The fish gods have not been kind to us since we got back here. Although we finally had a fish dinner, it was not without great difficulty. Day 1: No fish. Just a couple of bites, but each time the fish threw the hook. Day 2: More promising bites, and two fish caught. Unfortunately, they had to be thrown back as they were too small. Day 3: Just bites, and one that took a lot of line out before it threw the hook (almost hitting Mike in the face). By this time, we are getting very unhappy. I can't figure out why I am not catching anything. I am feeling as though I have lost my touch. I am using a new rod, and it is stiffer than my old one, but that doesn't explain it. By the way, during this whole time we are switching up lures, all sorts of things. So Day 4: Finally I catch a nice grouper. It will make a delicious pan fish for the two of us. We will gut it (of course) and cut only the head and tail off (so it will fit in the pan) but otherwise cook it whole, Salvadoran style. So back to the boat we go, and Mike decides to clean it in the dinghy, since it has to be scaled and the scales fly around all over the plan and make a mess on the deck. He cleans the fish, and then - here is where it gets sad - when he leans down to swish the fish in the water to do a final rinse, he drops it!!!! I would have dove in after it except I knew it would sink faster than I could dive. We fished some more that day, but of course nothing. Anyway, Day 5: I catch a nice large sierra. As I am reeling it in and getting it into the boat, Mike knocks it off the hook and again, it is gone! We keep fishing, and finally I catch another sierra, about a third of the size of the first one, but we get it into the boat safely, Mike cleans it safely, and I cooked it and we ate it. I hope the curse is broken.
Today we made water for the first time in a couple of weeks. We filled both tanks, and I did two loads of laundry. I have two more to go. Since I do it in a five gallon bucket, the loads are small. (By the way, I only do laundry like this when we are out in the middle of nowhere. In port, I have it done or find a Laundromat. I prefer the former, naturally.) Sheets take two loads - a sheet and pillowcase in each load. They dry fast, though. Now that the humidity is down, the laundry dries in a couple of hours.
It has been wonderful here. We still have the place to ourselves, and since the last post, there have only been pangas coming through. Last night we were sleeping and I woke up about midnight, because I thought I heard a voice calling out. Mike woke up too, and when he looked outside, there was a panga out there. The guys were out of gas, so Mike gave them a gallon, and they went on their way. That is far from being the first time we have helped these guys out with gas, but it IS the first time it happened in the middle of the night. We sometimes have them stop and ask for water, too. When it is really dark and the moon is all gone, the fish have been putting on a real fancy show with all the bio-lum. It is amazing, like a fireworks show in the water. The water is filled with flashes of light that appear and disappear all around the boat. I love watching it, and never get tired of it. When a school of hundreds of tiny little fish all suddenly group together and jump out of the water and then back in and scatter, it is truly a sight to behold and I wish I had better words to describe it. We also saw a new kind of fish today - we saw four of them, ranging from one half inch to about two inches. I saw the first one and thought it was a leaf floating on the water until all of a sudden it darted (no other word for it, "swam very fast" does not describe it at all) about a foot through the water and then stopped. Now leaves float along, but they do not dart. So I watched it for awhile, and realized it was a fish. It could spread its dorsal fins and its tail until it looked like a butterfly in the water. When it was furled up, it looked like a leaf. It seemed to be eating plankton or some such stuff in the water. The water was not super clear at that point - we have currents that run through that bring debris with them, stuff that has come out of the rivers and creeks in these islands. The fish came with that, but this is the first time I have ever seen them. If one is really careful out here, it is probably possible to see something new almost every day.
Well, that is enough for now. We are just hanging out, enjoying being. That's it.
"In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them." (Aldo Leopold)
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