April 27, 2014 (PICTURES WILL BE POSTED AT A LATER DATE)
A leisurely morning of sipping lattes, discussing our morning devotional reading, and enjoying breakfast, slipped by easily. We weighed anchor and the light winds insisted we motor all the way to our next anchorage at Great Sale Cay, a 4 1/2 hour journey.
Gary’s determination to catch edible fish, i.e., not barracuda, beckoned him to bring out his fishing gear and troll for fish while he motored the boat. When he yelled, “Fish on!”, I dropped whatever I was doing and went to man the helm (steering wheel). Gary would grab his fishing rod from the holder, and as I slowed down the boat, he reeled in his catch.
He had three strikes for the day: one blue runner, one barracuda, and one got away. You should have seen the one that got away! (Actually, we didn’t get to see the one that got away.)
The barracuda gave Gary a good struggle as he reeled it in and removed the hook before releasing it. We hate catching barracudas because we don’t like hurting them while getting the hook out. And we don’t want them to hurt Gary with their ominous thorny teeth as he removes the hook. It is not a pleasant deal for all involved.
We kept the blue runner since the fish guide indicated it was okay to eat, rating it the same as a blue fish. I don’t particularly enjoy eating blue fish but Gary does, so we kept the small blue runner fish and I prepared it for the evening’s appetizer. It was necessary for Gary to remove the head, i.e., the pleading eyes, and the guts and scales, before I took it to the galley to skin it and fillet it. I chose to sauté the small pieces of fish in coconut oil, after breading them in hush puppy mix. Prepared in this manner, the blue runner was delicious, with the pleasant taste and texture of any other mild white fish.
Earlier in the day, I had removed some chicken breasts from the freezer and placed them in the refrigerator, intending to prepare them for our evening meal. I mistaking thought they would be thawed by evening, but apparently our refrigerator is doing a better job of cooling than I thought. Good to know. Switching to what was available, we dined on a salad consisting of a bed of lettuce topped with grilled pears sprinkled with cinnamon, boiled egg, fresh avocado, walnuts, grilled smoked peppered salmon, and a salad dressing made with blood orange olive oil and cinnamon pear vinegar. Captain Gary complimented the galley slave with the comment ” I would eat this anytime”. Dessert for the captain was a piece of cake we had purchased from a local lady at West End, who pushed a cart up and down the docks of the marina, peddling her home baked goods.
The “piece de resistance” at the end of the day, after watching yet another magical sunset, was sitting on our hammock at the stern of White Swan, star gazing into the night sky. If you have never seen a Caribbean night sky, with zillions of twinkling stars lighting up the sky as far as one can see, we recommend you put that amazing pleasure on your bucket list.