Day 3 at sea, I awoke, thanks to Óisin shortly before dawn and headed up to Wolf in the cockpit, handed the baby off to him and went back down to make some coffee. No sooner had I the coffee poured and I heard the shout go up......Dolphins!!!! Dolphins just make your soul rejoice don’t they? They are such joyful creatures, you can’t help but be present in the moment when you see them, when there is nothing more important in the world than watching them play.
I rushed up to see Óisin jumping up and down and rocking from side to side as babies do when they are excited. His whole body displaying the joyful energy that dolphins inject into all of us. His eyes wide in his head, his little mouth open and tiny finger pointing, ooh, ooh, ooh, he says, fishy, oh wow!!! Absolutely mesmerised by the show he is witnessing, and I, who normally cannot take my eyes off the dolphins, this morning could not take my eyes off my boy watching the dolphins. I sat there, coffee in hand, as dawn broke on the horizon behind us painting the sky with layers of varying shades of red and pink, watching my baby watching dolphins and smiling the kind of smile that fills your whole being. Could there be a more perfect start to the day? This is why we do this. To top it all off, our beautiful Mindelo avocados were just starting to ripen so once the dolphins had left us we treated ourselves to perfectly ripe avo and tomato on warm bread fresh from the oven. Now we are really spoiling ourselves. Have we died and gone to heaven?
The action with our wounded butterfly over the first couple of days seemed now a distant memory as the wind and sea conditions had eased and we slowly began to settle into life at sea. Today seemed like the perfect day to try our hand at fishing. Now to bring you all up to speed, neither Wolf nor I know a single thing about fishing. I mean really, zero, nada, zip. Heiko is equally as clueless. Despite that, we all felt if we were going to sail across an ocean we should at least try to catch our own supper. So earlier in the year Wolf and I went to Decathlon on Lanzarote to kit ourselves out with rod, reel, lure and whatever else seemed like essential fishing kit. Our very nice and most helpful sales guy Carlos talked us through the basics, set up our line and sent us on our way, buoyed and ready to catch dozens of Tuna. Since then we have had precisely no success in catching a fish. Our only catch to date is a seagull, who swiped the one fish that we did manage to hook and then got himself tangled in our line, so we had to reel him in to free him. Track record aside, we were feeling optimistic. So, full of anticipation, we rather clumsily cast out the line.
Wolf headed down below to get some shut eye and was down all of about 5 minutes when Heiko and I hear this clicking sound. We both looked up at each other with the same quizzical look, what’s that noise? It took a few minutes to register, so unaccustomed to the sound as we were, that there was something on the line. The shout went up, FISH ALARM! And Wolf was up again in seconds. He grabbed the rod like a Profi and started to reel it in. Holy s**t it’s a monster he says. It’s really fighting. The rod was bowing with the pressure, let it play for a bit, tire itself out I say. Oh man says Wolf it’s a big one, get the binos, can you see it? Heiko is recording it all with his camera, Óisin aware there is something exciting happening but not quite sure what, is running around the cockpit saying ooh, ooh, oh wow and Cúisle is shouting words of encouragement to Wolf. You are doing great dad, keep going. After about 20 minutes of this exciting family affair the line goes limp. The beast had managed to escape, how disappointing. What’s more he had bitten the lure clean off the line. Now we had to figure out how to put another one back on. First time for everything I guess. Out with the E-book on knots, fishing knots, aha, this is the one we need says Wolf. So after a little while spent mastering the knot, a new lure is secured to the line and out it is cast again. Isn’t life just one great big beautiful learning curve?
Before long we had another bite, FISH ALARM! Cúisle was watching a movie down below, I called down, Cúis we have a fish, we have a fish. I will believe it when I see it she says. Hahaha, the voice of experience there, and sure enough that one got away too. We cheered ourselves up with a delicious fresh mango salad with chillies, fresh coriander, red peppers, cherry tomatoes and lime juice accompanied by sautéed king prawns. That did the trick. Fed and watered we were ready to try again. The line went out and we went about our day. Reading stories to the kids, doing art projects, you know, all the usual life at sea kinda things!!
We don’t fish by night so with our bellies full of smoked salmon and spinach risotto just before sun set Heiko and I had looked at each other, I guess that’s it for the fishing today, I say. Shame says Heiko, I really thought today was the day. Me too I say. Heiko gets up to take in the line and there it is, the clicking sound, we’ve got another one!! FISH ALARM. This one is ours. Wolf grabs the rod, come to daddy little fishy. Heiko is looking through the binos. I can see it he says, definitely a fish. This one is coming in much easier says Wolf. Oh no the line has gone limp. Is it gone? No, No still there, it’s just getting tired says Wolf. This looks promising. A frenzied excitement starts to build. I am down below filling syringes full of alcohol to kill it off kindly. Cúisle is by Wolf’s side, with words of encouragement and Óisin is once agin running around in excited circles. Here it comes says Wolf. Would you look at that, we have only just gone and caught ourselves a yellow fin Tuna. Smiles, cheers and pats on the back all round. Now all we have to do is figure out how to gut and fillet it says Wolf.
That is a story for another day. This one ended with the sun setting on the horizon in front of us and the thought of fresh tuna sashimi for supper the following day.
Yes indeed folks, we SHALL have a fishy on a little dishy.
Ahhhh boatlife.
That’s the Saoirse crew out until the next time.
Stay tuned.
By Aisling Fenix
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