Day 4 - Fish for Real
I get woken up by Christian screaming for help. Both Rebecca and I are up immediately and run on deck to see what's going on. Fish. Not one, but two have bitten, one on each line. Two at the same time! It's said that Mahi Mahi, big golden mackerels, always hunt in pairs of two and hence it's not uncommon for two to bite, but still, two! No wonder that Christian needs our help. Unfortunately by the time we are up on deck one of them already got itself loose. However still one to go. And we're determined to reel this one in all the way and have some fresh fish. I mean, come on! We already lost one yesterday and another one just now. At least let us have one so we can enjoy some kickass fresh fish for lunch!
The fish fights, glittering blue underneath the water, every once in a while jumping out, "zappelnd" as us Germans would say, fighting for its life, but we get it closer to the boat. And this time we get it all the way in. There it is, a big mackerel, slapping to and fro in the middle of our small boat. We fix it to the ground grabbing hold on it tight and then wack it on the head a couple times with the winch for the sails, basically a big metal bludgeon. We're all happy once the fish stops moving because we get to enjoy some beautiful lunch today. But at the same time it's sad to see it lying there. Dead. Losing the blue shine and color it had before. It's vibrancy, and shimmering colors turning into a dull golden, greyish yellow. That's why they are called Golden Mackerels. Because they look gold when out of the water even though they're not gold at all when still alive and inside the water. We still take turns posing with our catch.
Once we took our photos, we start preparing the fish. First you cut the main throat artery and let it bleed out into a bucket, rinsing repeatedly with salt water. Then after some time has passed and no more blood is coming out, you wash out the rest of the blood from the fish gills and rinse once more with salt water. Then we put the fish downstairs in the bucket we used to clean it so that we don't have fish slime everywhere in the kitchen. We put a small plastic bag and some paper towels out on the work area, the fish on top and then Christian shows us how to filet the fish. The nice thing with this type of fish is that you don't even have to gut it. Simply cut out the good slices of meat, have no fuss with fish bones and solid filet pieces. And damn it, but it works every single time.
Christian shows us: hold the knife like this. This angle, then let it glide. Remember... Flying knife. No pressure. The knife should slide over the fishbones of its own accord. It's a thing of feeling. Just let the knife find it's way. It's almost like Bob Ross explaining painting.
It's quite fun once you get the hang of it though, but the knife for fileting the fish is scary sharp and with the rolling of the boat you have to be extremely careful not to cut off one or two of your fingers too. Still we are taking goofy pictures. Of course.
The rope in the kitchen is there so that you don't fall backwards, knife in hand, stabbing somebody or yourself, if the rolling gets really rough. Little safety things like these are everything on a boat. Always grab a handle, when on deck stay low, grab the rope like this, at night wear your safety gear, clip in... etc.
For lunch we fry a bit of the fish and some of the skin and eat it with some bread. It's delicious and now I want to eat fish like this every day.
A bit later, after lunch we catch another fish. This one I want to reel in but the same thing happens to me that happened to Christian the day before. While dragging the fish onto the boat, it flaps and slaps against the railing with enough force to come loose from the hook and splash, it jumps back into the water. It's so mean when this happens, because you have it there, right there, almost... only centimeters missing, only to see your catch get away in the end. But that's life. And there's plenty more fish out there in the ocean.
And not even five minutes later another Mahi Mahi bites and this time it's Rebecca's turn to pull it out, and we make sure to reel it in with one big pull this time, so that it doesn't get lose while pulling it over the railing again. And this time it works and the fish is even bigger than the last. Rebecca did nicely and now everybody has caught a fish except for poor me haha. And this time Rebecca and I get to filet the whole fish, practicing some more. And I get to eat some of it raw too, which is an absolute treat. Basically unlimited amounts of Sashimi? How wonderful life on a boat can be huh? 🤗
All said and done, two out of four fish this day. Plus the one that got away yesterday. So 2 out of 5 total. A bit of a sad quota but whatever, we have enough fish to last us for quite a bit.
Later that night Christian makes Oven Noodles, baked with cheese and eggs, while I prepare a red, tomato, Bolognese style sauce to accompany his noodles. The result: magical.
It's a beautiful dinner, worthy to end this day before going to sleep. The mix between the sour and salty sauce and the rich cream of eggs and cheese is something utterly amazing and in general I feel that we have wonderful food every day on this boat.
Working together, taking the time, to cook something nice. Everyday. And that's how we keep count of the days. Oh, it was the day where we did this. Or oh, it was the day where we had the fish. Because there's no land in sight and won't be for at least another 10 days or more. No frame of reference, time blurring, losing its meaning. What are 18 days hmm?