Yesterday we went fishing and caught a great big white seabass. I put a picture of it on Facebook, and will do so again here. It was quite exciting. We have not had much luck with our fishing since we started this trip - on the way we caught only three fish but had to let them go as one of them was a mako shark and the other two were threasher sharks. (Now shark steaks are delicious - we did catch a mako a few years back with a panga fisherman on a charter. We would not have kept it, but all three of us - me, Mike, and Chino - all thought it was a tuna. When Mike yanked it into the boat, I thought Chinp was going to leap out of the boat. Then he grabbed a club and started whaling away. You will never convince a panga fisherman to throw anything back. That is the long was of explaining as to why I know how good shark is.) Anyway, good taste not withstanding, there is a rule we have which is no sharks in the cockpit. So we had to let those guys go, and didn't catch anything else. A lot of that is due to the fact that the water is colder than it should be, so the dorado (mahi mahi) and other game fish are elsewhere. But we do not give up easily. We took our dinghy out and let out a trolling line while we motored gently along. After a while, we noticed there were a whole bunch of fishing boats all grouped together and decided they must be there for a good reason, so we headed that way. As we approached them, I saw one guy pulling in what looked like a big fish from the bend in his rod, and also noted to Mike that it smelled sort of fishy. Mike told me to keep watching the guy to see what he pulled in, and I was doing so when Mike yelled out that he had one on. I took over the helm, and we let the fish pull us around for a while, with me making sure the line did not get wrapped around the propeller. It only took about 15 minutes to gaff him and pull him in. We immediately headed back because there was no way we could handle another fish that size in the dinghy, and we don't have much freezer space, and we can only eat so much before we leave. I was responsible to getting the stringer on the fish and tying it off to the dinghy, so if he squirmed out, we wouldn't lose him. When we made it back to the dock and showed him off, everyone came running out to look at him. It was a lot of fun, and as usual Mike did a great job of cleaning him.
Isn't he marvelous?
We also took our lines out of the water while underway because we kept seeing marlins, and did not want to catch a fish that big.
Another exciting thing is that we have made a whole bunch of new friends at a different marina. It all started when we ordered a new wheel for our dinghy to replace the one we lost in Turtle Bay. (We had left the dinghy in the water tied up to the boat. We tied it too close, and the wheel was rubbing against the little steps used to climb in and out of the boat. It rubbed loose and disappeared sometime in the night.) When we talked to the guy in Long Beach (via Skype) who sold the wheels and he discovered we were here, he told us to look up a friend of his who lived on a boat here. We did, and got along really well. We went over there a few days ago and spent the day drinking beer and visiting with a new group of people. Mike joined them in a horseshoe tournement and ended up being one of the best players. (If you knew Mike that would not be a surprise - he can do almost anything really well if he wants to.) It was not good for my blood sugar but it was a lot of fun. I hope they are all still there when we get back.
Today we are going to the mercado. I'll take some pictures, because I will not be able to do it justice with my measly words. Have a great day!
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