..Unfortunately not fish or at least not our fish. Yes we caught some long-line fishing kit twice in one day.

The first time we were motoring along when we noticed a panga (25' open fishing boat with an outboard motor) coming at speed to intercept us and a string of bouys or should I say plastic bottles floating in a line in front of us. We made a hard turn to port to parallel the bouys. Our plan was to run along the buoys until we came to the end and then resume our course. However, the two fisherman indicated that it was safe for us to pass through. I called to them in Spanish and told them we need 9 feet of depth, which they seemed to indicated "no problema". Well amigos there is a problem!

We turned toward the line of buoys proceeded through. Sure enough the bouys started dragging with us. Quickly we put the motor in neutral (oh yeah did I mention we are motoring...have been for the last 16 hours and it sucks). Slowly we coasted to a stop dragging a couple miles of long line and probably hundreds of fish with us. The fisherman did not seem overwhelmingly surprised. Perhaps we were their guinea pigs for a new long line design or just settling a bet. Anyways, they moved quickly and cut their line so we would not ruin their hard work.

We watched out the transom as the coarse line which was wrapped around our keel slid past Cisnecito leaving a stunt planes smoke trail of flakes and dust of $250 a gallon bottom paint (not to mention the haul out or the 30 hours Julie and I had into fairing the keel and its joint to the hull). Needless to say we learned our lesson, or so it would seem.

Later in the day, Julie noticed one of our fishing rods peeling off line like we had hooked Moby Dick. Andrew and I rushed up on deck excited to have a large fish on. By the time we reached the rod the we were endanger of being spooled (losing all of our line). We have been spooled several time before and it is so anti-climatic. When you reach the end of the line the rod just bends until something breaks usually at the knot on the reel itself upon which point it just vibrates back and forth in the rod holder while you regret the loss of hundreds of meters of mono filament and a fishing lurer.

In order to avoid getting spooled we quickly turned the boat around to chase the apparent fish. The line stopped unwinding and we noticed another string of buoys directly behind the boat. We had run over another long line which fortunately had not caught the keel but did grab our fishing lurer. We managed to motor back to the line of buoys where our lure came free then turn back on to course before anyone noticed....no harm no foul!

Feeling lucky we stepped up the diligence on our already careful watches for the rest of the afternoon. Shortly thereafter we found a third long line which took us 2 miles out of our way to clear it. If I had to guess I would say this particular long line is over 4 miles long which seems like a ridiculous hazard.

We actually have friends, Emma and Luke on Eagle Wing (see link in our sidebar) who had a similar situation on their way to the Galapagos with some fisherman off the Columbian coast. It was unnerving to say the least. Especially in those waters as they have a reputation. Thank goodness this is Mexico!