We Sailed to the Ragged Islands | No People Just Wild Goats, Sharks & Lobsters

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[00:00:01]This week, we take boat life deeper into the remote ragged islands of the Bahamas and drop anchor off Raccoon Key, a wild, uninhibited island where the wind is howling, the water is ridiculously clear, and loaded with amazingly beautiful sea life. With lobster season almost over, we're squeezing in a few last hunts before the clock runs out.

[00:00:21]But Raccoon Key has a lot more going on than just lobsters. We search for blue holes and hidden beach trails, snorkel reefs filled with rays, nurse sharks, invasive lion fish, and watch wild goats roaming the beach while wandering how they ended up living alone on this remote key. Dave also breaks down a very glamorous reality of e- foil life on a trwler. We're Jen and Dave living aboard our Nord Hov 55. So, welcome aboard our Bahamas journey in our floating home explorado. We're happy you're here. We just left Buista Key headed towards Raccoon Raccoon Key. Uh we're in the Ragged have about 25 knot winds. So there's not a lot we can do around the island like getting off the boat. Uh yesterday and two days ago we got lucky being able to go lobstering and do some sightseeing. We're hoping for a little more protection on Raccoon Key. See when we get there. The seastate on this side is a little choppy yet.

[00:01:25]Little windy.

[00:01:29]We only have like three days of lobster season left and we can't hunt lobster anymore. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I didn't think I would. I think it gives you something to do instead of just snorkeling and looking at fish like you're hunting for something. Feel bad for the lobsters, but I don't feel bad when I'm eating them. We are just about to throw the anchor at Raccoon Key here in the Ragged. I'm really starting to like the Raggs. We've been a couple different little islands here and nobody's around, which is exactly the way we like it. So, this week uh starting yesterday, the winds picked up to 20, gusting uh up to 30. So, in the evening, I think we saw somewhere around 28 and a half last night.

[00:02:12]But the good news is dead out of the east. So, the raggits are a great, especially the southern raggs are a great place to be. Um, all the islands are north south, so we just tuck up as close as we can. I'm thinking about just throwing the anchor on the, uh, beach and then letting it come back about 150 ft till we're about 7 ft of water. Jen says no, we can't do that. So, uh, we're going to get as close as we can. The winds are going to be howling for at least the next 6 to 7 days, between 20 and 30. But like I said, they're all out of the east and the ragged are just really kind of nice. I didn't know about them.

[00:02:47]>> Looks like some good protection, too, with the dolls and stuff.

[00:02:50]>> Got some uh elevated land masses over there. You got some nice white sand beaches. There's plenty of coral and >> hopefully there's plenty of lobsters.

[00:02:57]>> There's still a couple of days left in lobster season, so we're going to uh drop the hook and go explore.

[00:03:06]>> Totally see the anchor from here.

[00:03:08]Totally.

[00:03:10]Keeping it straight.

[00:03:13]Auto reverse. Chain straight now. Woo.

[00:03:17]We're not moving. 1100.

[00:03:20]I think we're good.

[00:03:22]You wouldn't even guess that we have 25 to 30 knot winds with this anchorage.

[00:03:28]Look at this. We are super protected back here. So, a little windy still, but I don't care. I don't mind. Little bit of wind isn't going to hurt us. At least we don't have like white caps around our boat anymore. That gets a little old.

[00:03:42]Today it rained all morning and it's finally sunny out. So, we are going to visit a blue hole and maybe some blow holes if we can find them.

[00:03:53]>> So, blue then blow.

[00:03:54]>> Blue then blow or whatever.

[00:03:59]>> Go look at some holes.

[00:04:00]>> Yes, some holes.

[00:04:02]>> Go find some holes.

[00:04:03]>> Find the holes.

[00:04:06]It's definitely a shoe situation.

[00:04:17]Maybe there's a trail. Maybe we'll find a trail.

[00:04:22]This is definitely not the blue hole.

[00:04:24]This is a small one.

[00:04:27]It's this way. Hope you guys found it.

[00:04:33]Blue holes are basically underwater sink holes formed in limestone. From above, the biggest clue is the color. Shallow Bohemian water is usually bright turquoise. Salt flats, tidal creek pockets, or mangrove ponds tend to be a tanned brown to red, but a blue hole suddenly drops into deep navy green or almost black. Many are round or oval with steep limestone walls and water much deeper than anything around them.

[00:05:00]Cool pig.

[00:05:02]>> It looks like pig pig tracks or something. Some kind of animal living on this island. A larger animal. We're thinking either goat or a pig. Maybe one come out and scare us out of the bushes.

[00:05:34]And of course, the second we drop in, we spot this stingray just cruising around.

[00:05:40]They are so beautiful and fun to watch.

[00:05:46]>> And around this corner was another hawk spill turtle with a raora stuck on his back.

[00:05:55]And while looking for lobsters, I was super surprised by this nurse shark resting under some coral. I think we surprised him just as much because he swam away.

[00:06:12]Gorgeous day in the raggeds. Dave, he's going to go foil. There he is. Got all his hat. It's been a It's been a few days because it's been way too windy.

[00:06:22]Time to get off the boat.

[00:06:24]>> Yes. Time to go play.

[00:06:30]Have fun. I think I'm going to try it, but I don't know if it's going to be too windy or not. I'm >> not doing good.

[00:06:36]>> You look good to me. Apparently, the thing is affected by current, wind, speed, all the above. Usually I catch on. I'm pretty athletically inclined and I catch on to stuff really well. Um, and this thing has been a little tough for me. So, it's pretty big learning curve.

[00:06:53]I think Dave's picked it up tremendously. I think he's doing great.

[00:06:57]He's a little harder on himself than I am. So, we've never been to the Raggeds before. This is Raccoon Key, which is extremely uninhibited. I mean, you can tell that these islands don't get visited very often, which is fantastic.

[00:07:13]I mean, we have seen the largest amount of life underwater. Every time we pop in the water, we see a nurse shark, loggerhead turtles, lots of lobsters, you name it. It's just beautiful. But we see some big sea life here. Here he comes. Look how easy he makes it look.

[00:07:44]This is where I've decided to stop and sparkle. There's a bunch of shelves over here and some coral heads. You can see the difference in color. And there's a there's Dave. He also said there was a huge shark that he just passed about 100 yards away. Hopefully, I'll be able to see the shark. Depends on what kind of shark it is. I do not want to see a bull shark when I'm in here by myself. So, if I see that, hopping back in the dinghy, you guys.

[00:08:08]This time jumping in, I spot bluehead rasses, French crunts, mangrove snapper, another spiny lobster, but he's giving me the eyeball. Snakeike anemmy, this cute spot fin porcupine fish, and a spotted mo eel.

[00:08:29]So, I'd like to crowdsource a solution for my foil board storage.

[00:08:36]Haven't found exactly what I want yet.

[00:08:40]So, while we're here in the Bahamas, I'll ride it every day. A lot of times, if it's really calm and nice, I will ride it uh do a morning run, charge up the battery, and then do an evening run right before dinner. So, I've got a Wade Evo Pro Plus 90 L board. The board itself all by itself weighs 23 lb with the mast, the 6000 watt propulsion, and the battery. That board comes in at 78 lb total weight. 78 lb. And it's also very awkward to lift and maneuver. What I have been doing is we got this big ass crane. And so I've just just been using a crane. So up here I'll get the battery in. I'll put on this little strap, lifting strap, and then crane it. And the crane just drops it right down there. Pretty easy setup. And then I go run down there, I take it off the winch, and we're all good to go. And then when I'm done boarding, same thing, reverse.

[00:09:42]One of the easy parts is once I lift that board up and bring it over here.

[00:09:45]I've got water, so I do a really good fresh rinse off. I pop the battery out.

[00:09:50]I take the battery downstairs. The battery needs to stay cool. You don't want it sitting out there in the sun.

[00:09:55]The plug that I have over here is a GFCI 20 amp outlet right there. I can charge it right there. And also, I like to keep an eye on it when you're charging lithium batteries. I'm not going to do it overnight. I'm not going to do it while we're away from the boat. And I want to keep an eye on it. Make sure it doesn't get too hot. It's right here. If something does go crazy, I can put it in the fireproof bag and just chuck it overboard. So, I like having the battery down here to charge. I don't want it inside the boat at all. I want it close to chucking distance into the water and it's heavy so I don't want to carry it up and down the stairs all the time. On the swim platform, uh the ladder's on the starboard side over here, the swim ladder, and that's usually always in the water cuz we're always in and out. We have staples for most of the season.

[00:10:40]There's four staples, but we have uh pockets on two of them, so we just double up and keep that over there, and it makes it really easy to get in and out of the dinghy. So that's nice to have over there. Then we have this little step to get into the cockpit through the transom. So there's not a lot of room out here. I'd say this is probably about, you know, 30 inches wide. So one option I was thinking of is get the board out of the water. Uh just put the nose onto the swim platform, take the battery out here, flip it upside down, take the massive propulsion unit off. But see all that I just did like three steps I don't want to do.

[00:11:15]instead of using that big hydraulic crane, that hydraulic pump and the wear and tear on that, which you know, you don't want to be rebuilding those anytime soon. It's not cheap. Believe me, I've done it. Would like to get like a manual hoist, like a downrigger type of deal. If you've I I can't explain it.

[00:11:33]I've seen it before at boat shows. I started looking online. I haven't found exactly what I'd like, but if there's some way that I can put a like a manual hand crank even because it's once I get the battery out, it's really not that heavy. I mean, it's still 40 something pounds, but it's just awkward to carry.

[00:11:49]I'm not going to carry it up the steps.

[00:11:51]But if I can figure out a way to mount a downrigger or a hoist um off the side right here and then I can just manually crank it up, crank it back down, and then I don't have to worry about the hydraulics or anything.

[00:12:05]Or maybe I'm just overthinking this.

[00:12:07]Maybe that's what the crane's built for and we just use it every day to lift the foil in out of the water.

[00:12:25]That's probably a good read.

[00:12:32]>> Oh, some big waves.

[00:12:38]Oh wow.

[00:12:39]>> Oh my gosh. This is a little crazy. Oh, >> nice big roller. I don't know if it's worth it in here.

[00:12:50]>> We just need to make it over there.

[00:12:53]There's no way we can snorkel any of that.

[00:12:55]>> No, these waves. No.

[00:12:57]>> No.

[00:13:00]>> Flying fish. This might be too deep with these I don't know. Softly swell. Oh, >> they're Billy goats. Ammo.

[00:13:07]>> Billy goats. Oh, they ran off. Goats are scared of us. Of course, we jump in and immediately see rays. Although, we must have startled this one because he flipped his tail. Stingrays will typically raise its tail up and forward, similar to a scorpion, as a defensive measure if they are startled or feel threatened, but they're generally shy and only sting when stepped on or cornered.

[00:13:33]We start to dive down in search of more lobsters and spot one under our first shelf. And of course, I forgot to grab my weight belt again, so I had a little trouble staying down in these shallower waters. But I find one. He's just standing there looking at me.

[00:13:59]>> What's up, J?

[00:14:01]A heavy lobster.

[00:14:02]>> A heavy lobster.

[00:14:04]>> Well, let's put him in the boat.

[00:14:09]Oh my gosh, that one wore me out.

[00:14:14]Lion fish might look beautiful, but don't let the fancy stripes and fins fool you. These reef goblins are invasive in the Bahamas in the Caribbean. Lion fish are native to the Indo-acific, so Bahamian reef animals didn't evolve alongside them, and local predators don't recognize them as food.

[00:14:32]So, the lion fish eat everything. Tiny reef fish, juvenile snapper, grouper, shrimp. They can reduce local juvenile fish populations by 90% in 5 weeks. And they produce really fast. One female can release thousands of eggs at a time. So divers are encouraged to remove them wherever possible to help preserve our local coral reef health. They may be pretty, but they're putting pressure on fragile reef ecosystems.

[00:14:58]So we got back from lobstering. Look, look at all this plastic that I pulled from the ocean.

[00:15:08]We are in the middle of nowhere, you guys. Like the raggeds are so far from everywhere. And there's still just trash. Trash everywhere. Like I said, I pull all the salt plastics out of the ocean that I can. I think I found a new hobby.

[00:15:20]>> What's that?

[00:15:20]>> Lobstering.

[00:15:22]>> You're going to become a professional lobster woman.

[00:15:24]>> Professional.

[00:15:24]>> You lost one this morning.

[00:15:26]>> I did.

[00:15:26]>> I missed it, but so much fun. This is so much fun. I don't know why. I never thought I would enjoy that so much.

[00:15:33]>> That was fun finding them. You got to look around. Where's >> Waldo? And you see their little antennas sticking out. I was afraid of them for the longest time because you think of main lobsters with the, you know, the little the pinchy claws and these don't have pinchy claws. But I thought there's got to be way a way for them to like poke you, jab you, bite you, but they don't.

[00:15:52]>> Nope. In fact, they don't even move.

[00:15:54]>> No, they just like stand there and you get close to them and if they if they feel threatened, they come out of their little house and they'll run around, go somewhere else, but they just out in the open. They'll just stand there.

[00:16:05]>> Well, we've only got a couple of days left. the lobster. It ends the end of March, April 1. No more.

[00:16:11]>> We catch them and then we stick them in the freezer immediately. Some of them are smaller and they're all legal, but then there's big ones.

[00:16:19]>> There's a couple monsters in there.

[00:16:20]>> We cooked a couple. They're delicious.

[00:16:22]>> What do you think of the ragged so far?

[00:16:23]Sea life's been pretty good.

[00:16:24]>> The sea life has been amazing. Every time we jump in, we see something big.

[00:16:28]>> I got to close this so it doesn't make any more noise.

[00:16:31]>> Put away a little shower.

[00:16:33]>> I tell you what, we haven't taken an indoor shower in weeks. as we come in from playing in the water and boiling and just immediately strip down and get the bar of soap out and >> yeah, >> at least I get the bar of soap. I don't know about you.

[00:16:46]>> Just a scrunch pad or something. I don't know. You get so used to not taking showers. Half the time you just rinse off and you're like, "Oh, it's been a while since I've showered." Who cares though? Look how we tie up our dinghy while we get the gear in and out. But it's pretty noisy. Got a noisy dingy.

[00:17:03]Oh, that wind's picking up. All right, time to grill some steaks. Time for dinner.

[00:17:18]This sunrise is beautiful. I don't think I've seen a sunrise like this before.

[00:17:33]The goats are all on the beach this morning, so we're going to go spy on them. Dave's going to put the drone up.

[00:17:41]Cuz every time we take the dinghy close to them, they just run like they get scared. So, goats on Raccoon Key are most likely brought there by people, sailors, settlers, fishermen, or local families as livestock. On remote Bohemian keys, goats are useful because they could survive on sparse vegetation, require little care, and provide a source of meat or milk. Islands act almost like natural pens surrounded by water instead of fences. And over time, some goats were left behind or became feral.

[00:18:13]Because goats are very hearty and can survive in dry, scrubby environments, they continue to reproduce. So, the goats on Raccoon Key are most likely descendants of livestock introduced by people and later left to live wild on the island.

[00:18:28]It's so windy.

[00:18:34]Boat's moving.

[00:18:38]>> No, B. Go.

[00:18:42]>> Go, B. Go.

[00:18:51]Got it.

[00:19:06]Well, we tried going outside. We're going to go to a place called Meatball Beach, but it was around the corner. The swells were too crazy and it was exposed. Changed our roots and we're going to try to find a different trail that takes us over to the other side. Do you see a trail? They said it would be marked with junk, of course.

[00:19:27]>> Said it was marked with a conchell and stuff, but I don't see anything like that.

[00:19:34]>> Probably that way.

[00:19:36]>> I think this is a trail that someone made dozen years ago. It's not really a trail.

[00:19:42]>> Maybe >> they just walk that way.

[00:19:44]>> Probably.

[00:19:49]>> Maybe it's at the other end of the beach.

[00:19:52]Well, the goats have been here. Ah, there it is. Here's the arrow.

[00:20:03]This is gross. Babe, why don't you test this out? See if it's salt water. I think it smells better.

[00:20:11]>> This reeks.

[00:20:13]>> We couldn't find a trail. Just stinks like sulfur back here. Got another boo boo.

[00:20:19]It's like our own little sidewalk.

[00:20:23]The amount of time these must have been here to be fossilized like that, it's amazing.

[00:20:48]These islands are so overgrown. We can't find half the trails. So, that one was a bust, too. Couldn't find it. Found the entrance, but couldn't find it through the the wild forest. Oh, well. On to the next thing.

[00:21:40]Thanks for being here with us. If you enjoyed this video, liking and subscribing really helps our channel grow. We hope to see you on the next adventure.