The trip from Red Bays down to Williams was anything but pleasant. We had a stiff north west wind which made for some rough wet going. It seemed to take forever but we finally reached our old camp site. Within half hour camp was pretty much setup and I was off down the beach to tarpon creek. I saw two of them but they were on the far side of the channel and just out of reach.
Next morning Linda and I ventured down there. We didn’t find any tarpon but I got a big bonefish and she got a black tip shark on a tarpon fly. It was fun until it was time to get it unhooked. After a few quick attempts with the pliers I finally got the fly and got it out.
Most of the time there we spent exploring. It was fun and we found four wrecked planes from back in the drug days. We found the DC3 on the north end of Williams and when we walked up to it from the bush we discovered two more twin engine planes there. What we noticed next was kind of spine tingling. At least two of the planes were riddled with 30 and 50 cal. bullet holes. The bullet holes were through the cockpit and cabin and seemed to be almost horizontal indicating they were shot while close to the ground or just after landing. It was very obvious the pilot or pilots were dead as soon as they hit the ground. We took several pictures and they will be on the site as soon as I can get them to Patricia.
Next morning was perfect, calm sea, bright sun and the water had cleared after turning milky from the west wind the day before which is normal with any west wind over there.
Gerald and Carlton who are natives of Red Bays had told about a well in the area where we camp. I looked for it last year and couldn’t find it. They were almost insistent that I find it because if we ever got stranded down there, knowing the location of that fresh water source could very well save our lives. They had given me more directions and following them I finally found it back in the cabbage palms. I was really surprised as I thought it would only be a small hole a couple feet deep. This thing was perfectly round about 8 feet in diameter and about six to 8 feet deep. The water in it was gin clear. This was a great find as next time we won’t need to bring as much water for the sun shower and cleaning.
I finally talked Jim into taking a little walk on the flat in front of camp. He was pretty happy he did as you will see on the pic the size of the bonefish he caught.
The trip back to Red Bays was perfect. Super smooth runninng and the blue, blue waters of the Grand Bahama Bank.
Happy New Year to all.
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