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Shiva - Log day 7 - Flying fish



November 29, 2015 – Today we are getting slightly nervous of the little wind that we have in this part of the ocean. We’ve seen on the grib files (weather navigation files) that a more windy area is 120 miles away from us. And that’s what we are heading towards. Last night we have tried to make as much speed as possible by putting up and down the helm (oploeven en afvallen) but we couldn’t get much faster than 5, maximum 6 knots. With today the same low wind projection we finally decided to put the motor on so we can get faster in the more windy area.

 

Daan had the 6.30AM morning shift and threw out his fishing line, believing most fish bite when the sun is rising. 1 or 2 hours later he yelled he had a catch and all of us approached him to assist and to take pictures and make a video. It was a big one! Daan was busy taking in the line, Herman grabbed the hook to pull the fish into the boot, Gerard put the knife and the alcohol ready, Mariette watered the cockpit to prevent it from blood stains, and Inge and I had the cameras ready. And then… the fish flew! It managed to unstring itself from the hook and went off like a flying fish…

 

What a pity!! We tried to cheer ourselves up by counting the real flying fish around our boat. Since a few days we see quite some silver coloured, shiny, tiny fish flying just above the water. Sometimes just 1, sometimes a bunch of them – really nice. But the real joy came when the sun was high in the sky…

 

… and Daan yelled he had a catch! Again all 6 of us jumped into action to assist Daan. This time everything went perfect and we pulled a beautiful blue, yellow coloured Mahi Mahi into the cockpit. At this moment in time we had 2 fishing line out. So just after pulling in the first fish, we also had a catch on the second line! When the second fish was almost pulled in – also a Mahi Mahi – it again got off the hook and off it went. Luckily this time no disappointment, because Herman started fileting the first fish we caught. And because the fish continued to bite! Fish number 4 had bitten off the bait and the hook, or the line had broken. Fish number 5 was lost and also went off like a flying fish. Fish number 6 was a Bonito (a sort of Tuna but smaller) and we caught it nicely and neatly. Fish number 7 was a Mahi Mahi, much bigger than the ones we have caught so far, and was pulled into the cockpit.

 

Wow what a day! Even though no wind and still on motor, we caught 3 fish which made our day. Herman is a professional in fileting and now we have 2 kilograms of delicious fish meat in the fridge. We’re thinking of making a fish curry for lunch, having smoked fish for the borrel, and grilled fish the day after. It looks like Daan is indeed going to catch so much fish that we will get nauseous of it ;)

 



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