Good Fishing !

Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Thu 7 May 2009 13:16
22:35.67N 073:37.66W  West Plano Cay
 
Last night we were invited for sundowners by Mark & Chris from Silhouette, who are from Texas and sailing down to the Caribbean.  It is great to meet other cruisers and interesting to look at their boats, swop ideas and stories. Sundowners are, of course, a key daily ritual of cruising!
Today we motored north west to West Plano Cay -  There has been no wind and the sea is perfectly flat, a lovely day for fishing & tanning but a bad day for sailing. About halfway along , Mike spotted some birds and we turned around, before long we had a fish on the line. Johnny was on the rod and after quite a fight, pulled in about a 20kg yellow-fin tuna - which has re-stocked our freezer. Tonight we will start with some sashimi and then have braai'ed tuna steaks. Its a tough life out here!
 
        
 
West Plano Cay is supposedly uninhabited island, although we found a hut and signs of life of a goat-herder/ fisherman. We took a walk on the windward side to do a little beach combing. It is amazing what gets washed up on these shores, sadly the majority is a lot of plastic bottles, followed by single shoes and then old fishing floats and nets. We are anchored on the leeward side, which has a magnificent sandy beach and numerous coral heads, which we will snorkel on tomorrow.  Mike had a marathon day yesterday with his Hawaiian sling,  and managed to shoot a very nice sized grouper. We are a still concerned about Ciguatera and so I think it will be used for bait. In the process of all this reef diving, he managed to touch some poisonous coral and his left hand is now swollen and full of blisters. We are treating it as best we can and hopefully by tomorrow the swelling will have gone down, as there are many more critter holes here!