Fish! Good days for catching ‘em and eating ‘em.

We had a spectacular time up at North Long Cocoa – this time with Liam aboard. He caught a frigate mackerel on the way up, and after talking with Harry at Garbutt Cay, we knew it wasn’t a throw away fish. Liam carefully cut it into nuggets, slicing away all the dark red meat, then dipped them in beer batter and fried them up and they were mouthwateringly delicious. I thought there might be a strong taste because the meat was still dark, but it was wonderful.

The wind dropped overnight and by morning we were facing due west – good thing I hadn’t tried to go in closer to shore (we were anchored in about 20 ft) because we would have found our stern mixing it up with shallows and coral heads. Once again, we snorkeled for hours over the reefs on the South side, and once again we marveled at the colours of the coral and followed the fish around. Liam fished around the flats but didn’t catch anything from the dinghy – Sarah (Cannonball) told him it was because of the full moon – the fish were hunting at night.

The moon was certainly full and bright too – technically it was full on Monday, but it lit up the sky both nights we were anchored there, and with no wind the sea was like glass. In fact we spent a good long time on Monday morning just gazing down from the deck or the dinghy. We could see 20’ down as easily as if it was 5’. Crystal clear water and no ripples allowed us to see countless tiny fish darting by, plump yellow and red starfish settled among the grass, a couple of spotted eagle rays drifting along and even a nurse shark lazily swishing along the bottom. I was in the water with my snorkel when he went by and we just looked at each other for a while before he headed off.

Because of the big wind coming on Saturday, we started counting backward and determined that we needed to get back to Placencia to check out so we hoisted the sails and reluctantly left this favourite cay to go back once again to town. As we passed the shallow (25’) parts among the deep water (80 – 100’) we kept fishing lines out and had good success. Liam pulled in another frigate mackerel, and as I was pulling in the yoyo line to keep it from getting caught up when he thought he had something else on, I called out, “It’s stuck on something!” Shows how much I fish, because he looked back and said, “Mum, you’ve got a fish on there!” With great excitement, I pulled in a fat, big mouthed fish that we eventually identified as a Cravelle Jack. Again – not supposed to be good eating according to our Sportfish of the Atlantic book, but we’ve learned that lesson already. By the time we turned the corner at Colson Cay, we had those two fish and another Spanish Mackerel (possibly Cero?) on the cockpit floor and Liam started cutting and cleaning. (We are sure going to miss him when he leaves! We can do that part, but not as efficiently as he can, and it is always a messy job.)

As we turned into Placencia harbour after a leisurely sail, we had bowls if fish chunks and plans for dinner. We anchored beside Patron and a couple of hours later, Honey Lynn and Ted, Liam, Jim and I were digging into Frigate Nuggets (now Liam’s gourmet specialty) and Cravelle nuggets and cole slaw and chocolate cake (courtesy of Patron). It was a fantastic evening.

Today, Tuesday, is check out day. We took the 7:45 Hokey Pokey boat to Big Creek where we climbed into a taxi. Williams drove us to Immigration and Customs and the Port Authority. We paid our $7.50 per person to Immigration, and topped up the $5 per day per boat to the Port Captain (who is exceptionally friendly – totally unlike the others who are all business – not nasty, just cool and formal.) We made a little detour to pick up Williams’ daughter, dressed in her brown skirt and spotless white blouse and with flowery sandals on her tiny feet and take her to preschool, and were back at the dock by 8:50 to wait for the 10 o’clock boat.

It is time to leave Belize for Roatan. Jim and Jeannie (Estelle) are on their way (we heard them on Chris Parker’s SSB weather report this morning. Appleseed and another boat will be heading the same way at a similar time and we’ll all be safely in French Harbour before the big winds come on Saturday.