Gone fishin'

I am pleased to say that I can add “fishing off a yacht in the Atlantic Ocean” to my list of life’s experiences. We made contact with a New Zealander and his wife who have come to be on the island via yacht, who are Baptists and wanted to know about our Sunday services. This morning, these Kiwis, Lloyd and Njori called by the house briefly to invite us to dinner on their yacht!! We didn’t need any persuasion. We caught the ‘taxi service’ from the docks to their yacht, for ₤1, and boarded their beautiful vessel at about 5.30 pm. Wow, what a stunning boat. It has a covered deck at the back (I’m sure I should call it aft or starboard or something) and a trampoline at the front, and then a lounge/kitchen area with comfortable seating and a big table, and then on either side of that section there are stairs leading down towards the cabins, of which there are 4, all en-suite. Very luxurious and still very new. On board were Lloyd and Njori and their daughter Tania, 34, and another Kiwi couple who are actually the sailors, Keith and Bianca. It was a very relaxed evening of conversation, indoors or outdoors, and dinner was a delicious chicken curry. We watched the sun set and admired the vivid reds in the sky. After supper, we tried to spot some fish, throwing some breadcrumbs and left-over rice overboard, but there wasn’t much action near the surface, although we could see the occasional silvery glint of a mackerel. Since this wasn’t very fruitful, Lloyd and co got some fishing rods out, baited up the hooks, and let them in. Njori tried for a while, then handed the rod to Nick, who had been holding the torch, while I was sitting watching. Nick had a few tugs but didn’t catch anything, and then handed the rod to me. I’ve never held a baited rod in water before, and it was pretty exciting letting the weighted gut run down to the seabed, and then slowly clicking the handle back to pull up a bit. Keith showed me what to do, and said that as soon as I felt a tug I was to pull up and reel in. I felt the bite, and quickly zinged the line in as fast as I could, although it was surprisingly hard work as the fish was putting a lot of tension on the line trying to get away! Eventually it broke the surface, and I think it was a mackerel, probably about 30cm long (and that’s not a fisherman’s lie). I was so excited about catching my first fish!! I was screaming and laughing, but at the same time wondering what to do next as I didn’t want this writhing thing touching me. Thankfully Keith caught hold of it and took it off the hook, but we decided to throw it back in as I didn’t want to take it home, and I guess they can catch bigger fish themselves. Sadly, by that time the taxi was back to relay us ashore at 7.30, so we said our goodbyes and left. (Nick later confessed that he gave the fishing rod to me before risking catching anything himself, as he doesn’t have the stomach to take a live fish off the hook with its mouth gasping for water around his fingers, and it wouldn’t have been as appropriate for him to scream “don’t bring it near me” as it was for me.)