Landed a Barracuda en Route to New Bight, Cat Island

Great northerly winds propelled us at about 6.5 knots away from the Exumas to New Bight at Cat Island, approximately 50 miles to the east. We left Lee Stocking Cay about 8:00 am and arrived at New Bight about 9 hours later.  When we were on the bank off Cat Island in about 25 feet of water, we caught a fish.  We then discovered we’d caught our first barracuda. Harry’s new, and prized lure, the cedar plug, was worth more than the fish to us (barracuda aren’t great to eat) so he didn’t want to simply cut the line.  The dilemma however became how to retrieve the lure from a 30 inch barracuda with sharp teeth. The hook was pretty far down his throat so Harry decided to douse the fish in gin to subdue him. The gin took effect and actually killed the fish, making him much less threatening and the cedar plug was retrieved and the fish thrown back from whence he came.  At New Bight, we dropped anchor in the presence of one other boat with a vast expanse of the horizon to the west with nothing making for a great sunset.

Arriving at the New Bight settlement on Cat Island