Sunday, October 10 Fishing North Riding Point

Discovery Day in Bahamas. What better way to spend a beautiful Sunday than fishing - yep you heard me - fishing - something neither Gerry nor I do, normally. Reena invited us along and since it was a part of the island Gerry has never been to (hard to believe) we went along for the ride - well, we took the jeep so if (when) fishing got boring we could leave. Kara (Gerry's 6 yr old goddaughter) wanted to ride with us and we were such great company she promptly fell asleep. North Riding Point (an abandoned harbour) is at least an hour and a half drive and the last 5 miles are on an abandoned road, very very rough. Once we hit that road Kara came to life - how can one sleep being thrown around in the back of a jeep?

The ride was worth it - the place was serene, peaceful, completely deserted, not another soul for miles and so amazingly quiet. Reena showed us one spot they always catch fish and sure enough you could see tons of them, but they started out in another spot, trying to catch sharks! By the time they got back to the first spot the fish had gone out deeper and weren't the least bit interested in being caught. There were lots of other places where you could see the fish and even when you cast the bait right in the middle, they didn't bite (see trio photo).
Gerry, Kara and I caught nothing, Reena and Roy about 3 or 4 each. Good thing we brought chicken for lunch - only 3 fish were caught before lunch and there were 6 adults and 2 kids to feed.

About 6 we decided to head back. We joked that if they ran into trouble Gerry's cell phone was dead so we couldn't come back to help. That'll teach us to tempt fate,  just a short way down the road I heard a very strange whooshing sound - it was a flat! Great place for that to happen, no CAA here. We tried to get the wheel off but one lug nut refused to budge - even after I jumped on the tire iron. I don't recommend doing that unless you're wearing steel toed boots. The stupid thing flew off and landed squarely on my big toe, words were said.

So there we were, stranded, and we weren't even sure if they were going back to town - they've been known to spend the night out here. So off we trudge, all the way back, limping, getting eaten alive by no-see-ums. 
Roy (a mechanic) also could not get the tire off (nut had a cap on it and when the cap broke off our tools would no longer fit), and recommended that we drive it all the way to the highway in hopes of it breaking off - of course it didn't. Would you believe on this deserted road we ran into 2 fishermen and when we asked if they had a tire iron that might fit they discovered they didn't have one at all!
After a lovely, who knows how long a ride on a flat tire, and a full bladder, we reached the highway, removed the battery from the jeep along with our other possessions, and made a silent, sleepy ride back home. If you want to check out where this place is on Google Earth, here's the lat and long: lat 26 degrees 43'48" long 78 degrees 9'36"