apparently someone else did think the red squid was attractive although the fish did bite a good deal after sunset so its not clear how well he saw our perfect lure. aimee and i where happily below finishing of a plate of meat and cheese and "bang" i heard the shock cord snap. i went on deck and low and behold there was a fish still attached to our line. i had the presence of mind to remove my sarong and grab the one fish glove we still have before i started realling the guy in hand over hand. i yelled for aimee to grab the gaff and as i pulled this nasty looking guy onto the swim step and before i could say anything to aimee she gaffed it right through! ok so thats done i thought. i decided to go with scotts method of tying a line around the tail to gain control of the thing (which was still quite alive and thrashing). we got this done and got it lashed to the back of the boat and after stabbing the gills a bit towed it head down while we finished up dinner.
when i retuned it "seemed" dead but i was not taking any chances and stabbed it a few times in the head, noting no response i declared it dead and tied it to the winch with its head down out of the cockpit on the swim step. of course it was dark by this point so we had a bit of fire drill getting lights and knives and everything but once i had it decured to the winch i proceeded to pull two massive filets off it while aimee held a light and took photos.
after the first fish larry "cleaned" in the cockpit on the first haha i am always cautious about trying to avoid a blood bath. larry actually had the whole cockpit full of bloody water by the time his fish was complete but thats another story! this one came out remarkable smoothly with a minimal an mount of blood all contained. i "skinned" half of one filet but was not super happy with the results. the last time i had a fish on board i think scott was showing mica how to clean it and i tried to bring this back to my memory.
we still dont really know what we have, aimee thinks its a kingfish but she was just reading about a woman who sailed around the world in the 80s alone who caught a king fish so perhaps this is just on the top of her mind. it might also be one of the fish chad used to like to get to make civiche in mexico with but i can remember the name. one thing is sure it was big and mean looking and there was no way we where going to let it go! the plan for tomorrow is fish tacos for lunch and grilled fish for dinner and we will still have two massive pieces in the freezer.
good thing this was on the list of things to get done before we make landfall in 36 hours. other than this we had our standard relaxing day. i got the last egg for breakfast. we had left over mushi pork for lunch. we stopped for swim call in the afternoon and finally finished off the day with a new palapa cocktail the "mango martini". you take fresh mango, freeze it then add it to vodka, soda water and lots of ice, it will be going into the book
that about it, its 2100 local here i finally got aimee to bed after all the excitement. we are blasting along at 5 to 6 kts at 2100 rmp with 200 nm to go to st lucia. we should have enough fuel in the mains until tomorrow am and then we still have 30 gal in jerry cans down below. got some more great sunset pics tonight but alas they will have to wait.
cheers,
it actually
cheers,
roger
IMG_8158.