 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
After retrieving my Kayak ( see : May 4).. ( thank you Christof for the use of your dinghy) and doing our Nordhavn Photo Shoot ( thank you Christof again), and saying goodbye to the SeaLevel II crew Kim and Cam ( Hey, don’t feel sorry for them, they have already had almost three weeks of holiday down here!!!)… we raised anchor and headed North into the Sea of Cortez.
We aren’t exactly sure where we are going, as one of the plans is to connect with Duet, Ron and Nancy – but timing isn’t quite right as they are heading south and ultimately back around and up the outside to a more northerly port for the storms. We shall see what the crew of Colibri wants to do for an itinerary. Most likely we will be making it up as we go along. Now THAT’S boating!!!
There is a slight haze in the sky, but it is warm. As we came out of Partida the wind was blowing hard and there were some two foot waves making things rolly polly, so we put out the stabilizers just in case. Better safe than sorry. And I put out a fishing line, because, as you know, you miss 100% of the fish you aren’t fishing for. Or something like that.
And lo and behold!!!! not half an hour into the trip, I hooked into a nice little tuna. It was fun to play, certainly not huge – but I could see it jumping out of the water and all in all I was well into the 10 zone.. amazingly, I got it to the boat. Not so amazingly, Lawrence decreed it too small and even as he was asking me “do you want to keep it” he was using his fish whispering skills and releasing it before I could yank the pliers out of his hand.
Now, bear in mind, this isn’t a huge fish… but I would guess it’s about the size of the tuna I have bought off the boats in Steveston, and it looked like it would clean up into decent meal, even for six. But
Drat that husband of mine!!! I don’t believe in catch and release! But he was muttering something about Karma… so I resisted the urge to deck him.
But where there’s a fish, there’s maybe another, so back that neon lure went into the water and amazingly enough, not ten minutes later, I had another fish on. This time it acted like a much bigger fish. Using my best Wicked Tuna skills, I was actually having to hand-pull it in as it was pulling so hard on the reel I couldn’t turn the handle. All in all a VERY fun fish.
And, of course, like all good things, it did come to an end as whatever was there pulled the hook and went off to live, and perhaps fight, another day.
Now I am primed. There are two lines hanging off the stern, I am ready, and eager, to actually get one in the boat for dinner tonight .. and…. it’s been two hours. Not a single bite. That was it.
ah well. I have forgiven my husband because, really, if we had kept that one fish I wouldn’t really want to fish anymore. We are only here for just over a week and the last thing I need is a freezer full of fish. Especially as one of the freezers isn’t working all that well – and when we leave the boat, everything will be turned off in preparation for the summer Northern Ranger will spend down here alone. We won’t be back again to see her for at least five months…probably much more. Sad, but true. Hurricane season and extreme heat don’t make for much of a fun holiday. We will have to put our faith in the kind people at Costa Baja ( and not a little cash in their pockets, for that matter)… that all will be well when we return.
But I digress.
Here we are, happily cruising along, I have had two fish on the line and almost one in the boat..
Life is good to me so far!!!!
A few hours later: heading into Isla San Jose, Bahia Amortajada. I JUST CAUGHT A TUNA!
hooray! of course now I am at the ‘ pith, bleed, and wash the blood off the boat’ stage of happiness. However. it’s enough tuna for a few days so all is very very right with the world. Well, except for the sudden raise in wind speed and wave action but otherwise.. a tuna on ice upstair in the fridge.. perfect!!!!