Saturday | February 28, 2015
Deep Sea Fishing
Some days in life will never be forgotten; today was one of those days.
The highlight of the day was to be fishing – and fishing was the highlight of the day. After four days of hell trying to negotiate and organize a fishing trip, today was the day it was to launch. At 7:30 AM, I was joined by a few friends as we proceeded to the tender deck to take the tender to shore, where we were met by a driver from Angel Tours. Even the driver was wonderful. He showed us the famous “male” and “female” coconut trees in the Vallee de Mai UNESCO World Heritage site in the middle of the island. The trees are called “male” because they have large appendages that hang down.
Legend has it that they cross the road at full moon to propagate the female trees. And the female trees have the largest coconut anywhere in the world – sometimes in excess of 25 pounds.
The driver shared two great observations with us. First, when we saw a dog alongside the road, I asked if people in Seychelles ate dog. He said “Only the Chinese do that. In fact, the Chinese will eat anything with four legs that isn’t a chair or a table.”
As we were driving, I asked whether they had many American tourists in Seychelles. He said no, and seemed happy about that. When we inquired further, he said: “Americans just drink, fight and sue.” It was astonishing that here, 7000 miles from home, the reputation ascribed to our countrymen was so negative – but it was probably borne from their experience with Marines on leave. And the lawsuits they leave behind.
He also took us to see the catch from yesterday – which was a whole lot of red snapper and king fish.
We finally arrived at our boat and it was exactly what it was supposed to be.
You know, in these islands, there is always the possibility of a bait and switch. But the boat was a beautiful 35 footer with a capable captain and mate. The water was calm until we got out into the Indian Ocean where the seas became a little frisky. For most of the day, we trolled in 3-4 foot waves with 7 foot swells. But it was glorious. We boated 2 gorgeous yellowfin tuna and a handful of bonito. Most importantly, we all had a spectacular time. After all, these were not just fish – these were among the tastiest eating fish in the sea.
(Part of the challenge was going to be getting the fish back on our boat – mostly because of the onslaught of paperwork that had to be completed in order for that to happen. We had to notify the Resident Coordinator and Concierge of the possibility we would be catching fish. Then, we had to sign a series of forms. We had to have the captain of the fishing boat execute a series of forms stating that we did catch the fish ourselves, they were caught in legal waters, and they were free of bacteria, chemicals and contaminants. We had to get the fish on ice so that a probe would show an internal temperature of no greater than 48°F. Finally, when we returned to the boat, we were to present the fish to the Executive Chef who had to inspect and approve them.)
Back on The World, it was impossible to wipe the smiles off our faces. We did what others said we couldn’t do. And we did it in a huge fashion. The 55 pounds of extraordinary fish would feed dozens of people, according to the Executive Chef.
We began with pre-dinner champagne in our apartment. Then we all marched down to one of the ship's dining rooms where Chef Patrick came to our table several times to explain what he had prepared and to explain the different sauces he was contemplating. And then it came — yellowfin sushi, sashimi, tartar, steaks and fillets. What an amazing dinner!
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