Bahamas Vacation (4)_(1)

Bahamas Vacation (4)

(Background: I took a trip to get away from memories after my fiancee’s, Debby’s, death. We had planned to be here, Nassau, Bahamas, on our honeymoon. I met Cinnamon, an employee at the hotel, when I checked in. We have spent the last three nights together. She has 2 days off yesterday she was my tour guide in Nassau. Today we are going fishing which she arranged with the husband of one of her co-workers.)

I awoke with my arm still around Cinnamon. I listened to her slow steady breathing. I smelled the enticing scent of her hair. I was thinking how amazing it was that I was lying next to a woman who had posed nude for a picture in playboy. I looked at the clock by the side of the bed. It was 4:40 in the morning. We had to be at the dock at 6:00 to meet of guide. I just lay there enjoying the warmth of her body pressed against mine. The phone rang. Cinnamon awoke and picked up the phone since it was on her side of the bed.

“Hello! Ok thanks!” she said as she hung up the phone. “That was our wake-up call.”

She got out of bed to my disappointment. I took in the fantastic view of her naked body as she walked to the bathroom. The shower came on and she closed the shower curtain. She finished and I took my shower. As soon as we were ready we were on our way. We arrived at the dock and a tall black was standing there near a 17 foot Boston Whaler.

“Andy this is Robert,” Cinnamon said when we got to the boat.

We got aboard and I shook hands with Robert. Cinnamon and I sat down on the seats behind him and we left the dock. We headed toward the east end of the island. Robert stopped by an island east of Paradise Island.

“Sorry! We will just be here a couple of minutes. I am going to drop a couple of fish traps before we go out farther to fish,” Robert said.

He dropped 2 traps over with empty plastic gallon containers attached as buoys. Then we headed out with the compass pointed east southeast. The water got deeper. We continued several miles until New Providence, the Island on which Nassau is located, appeared to be breaking up. The water began to get shallower. The ocean was relatively smooth. Robert slowed the boat and gazed across the water.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Shoals,” he answered. “They are rocky formations with plants and fish surrounded by white sand.”

We headed to a large dark spot in the water. Robert put the engines in neutral and grabbed a water glass. The water glass looked like a wooden pail with glass on the large end. Robert leaned over the side and moved the water glass around looking for something.

“This will do for a starting point,” Robert said.

His accent was thick, but still was easy to understand. He ran the boat upwind about 40-50 feet. Put the engine in neutral, then put the anchor overboard. He let out rope until stern was about 10 feet from being over the shoal. He moved the anchor rope from one side of the bow to the other. The stern swung over and lined up better with the shoal.

“We use drop lines here for these fish,” Robert explained.

He prepared the lines and the bait, conch. I had never seen a live conch before. The animal from inside the beautiful shell was mostly white, but there was a dark part up near the spur. The spur looked like plastic. There were also some orange parts. Robert cut the orange parts up and pushed them aside. He cut up some of the white part and put these pieces on the hooks. He handed Cinnamon and I each a spool with the bait and a lead sinker.

“Drop the hook and sinker just over the side. Let out line until you don’t feel the weight of the sinker. Then let out 15 to 20 more feet,” Robert instructed. “Then pull up the line and let it fall on the bottom of the boat. Don’t loop the line around your fingers, wrist, or hand. You will get a bad burn or cut from the line if a fish is on your line.”

We did as he instructed. While we were pulling our lines back in Cinnamon screamed.

“I have a fish on my line!” she exclaimed.

“Pull it in nice and steady,” Robert instructed.

I continued to pull in my line as I watched Cinnamon. Soon Cinnamon had her fish out of water. Robert stepped over and brought it into the boat. He unhooked it and held it for a few seconds for us to see. It was 8-10 inches long and was blue and yellow striped. Suddenly it started making a grunting sound.

“This is called a grunt, you can tell why,” Robert said as he put it in a large plastic pail partly filled with water. “Good eatin’.”

He threw some of the Orange pieces out toward the shoal. He baited Cinnamon’s hook and threw it out toward the shoal.

“Give it line until it reaches bottom, then pull it taut.” Robert continued to instruct.

I followed Robert’s example and threw my line also. Soon Cinnamon screamed again she had another fish. While she was pulling this one in I felt a tug on my line, set the hook, and began pulling in my first fish. Cinnamon had another grunt about the same size as her first. Then she watched as I finished pulling in my fish. My fish was longer and thinner.

As he took my fish off the hook Robert said, “This is a yellowtail snapper.”

The fish was blue on top and bottom with a yellow stripe from the gills to the tail. We continued fishing for the next 90 minutes or so. We had caught about 20 fish between us. Then the fish stopped biting.

Robert said, “Time to move on.”

He pulled up anchor and moved to another shoal.