Fishes and buses

Tillymint.fortescue
Mon 28 Dec 2009 00:00

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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