John catches half a Tuna!
25 January 2008 | Passage to Long Island
We spent 9 glorious days in Mayaguana enjoying the snorkeling, hunting, beach combing and solitude. We indulged in a smorgasbord of seafood which we collected on our daily hunting outings! The beach was covered in sea beans and hamburgers and we must have a kilo of them. Sea beans and hamburgers are beans which float across the ocean from Africa, they come from a tree which the name escapes me at the moment! What is it about walking on a beach, I always have to search for treasures! We wieghed anchor on Wednesday, the "norther" had blown through and the seas had calmed down, swells were 6 feet 9 sec out of the NE and winds were out of the SE, just right for a sail heading NW. It was an overnight sail to Long Island, 110 miles which took us 21 hours. We had an enormous full moon following us all night long. I remember making this sail south 2 years ago with m/v Dreamweaver, s/v Amanzi, Dalilah and Savvy. It was nice to have all the company and chat with friends in the wee hours of the morning. As ususal we had four fishing lines trailing behind EIRA. The Bahamian waters are proving to be quite fertile and zing out goes the line- it's John's turn at the reel. It's a mahi mahi and proceeds to give us a show by jumping out of the water and flashing all its vibrant colors of blues and greens. Menno took over the job of having to land the fish, it put up a good fight. ok- one in the box! By midmorning we get another strike on the rod and John jumps to the task of bringing this fish in. It's a yellow fin tuna! He is doing a great job of reeling in our dinner when suddenly we notice a big fat barracuda chasing after OUR tuna! John reels faster and the fish is next to the boat, Menno grabs the line ready to swing the tuna into the cockpit when "crunch" the barracuda chomps the tune in half! The nerve! The tuna was such a good size that the half the baracuda left for us was still enough for a full meal! It was delish!