfth trip to the Bahamas since we bought her in 2006 and we have at least one more trip to do this summer.....this time back to Old Bahama Bay in West End!
