Fish fly onto our boat!

Lady Stardust Faro-Portugal to Barcelona - 2010
Paul Collister
Tue 5 Dec 2006 23:29
The sea began to get rougher than it had been all day late yesterday
afternoon. Paul was on watch from 6-8pm and I was down below making a salad
for me and preparing the Briam for Paul when I heard him yell out that he'd
been hit by a fish. The poor thing was flapping around in a panic on the
cockpit floor (the fish that is) and we had to work out how to get it out.
Paul attempted to pick it up but it kept slipping out of his hands.
Eventually we - well Paul - managed to get it into a bucket and tipped it
into the sea. Realising that it might happen again on my watch, Paul had
the admirable foresight to warn me to yell out 'fish!' if I was alarmed so
that he wouldn't think I'd gone overboard if I screamed. It does make you
jump when it happens - I felt it whizz past my arm and land with a thump on
the seat next to me. There followed a comic scene with me crying out 'FISH
FISH' while trying to scoop it up in a tumbler. Paul scrambling about below
putting his shorts on to come to my aid and the fish leaping
frantically around on the cockpit floor. We managed to get this one in the
bucket and returned to the sea, too and Paul went back to bed. Later, when
another one landed I decided against calling Paul since if this was going to
go on all night, he'd probably tell me to leave them there and he'd have
them for breakfast, so I picked it (and several more after it) up and threw
it back into the sea - it made the watch different anyway. This morning the
cockpit was full of pretty shiny scales and we've had no further visits.
Today has been overcast with a few minor squalls and the sea has been at its
roughest yet. Waves have been breaking over the cockpit and soaking us more
than once and the rocking makes it extremely difficult to do anything but
I'm determined to keep doing all the things I'd normally do. Tonight's
challenge is to make a macaroni cheese in these hazardous conditions. We
are making good progress and our latest eta for St. Lucia is 18th December.
Cheers, Kathy