We have been extremely lucky this year with fantastic, calm weather for every one of our several 60+ mile “offshore” legs from Florida.  Our last leg from Musha Cay (mid-Exuma) down to George Town (southern Exuma on Great Exuma) was no exception.  We even hooked 3 fish trolling along the way.  A barracuda (threw it back), a ??? (chomped off half of my lure) & … a small yellowfin tuna!

While we knew it was some kind of tuna, a quick text & photo to Ron on powercat Fruition (we had just passed them 1/2 hour before) confirmed it was a small, prize yellowfin tuna – “bleed the hell out of it & cut it like a gold” was his sage advise!

“Fillet like gold” made me even more anxious, but with my iPad propped up with a “how-to” diagram, I managed enough for 4 generous dinners.  2 nights were variations of ceviche.

2 nights we seared our catch on the grill.  We were lucky the ship had just arrived with fresh food, so the market even had asparagus & avocados – Lori could really “kick it up”!  I’m not usually much of a “raw” fish guy, but WOW was it great! Between it’s small size & the freshness – we’ll never experience this again.  When you order yellowfin tuna in a restaurant (often called “ahi”) it is often from 200 – 400 pounders caught thousands of miles away.

Always interesting cloud shapes over Elizabeth Harbour

Our first few days remained beautiful & calm

It’s not all paradise – laundry day aboard Twin Sisters. We do it all ourselves – even make our own water with our RO watermaker powered by our solar panels.

The depths shown are in meters

We will remain here in George Town for January & February, alternating between anchoring spots, depending on the winds.  While our first few days were calm, more traditional “winter” weather has since arrived with days of winds 15 – 25 knots, followed by a calm day or two, repeat.  The desolation of our beautiful anchorage spot with no other boats close by, unfortunately, will be short-lived.  This small spot is great for us with only 4′ depth at low tide, a 3′ depth approach & surrounded by a small island & shallow sandbars.  For many years, a sailing cat named Little Sister would hang out in this spot, but they have moved onto the Caribbean, so Twin Sisters will enjoy it as long as possible!  Most years, over 400 boats will crowd into the harbor complete with anchoring too close, dragging anchors, noisy generators & whining wind generators.  So … this is bliss!

Along with the rest of the world, we’re keeping a close eye on COVID, but we’re never indoors except for the grocery store (where we wear our KN95 masks).  We’re glad we crossed to the Bahamas when we did, as travel & testing requirements have since become more stringent.  Hopefully the authorities won’t need to institute mandatory curfews & other restrictions, as they did last year.