Plenty of Fish in the Sea

     One of the major points of excitement on the trip was fishing. Darv went all out before the trip and outfitted himself with the best equipment to get some action. And it paid off. By the end of the trip we were often catching and releasing the fish. Of the 28 days we spent on the ocean, we ate fish 26 of them. Without catching fish for dinner, we might have been rationing our last canned goods. But as it was we ate really well. Darv was also master chef in the Galley. He brought a toolbox full of spices and wasn’t afraid to use them! After our first disappointing Tuna loss, we were so excited to catch our first fish, a small Dorado. After that the fish kept getting bigger! We ended up naming most of our lures and we had our favorites by the end of the trip. They all found a special spot in our hearts. 

Here they are from left to right: Green Machine, Gorgeous George, Red Baron, Show Girl, Elton John, and Marilyn Monroe. They all look a little worse for wear after all the action they saw. Especially Marilyn, who had a lot of her platinum blond locks bitten off.  

 Here are some pictures of all the delicious fish Darv cooked for us! Mom and I made the rest :)

This is called 'Poke' and we made it with fresh Dorado. It's raw fish with marinate. Man is it ever tasty! 

Darv cooking on the gimballed stove 

FIsh tacos on the sea!

Happiness is ... 

  

     We had two really big  prize catches, a 50 lbs Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and a 70lbs Wahoo. I had no idea how thrilling it would be to catch such enormous fish. My adrenalin was always pumping when we had a fish on the line. I even reeled one in myself! When we got a strong hit on the lure and we knew it was a big fish it was all hands on deck. Darv would masterfully reel in the fish and then as soon as it was close enough to the boat Dad would gaff the fish in the gills and we would pull it into the boat. They would often be flopping around powerfully so I would pour vodka into their gills to calm them down. Mom would be behind the wheel steering us safely. Darv always had to go up on deck to bleed and filet the fish, and often it had to be done in rough seas. I don’t know how he did it, but were thankful he did! Afterwards we would scrub down the deck from all the blood. Soem of the fish we caught while we were motoring and some were caught while under sail. The best speed to catch fish was between 5-7 knots. 

The fish look so beautiful and colourful when they swim in the water!

Dad gaffing the Dorado! He always hooked them on his first try, so we started calling him the Gaff Master 

The big guy is in the boat!

50lbs Dorado 

You can see how they lose their pretty colours very quickly after being caught

Measuring up. 52 inches long 

The fish is almost as big as mom!

The Gaff Master and Darv 

The fish was too big to bleed inside the boat so we had to drag him in the water by a rope 

 Ok,I had to get a picture with it too! (I'm holding up a local newspaper from my hometown. You send them pictures of yourself from your trips around the world holding up the newspaper and they publish them. Were hoping for front page ;) ) 

The Wahoo. Caught with 'Show girl' lure 

Wicked stripes!

70lbs Wahoo 

     The official fish caught by rod and reel: Dorado, Blue Fin Tuna, Bonita, Wahoo and Bill Fish. Fish caught by spear gun: Sheep’s Head, Parrotfish, Grouper, Mullet, Scup, Octopus, Lizard Fish, Red Snapper and Lobster.    

Bleeding a fish 

Trolling all day every day 

Darv's tarp he used to fillet the fish 

Feeding the family 

First time reeling in! 

My first catch! Dorado! 

My biggest catch ever and the Dorado 

After trolling at night for days without catching anything Darv finally caught this .. thing! It was a bit of a mystery fish but we thought it was part of the Bill fish family maybe. Of course he saved his mandibles.  

Mom named it 'Ugly fish' 

We couldn't eat the fish fast enough and without a freezer on the boat and this particular fish was going bad. So darv dragged it over the side of the boat hoping to attract a big fish. About an hour later Dad heard some splashing while he was on shift, when we looked over the side of the boat it was gone and the rope had been chewed right through. We suspect it was a shark, or at least a realllly big fish   

Marilyn Manroe. The platinum blond with red lips 

More beautiful Dorado  

       

Skip Jack Tuna 

The first red meat fish we caught on the trip 

The Skip Jack Tuna flipping his tail fast 

Gorgeous George makes his debut  

Awesome stripes on a smaller Wahoo.  

Darv saved this Wahoo as it had some orange rope (still in Darvs hands) caught in his mouth. We released him after. 

     I’m glad that I took so many pictures of the fish we caught because they were absolutely breathtaking! I never considered fish very beautiful until this trip, now I definitely have a new perspective. 

Some pictures of the fish caught by speargun: 

Atlantic Sheep's Head 

Octopus 

Parrot fish and scup 

Giant Oyster! 

The one that got away

     48 hours of beautiful sailing weather later and we are now comfortably docked in the city of Arrecife, on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. We all got our sea legs and miraculously no one has been seasick yet (knock on wood).  And if you’ve ever thought that being on a sailboat isn’t exercise, think again! The smallest task, like pouring a glass of water, is a total isometric workout. When aboard these are the small victories. Now picture trying to go to the bathroom… 

Saying Goodbye to Madeira 

Beautiful sail weather 

     So it was all comfortable cruising on Argo until about 2 hours before we were about to arrive and then there was all out excitement on the sea! Darv’s big plan for this trip is to troll everyday we are on the water and hopefully catch a few nice fish. Second day of trolling and we hooked our first fish. This one was a fighter! It took every ounce of Darvil’s energy not to get pulled over the boat. The fish was going to be too big for Darvil to take on alone so dad joined in on the fight. But Darvil will tell you the story better, so here it is straight from the horse’s mouth:

     “When the thing first hit, it took all my body weight just to keep the thing from pulling me overboard. I had a lanyard on the rod, but the lanyard couldn’t take any of the weight because it goes from the rod to a point behind me. So if I ever let that lanyard start to tense up, it would tighten up against my waist and pull the rod to the side, and too far would cause it to slip out of my belt.  This was my first deep sea fish, so I had no idea what I was up against, but I knew I needed a winch! After 20 minutes my arms started to turn to mush, (keep in mind we were moving at a good 5 or 6 knots on a sailboat) and I needed help if anything would happen. The thing spooled the line a couple of times (and the drag was set VERY high). After an hour we got it close enough to the boat that we could see it was a blue fin tuna.  In another hour, we had it on is side right up to the back of the boat. Chas had been helping me support the rod, as I sat on the deck with my feet up on the rails. Soon, Em came back to relieve Chas as he readied the homemade gaff to hook him. He was massive, a foot longer than I am tall, and must have weighed over 200 lbs.  I really have no idea, it may have been 300. I remember thinking that we would need to come up with a good trick to get such a huge fish 5 feet up onto the deck. Just as we were going to gaff him, snap, the line broke. The line broke, and so did my heart. It was some good action, but I think I’ll be bitter about that ending for the rest of my life. This was yesterday and I still can’t move my arms.”  

Our first sight of the fish! TUNA!

He's excited now ! 

It's a big guy!  

Team work 

Givin' it his all 

So close ... 

Just before the line broke :( 

     So there you have it! We all had a good cry but then it was back to the business of sailing ourselves to Lanzarote. There’s always more fish in the sea… We made land fall in the Canaries about 11:00 am and arrived at our marina at dusk with barely enough light to dock. But with the help of a few spotlights we managed to make it in safely. This morning we had to change dock slips, and let’s just say it takes a village to dock Argo in a tight slip with windy conditions! At last head count we had 11 friendly sailors that were ready to catch a line! Dad wasn’t sure if he had enough beers to thank everybody!