LATE NEWS! DORADO CAUGHT MID OCEAN !!

I don't now why - that this didn't get mentioned at the time - but it was one of the big events of the passage: we caught a good sized dorado or mahi mahi as we were passing over Landsdowne Bank, around the time we saw the long-liner at night (see West of New Cal - Day 5 begins).

Adrienne called: I think we've got one! I see movement in the water! Sure enough, there's a fish on the line - and we reel him in, flashing gold in the bluest blue of the sea, like a surfer coming through a wave, he's a fighter, get the gaff!... bring him alongside... Quent is reeling him in... I have the gaff... he's a beauty... I put the gaff into the gills and lift... he comes up... nearly on deck!... now he jumps off... Quent hauls him up - he's on the side deck - now in the cockpit - blood is spattering everywhere - he's thrashing - Quent (remember he has been a professional fisherman) can't kill him - he tries a hammer, he tries a knife - I remember a trick I learned from a yachtie in Zihuatanejo - alcohol - and I pour a double or two of cheap Mexican (4 men can get wasted on a Friday night for $3.00) corn spirit into his gills - he's gone! And now it starts to change colour, and I see it's big - 4 feet long - wow!!

Now begins the cleanup. Every rope and surface needs the blood cleaned off and Quent goes at this with a will, and also the filleting. Everyone is excited. The hunter-gatherer emerges from the civilized human, we are all of us gloating over the catch. Grilled fish tonight, but first - for lunch - cerviche, marinated in lime and coconut. And a great fish soup Adrienne made, did us for 2 days. Buckets of seawater are sluiced over the decks, the cockpit, the fillets. Something Has Happened. ... ... ... ...

I attempted to write this up just after the event, but other events took precedence. Now I can treat you to 2 photos - and the whole bloody story! I regret killing fish, but well - this is what happens, and I don't have any guilt about it.

(Remember, the adding of new blog posts and photos pushes some good stuff off the page - so have a dig for earlier stuff. We have internet now, so I can post photos.)