Joanna - Fishy business

Fishy business - an update from Joanna

It's been a quick start to ARC2022 with strong winds and high waves for the first few days. A quick start can't be said for Joanna's fishing experience - well until today.

After the initial excitement of the start in Las Palmas and first set of night shifts, we dropped our fishing lines in the hope of having a tasty, fresh dinner to celebrate a successful departure. After a long day of waiting for a bite, we pulled the lines having had no luck. To our surprise when the lines were back onboard, we saw one of the lures had been bitten off and line snapped - how did we miss that!? What a turtle disaster! It wasn't all bad - we were still rewarded with an excellent sunset.

A similar situation happened over the next few days. The crew eagerly dropped the lines, waiting for a bite but it appeared all the fish were otherwise occupied - what a load of pollacks. Despite our lack of success we made sure we kept busy while waiting for a bite which included exercise classes, face painting and lots of Lego building (for both adults & kids).

After several days of no luck, we tried a change of tactic and started night fishing under a spectacular starlit sky. This new approach seemed to pay off."oh my cod!!" The crew shouted when we heard the sound of the reel being pulled out. Despite it being 2am, the two crew on shift enthusiastically started pulling in the line. Was our dry spell about to end? We sure hoped so. Alas, it was a false alarm and we'd managed to catch a squid leg. What a load of carp - that wasn't going to feed the crew.

The crew on Joanna don't give up easily and are all optimists. As usual, the lines were dropped in the morning and the waiting game begun dispersed between other activities and entertainment. Just after lunch the rare sound of the reel started and everyone jumped into action. Could this be it!?

Joanna's skipper expertly took the rod and started to reel in whatever was on the other end. All the crew watched excitedly as we saw something thrashing around in the waves. Finally the wait was over - we were having fish for dinner. A beautiful 67cm Dorado was ours.

After all the excitement and clean up, the crew wanted a well deserved rest but we weren't given the opportunity. The reel started going and everyone jumped into action again. Before long we had a second Dorado, 68 cm, onboard and were kept busy with more filleting.

If a double catch wasn't enough excitement for one afternoon, one of the crew started shouting - "whales!!!" A small pod of whales passed nearby and everyone stopped to take in the sight - how spectacular. However, this was short lived as we naïvely had left the fishing lines out. everyone recognised the now familiar sound of the reel and we scored a hat-trick - all within 2 hours. Our biggest (75cm) and most colourful Dorado was caught. It turns out any fin is possible.

It's been a busy afternoon but it definitely gave us the opporTUNAity to brush up on our filleting skills. We cooked a whole selection of battered, peppered and marinaded Dorado for dinner - what a treat!

If anyone is nearby and wants to jump aboard for some Dorado, let minnow, we've got plenty to go around.

Over and out - coming up with more fish puns is a right pain in the bass.