24/05/2010 - Best Day EVER I

The Best Day EVER!!!  (to quote Paula – who apparently stole the quote from Nicksa!).

Almost at Anguilla,.. and en route I finally caught my first Tuna.  I was on the Aloha deck just chilling out with WT and suddenly the line went,.. I was on my feet and across the deck in milliseconds and WT (who had been standing next to the rod) very graciously allowed me to reel in this monster fish, which judging from the strength of the fight was at least 2 Bobs and a good few chibleys!  Rather disappointingly the potential behemoth turned out to be a pretty cute little yellowtail,.. but not the orca that I was expecting!  Despite this both Shawn and I were pretty proud of our catch and even more so when I walloped him over the head to knock him out (it took a good few strikes, he was a pretty hardy fella), slit him open to gut him (only to find his heart was still beating (I felt really bad about that!) and chopped off his head,.. Donald was overjoyed and demanded that we catch many more so he could prepare something special,.. we told him we’d work on it!!

A few hours later we were moored off Sandy Beach/Bay/Shore (can’t remember which!) and a swim call was announced,.. I discovered that I am not 16 any more as I tried a piked 1 ½ with a half twist, failed spectacularly and although I managed to land head first I twisted something and decided that I needed to warm up before I attempted the dives I was able to do when I was younger!!!

We rigged up the swing rope and had a great time as the girls tried to swing down, most of them ended up just dropping straight into the water as they lost their grip on the way down, the accompanying screams (and their abrupt endings!!) made it that bit more amusing!!

Some of the crew went off in the Monomoy to practise rowing and while I was still practising my diving I saw Jo standing proudly and yelling out orders as they came back towards the ship… we are getting better, although who put her in charge of the boat is a mystery!!

 

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