Wahoo - Fish for Supper!!

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sun 20 Dec 2015 13:37
16:35.52N 22:54.63W
One thing about cruising the River Gambia is that you learn to use the depth sounder to navigate with. The plotter is amazingly accurate in the main river - even the charted depths are pretty good and you can follow them. As soon as you leave the main channel though things start to go awry and once in the creeks you are soon motoring overland. Entering creeks is therefore a matter of getting to the entrance with the plotter and then feeling your way in with the depth. The cruising guide, even from 2009, is likely to be out of date and so following the recommended line is not likely to be helpful. We couldn’t find a way into one highly recommended creek and had to stay on the edge of the main river. When you can get in it is well worth it and you are rewarded with wonderful tranquility and birdsong. We found this in Tabiere Creek on our last night before heading back to Lamin Lodge.
On the way back to Lamin we stopped at James Island which has a chequered history as a (mainly) British fort in a strategic location for guarding trade in the river. It is now a World Heritage Site called Kunte Kinte Island with an invented history around the slave trade prompted by the Roots book and film; this seems to be a sure fire way of achieving World Heritage status. We anchored 100m off and took the dingy across to the jetty. It is a very small island with just the ruined fort, a few trees and disused light tower which had a local fisherman asleep on the top when we arrived. As we left a tourist party from the nearest village a couple  of miles away arrived and the guides beckoned us back to the jetty. We waved and declined, thinking they wanted us to join in a tour for the usual gift. However, they became very insistent and motored over to Vega and demanded that we return to the island to discuss the position. We declined again and a uniformed man got really agitated, saying he was more important than the police and we would be in trouble if we tried to leave. We were adamant we were leaving, he was to keep clear of our boat and hoped he would report us as we would lodge an official complaint. When asked if he wanted a landing fee his colleague said yes and they asked for 8500 Dalasi (£150). At this point the uniformed official refused to give his name and rank and despite his dire warnings we weighed anchor and left. When we arrived back at Lamin we met a party of official tourist guides - all dressed in the same uniform but fortunately more friendly than the one at James Island!
Before taking Alex back to the airport and spending the afternoon there on the internet we had met up with Charlotte and Charlie the previous evening for a lamp light drink at Lamin Lodge. They brought along Kerry-Anne and Lamin - she from Australia and he from the village where Charlotte and Charlie were staying. They run Coconut Lodge - C&C’s accommodation - and were getting married in two days time. We delayed our departure from Gambia and Annie and I took the dingy through the mangroves to the wedding, causing much amusement on departure with our dingy left high and dry on the falling tide. Charlie did the honourable thing and waded across the mud to lift the dingy back into the water and we left with a big crowd of locals waving us off.
On Wednesday we stopped off at Banjul for a painless stamping of our passports, gift free. We stocked up on fruit and veg from the market and headed off for Cabo Verde.
Whilst in the Canaries we located an outlet selling fishing gear and with the aid of three locals selected the sure fire way of catching Dorado from the boat and it was all set up for us at great expense. Alex used the rod for the week in the River Gambia without so much as a nibble (as ever, sorry Alex). Charlie took up the challenge on the sail over to Cabo Verde and immediately had a problem with the reel. He and Annie tried to sort it out and succeeded in dropping a vital nut overboard - no fishing rod. Never mind, we resorted to the hand fishing reel (that we had previously been told would do the job), put on a lure and - yahoo, a Wahoo was soon aboard! A bit like a small barracuda, the fish identification book said Wahoo was good eating and so it proved to be, baked with garlic, lemon and white wine. Sorry again Alex.
On the sailing front we are getting regular north easterly trade wind. The cruising guide says that the best Atlantic crossing is from Cabo Verde to Antigua in January or February. The trade wind blows from north of east, the course is slightly north of west and the whole trip can be undertaken on a starboard tack. We shall see………………. In the meantime we are heading up the west coast of Sal to Palmeira for the immigration formalities.
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