The One That Got Away

Letting out our fishing line from a manky wooden board we acquired in St Lucia, we watched the lure disappear 60m from our stern. A squidy lure with a nice 2 prong hook and a good length of trace wire. With a 24 mile passage ahead of us to The Saints we crossed our fingers hoping we would be dining on fish that evening. We were yet to catch a fish since we had started out from Grenada over 2 months ago but had seen other people catching them. We were starting to get a little despondent with our fishing abilities. But stoically, we put out the lure in the hope that something would take the bait.

We were sailing along happily in about 15 knots of breeze in a broad reach. Maintaining a consistent speed over 7 knots. Occasionally surfing waves that would see our speed leap to a pants wetting 9.4 knots (yes, Dylan still loves to race)! Not more than 4 miles from Iles des Saintes (off Guadeloupe) while Dylan was at the helm, he suddenly let out an almighty exclamation. It half scared me to death thinking the worst! We have a fish! WE GOT ONE! Quick! Do this, do that, grab this, take that.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as we tried to slow the boat down by pointing her into the wind. I started to reel in the thing at the end of the line which I was not convinced was a fish as we had reeled in so many 'seaweeds' that it was starting to get a little boring.

Dylan was positive it was a fish so we reeled away whilst Dylan went down below to get the alcohol (not to celebrate with...just yet) to pour on its gills once we landed it to kill it with minimal bloodshed and thrashing in the cockpit. I soon felt the tugs on the line and it was a fish and a good one too!! Then I saw it better - away in the distance just for a fleeting second was a shimmer of colour. I reeled it in some more. It was as if we had caught a rainbow and it was desperately trying to get away lest we retrieve its pot of gold. Probably the prettiest fish that we had seen since we got to the Caribbean we were looking at a Mahi Mahi (Dorado or Dolphin Fish). So radiant, vivid and luminescent.

We were towing the dinghy (sans outboard or other gear) and desperately trying to ensure that the line did not tangle with the dinghy tow ropes (there are 2 tow ropes in case "someone" ties a shitty bowline).

I was trying to get it close to the stern, while Dylan hung over the transom flailing madly with a gaff.
With a flick of his tail this beautiful Dorado leapt out the water as if to say "not today peeps!" and was gone. Some how the fishing line had snapped. Maybe on the wind vane, maybe just exceeded the 60lbs load (it was not a 60lbs fish!) or maybe just plain bad luck.

We watched as the shimmer was lost into the gloomy depths and I comforted Dylan as he cursed and vented, vowing to get a rod and reel for "next time". By this point Dylan's excitable shouts could probably be heard from Brazil.

Ah, the one that got away...

That night we dined on lentil curry - don't remind Dylan!