The Power and the Glory...
Today is the day that I forsake the close to nature world of the wind driven, and get an introduction into the hydrocarbon driven world of power boating and sport fishing. Doug(The Owner), Mikey(The Captain) and Kendell(The 1st Mate) have kindly invited me along to take pictures during their offshore fishing trip. I'm excited and not a little nervous because the motion on a high speed power boat is quite different from anything I have experienced and I would hate to disgrace myself. The boat is about 50ft long, has a beam of about 14ft and draws 3ft. It is very luxurious and even has a button operated sliding door from the cockpit into the saloon. The bridge is way above my head, (I'm not allowed up there) and is reached by climbing a vertical ladder. We have twin turbocharged caterpillar diesels, each delivering 1000HP - goodness knows what the fuel consumption is.
For this adventure I have to get up early and I take a picture of the sunrise just for the record, then a few shots to record the amazing nature of the boat itself. We leave the dock at a stately 5 knots, the engines murmuring quietly below my feet. Everything feels quite normal. As we leave the harbour in a light, choppy sea the engines come to life with a roar, the deck trembles and we are off. Only 15 to 20 knots as yet, still too close to other people. Finally, there is an almighty rumble, coupled with the high pitched whine of the turbochargers and the boat gets up on a plane at around 25-30knots. It is exhilarating, noisy, wet (I stowed the camera inside) and, after a while, strangely hypnotic. The wake stretches out behind us in a white ribbon, the spray whips past the cockpit like tracer bullets and I retreat into a slight coma, my senses overwhelmed.
We travel like this for, I'm told, about an hour until we reach a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean identical to my eye to all other stretches. This is the place! The boat slows down and Kendell starts rigging not one, not two, but six fishing lines, arranged along 20ft outriggers each side of the boat. There are also two or three "teasers" which are lines with brightly coloure lures and no hooks, just to get the attention of any fish in the area. We then start to motor at low speed back and forth over various identical pieces of sea. Doug favours 6.8knots, Mikey 6.2knots. Kendell keeps quiet, this is obviously a delicate subject.
After about an hour, Kendell leaps into action, yelling "Fish" and doing many unknown things with rods and lines, the culmination of which is Doug in the hot seat reeling in a Mahi Mahi (Blue Dolphin, although a fish not a mammal!) The fish is brought alongside and Kendell gaffs it and drops it into the ice box. All this happens faster than I can keep up with. I got a picture of the hot seat, a picture of the fish alongside the boat, and that’s it. All over.
Not to worry I think, now I know what's going on I will do better next time.
Alas, there is no next time. We cruise around for another 4 hours without a single bite. Various changes to lures, lines and rods are made but to no avail. At 3pm they decide to call it a day. Unrig the lines, put stuff away and the whole noisy, high speed race starts again. We come back through the whale channel at 30knots and get back to the dock around 4pm. We have traveled further in 6 hours than Kinky Turtle can manage in a whole day or more. My body trembles slightly for about 4 hours, and my head buzzes all night.
Kendell shows Vince and I how to fillet the fish and gives us a big bag of mahi mahi steaks. I'm impressed by its size, but the crew are most definately not! We have fish and rice for dinner and excellent it was too! I go to bed exhausted. It's probably not the sport for me!
Today is the day that I forsake the close to nature world of the wind driven, and get an introduction into the hydrocarbon driven world of power boating and sport fishing. Doug(The Owner), Mikey(The Captain) and Kendell(The 1st Mate) have kindly invited me along to take pictures during their offshore fishing trip. I'm excited and not a little nervous because the motion on a high speed power boat is quite different from anything I have experienced and I would hate to disgrace myself. The boat is about 50ft long, has a beam of about 14ft and draws 3ft. It is very luxurious and even has a button operated sliding door from the cockpit into the saloon. The bridge is way above my head, (I'm not allowed up there) and is reached by climbing a vertical ladder. We have twin turbocharged caterpillar diesels, each delivering 1000HP - goodness knows what the fuel consumption is.
For this adventure I have to get up early and I take a picture of the sunrise just for the record, then a few shots to record the amazing nature of the boat itself. We leave the dock at a stately 5 knots, the engines murmuring quietly below my feet. Everything feels quite normal. As we leave the harbour in a light, choppy sea the engines come to life with a roar, the deck trembles and we are off. Only 15 to 20 knots as yet, still too close to other people. Finally, there is an almighty rumble, coupled with the high pitched whine of the turbochargers and the boat gets up on a plane at around 25-30knots. It is exhilarating, noisy, wet (I stowed the camera inside) and, after a while, strangely hypnotic. The wake stretches out behind us in a white ribbon, the spray whips past the cockpit like tracer bullets and I retreat into a slight coma, my senses overwhelmed.
We travel like this for, I'm told, about an hour until we reach a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean identical to my eye to all other stretches. This is the place! The boat slows down and Kendell starts rigging not one, not two, but six fishing lines, arranged along 20ft outriggers each side of the boat. There are also two or three "teasers" which are lines with brightly coloure lures and no hooks, just to get the attention of any fish in the area. We then start to motor at low speed back and forth over various identical pieces of sea. Doug favours 6.8knots, Mikey 6.2knots. Kendell keeps quiet, this is obviously a delicate subject.
After about an hour, Kendell leaps into action, yelling "Fish" and doing many unknown things with rods and lines, the culmination of which is Doug in the hot seat reeling in a Mahi Mahi (Blue Dolphin, although a fish not a mammal!) The fish is brought alongside and Kendell gaffs it and drops it into the ice box. All this happens faster than I can keep up with. I got a picture of the hot seat, a picture of the fish alongside the boat, and that’s it. All over.
Alas, there is no next time. We cruise around for another 4 hours without a single bite. Various changes to lures, lines and rods are made but to no avail. At 3pm they decide to call it a day. Unrig the lines, put stuff away and the whole noisy, high speed race starts again. We come back through the whale channel at 30knots and get back to the dock around 4pm. We have traveled further in 6 hours than Kinky Turtle can manage in a whole day or more. My body trembles slightly for about 4 hours, and my head buzzes all night.
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