Fishes and buses
Tillymint.fortescue
Mon 28 Dec 2009 00:00
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You wait all day for a bus then 2 come along at the
same time, and today.........SO DID THE FISH..!!!
For keen eyed readers of the blog you will be
familiar with the lament of Tilly Mint's fisher folk. Many hours spent nursing
the rod, as many hours spent browsing chandleries and seeking advice on the
perfect lure and so many days ending with "ah well next time". This morning the
day began in the same way; both rods were laid out, the perfect lures
chosen and the familiar joshing around "don't catch too many boys, the freezer's
full, not another tuna, throw back the big ones" and so on and so forth. Then we
settled into our voyage, a few hours pleasantly southwards past Mustique and
onto Tobago Cays. At a few minutes past one hour
or the other the starboard reel clicked suspiciously a couple of times and ears
pricked; could this be a catch? Laurence reeled in the line, hope springing
eternal, alas just the bright green lure and a piece of seaweed. The line
went back out, the usual platitudes passed around the cockpit and we continued.
Just ahead we saw seabirds flocking around with an uncommon degree of
excitement; a cause was pondered upon - could it be fish? With scant
regard for true course or destination the wheel was thrown round and we headed
straight for the melee. Alas, not a twitch on the line, we passed through
unhindered by the need to wind in the line, the fish had scarpered and the birds
were obviously taking a stroll after dinner.
Some minutes later after setting us back on course
the Skipper gave a casual tug to the portside rod which had been neglected for
some hours now. "Blimey chaps" he gasped, "there's a fish on the hook...!!!".
Laurence leapt to the reeling, Skip pulled in the sails to slow our meteoric
boat speed, Hugo went headlong into the lazerette for the landing net and Immy
asked "shall I get the vodka" (bit early for cocktails you might think but t'was
actually to dispatch the fish). By now Laurence is fighting the flexing rod
muttering, "its a pig of fish, it really is a pig of a fish !** {CHANGE TO AT} **!". Immy
said she'd not seen a picture of a pig fish in any of the books and was it pink?
After a brave but futile fight (on the part of the fish) the men folk
landed an 8 pound fish (Laurence's estimate of weight), Immy served the vodka
martini and then we stood in stunned silence, we'd caught a black finned tuna.
That's finned with a F not tinned a T. Some moments were taken for the men folk
to pose alongside their catch, official photos were taken, it was deemed a
shared victory, after 6 months of teamwork and ambitions kindled, Tilly
Mint has landed a tuna. However Laurence has been granted a extra large slice of
the Glory Pie as he alone chose the lures and let out the line.
Well if that wasn't enough for one day, we'd just
got the tuna bagged and in the fridge when the starboard reel clicked, the line
was running. Just like buses, you wait ages for a fish and then 2 come along at
once. On a shorter line there was less of a battle, til the lure came over the
side and Skip said "stand back - this one has got teeth". It was a Barracuda,
dispatched with slightly less finesse as Skip chucked vodka straight from the
bottle at it's gills, no time to stir the martini or add the cherry on top. Also
no time for the official photo, we were heading hard for the Tobago Cays,
catamarans coming toward us in all directions and rapidly shallowing waters.
Time to pay attention to the sailing.
We're anchored up now, well fed on on bbq tuna and
struggling to find room for the banana bread pud (the children will show great
fortitude in the task and I predict success). The Cays are beautiful, tiny,
uninhabited islands surrounded by reefs. Somewhere that you can only visit by
boat, hence the waters around are very habited, indeed the scene is something
like a marina but without the pontoons. Lots of ARC boats too.
Oh and about Christmas, we had a good couple of
days, lots of swimming and snorkeling, the grown-ups fell asleep in the cockpit
after dinner on Christmas day and we watched a Bond movie, so some nods to
tradition. The boys graduated from their scuba course and are now qualified to
dive 40 feet with the Skip. Immy and I went to visit a turtle
sanctuary and learned many things that we
didn't know about turtles but the best of all was that they are ticklish; if you
rub their shells hard they get all unnecessary and flap about til they've had
enough and soak you with a flick of a flipper. There are lots of photo's
but I've had to post them to the blog separately due to my own technical
limitations and the overwhelming significance of catching a TUNA.
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