After a très wonderful soirée spent sipping sundowners with Blue Heaven and Strathspey, whom we haven't crossed paths since Vero Beach, we were up and at 'em bright and early to start our treck "back North". No, no worries mon, we aren't really breaking our mantra (of always going Somewhere South of Somewhere), we were going more like quasi-North, and only up to Staniel Cay.

Before we knew it we were on our way, out the zig-zag cut and back in the warm baby blue horizon of skies that matched up oh so perfectly with the over 3000 feet of deep purplish hues of water that Banyan was slicing through.



We were happily motoring along, with the jib out, trying to catch the very light breeze to help push us along. For a while it worked, but not for long. Ah, such is the life of sailing wanna-be's, as in this instance we needed to cover some miles and get to our destination.

However, we knew that TODAY was going to be the day. THE day we were going to catch ourselves our first fish. We were ready. I keep saying (thoughts become things, right?) that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Well, we (the students) feel ready !

We put the line out. Made sure it was nice and long. And sat back and waited. And waited. And watched. And listened. Nothing.

"Banyan, Banyan, this is Polar Pacer.
Polar Pacer, this is Banyan.
Yeah, go one eight.
Swtiching to 18.
Yeah, Banyan here.
Polar Pacer here, yeah we just caught a three foot Mahi Mahi, fish are biting today !!"

Woohoo... the excitement is building.
We both looked at our visibly empty line, and at the waters... still not seeing anything, no fish, not a thing... and well...

"Yeah Polar Pacer, Banyan here. Good on you. We'll keep trying."

And so we remembered someone back in Georgetown telling us that his MAGIC TRICK was WD40, or barring that, some Bain de Soleil. Smells like fish I guess? He swears by it!

So we reeled the line back in, checked everything, sprayed some on, let it drag back out. And sat back and waited. And waited. And watched. And listened. Nothing...

"Banyan, Banyan, this is Polar Pacer.
Polar Pacer, this is Banyan.
Yeah, switch up to, umm, 10.
Switching to 10.
Yeah, Banyan here.
Polar Pacer here, yeah we just caught another one. This one's bigger, must be at least four feet !! Our cooler's getting full !!"
(Getting kinda jealous here)
WOW, Polar Pacer, wow, that's awesome, good on you."

And so we rechecked our lines. Made sure we actually had a rod. And a line. And that the lure was still on there? (you never know, right, lol?) And sat back. And waited. And watched...



And then we heard it. The tzing tzing of the reel letting loose. Oh wow, we got our gloves ready. We got our gaff ready. We got our gloves on. Dave's sweating reeling it in. The rod is bending. It's big and it's heavy and it's there. We can almost see it. We can almost smell it. We can hmm, almost taste it. Heart's a-thumpin... we're a-grinnin...

And then the line goes slack. And the rod straightens out. And we lost it. Damn.

So we sailed some more, dejected. Pouting... consoling ourselves that, hey, at least we got "a bite"... and then...

"Banyan, Banyan, this is Polar Pacer.
Polar Pacer, this is Banyan.
Yeah, just caught a monster of a fish - it's at least 5 feet - it's a bull for sure holy FRIG it's big. "

"Yeah Banyan, Polar Pacer here. This beast just broke my rod in half. And it broke my gaff, how do I reel this beast in ??"

Umm... we have no idea, since we obviously can't even catch seaweed !

"Yeah, Polar Pacer here. I'm going to try roping his tail and drag him in that way."

So anyhow, a swift change of events had us turning into Little Farmer's Cay instead of our intended Black Point anchorage, to wait for Polar Pacer's arrival and hopefully help him clean and fillet them. If we can't catch fish, maybe we, as students, will learn how to clean and fillet them, right?



In the meantime we went to check in to the Little Farmer's Cay Marina. And guess what, a wee little fishing boat arrived. And they had 4 large hog-fish. And about a dozen lobsters the size of my thigh and the length of my leg. Yeesh.



About an hour later Polar Pacer pulled in on the mooring ball right behind us, and had already done all the cleaning and filleting needed so alls we could do was hand him a cold beer or three, in exchange for a meal of three inch freshly filleted Mahi Mahi Steaks. Awesome.

We asked Polar Pacer what his trick was.

"Well, my friend, you go out and buy the largest horseshoe you can find.
And then you stick it as far up your A&& as you can".

Words of Wisdom.
We will keep fishing. We will not give up my friends.