Andros

Insight on Andros:

We did not spend nearly enough time in Andros island. Hopefully Andros will wait and not get spoiled until we can afford a nice 3’ draft catamaran to fully explore the island. Andros Island has the worlds 3^rd largest barrier reef. The interior of this entire reef is passable by sailboat, but is a bit too much of a nailbiter for us to travel with nearly 6’ draft. A catamaran would be nice so that one doesn’t get tossed around too much in the many unprotected anchorages behind the reef. That being said, the area is awesome. I got my first ever lobster there. In all the years I have snorkeled I have yet to get myself a lobster, and at Andros I snorkeled for 5 minutes, killed 4 lion fish and got 2 lobster. Aquatically there is just so much to see and do at this one island it is amazing. And ashore I couldn’t find the people more pleasant. The customs agents were 2 young guys about my age who met me at the bar in shorts and T’s, super laid back and a total contrast to Bimini.

                Offshore fishing we are 0 for 2. While approaching the North end of Andros we had 1 huge wahoo strike both of our lines, but not get hooked. This wahoo was easily the biggest I had seen up to this time. Later while ashore that evening some guys were cleaning an even bigger wahoo, the girth of this wahoo was probably close to 36” across, it was a fat beast. Upon departing Fresh creek we had had both lines in at sun-up and within moments the closepin outrigger clips on both rods went off, I throttled back to see a small marlin smacking both lures, but not getting hooked on either. He finally hit our 3^rd line which was a hand line a promptly broke off. While I was sad not to catch the marlin, and to lose an excellent lure, it was exciting to see a fish play with our “spread” the way I always read about in Marlin magazine. Unfortunately the rest of the day was an uneventful 6kn spinnaker ride to Highborne Cay, Exumas.

                Other Andros observations: fuel was in short supply. Everyone we met, our cruising guides and chart all showed that Fresh Creek had a fuel dock. There was no fuel dock. A powerboat really needed fuel and they ended up buying it out of 50 gallon drums some dude brought in a pickup from across the island. Morgans Bluff was also out of fuel. I am sure glad we weren’t in a powerboat. Besides that diesel prices are between $5.80 on up well over $6 a gallon. Surprisingly there are a ton of powerboats everywhere. Even the locals seem to have upgraded from 15’ whalers to 31’ contenders.

                Both Morgans Bluff and Fresh Creek had free and fast internet. At morgans Bluff the bar has wi-fi, we just had to ask for a password, and at Fresh Creek the marina had free wi-fi. In contrast nothing is free in the Exumas, $10 per day for 200mb of super slow internet at Staniel/ Sampson Cays.