December 06, 2019

Treasures of the bilge

From the kitchen I hear Graham call out, "Fish on both lines". He mans one of the huge rods off the back of the boat and begins reeling. I am full into cooking with pots on stove and can't leave my station. Berry emerges from down below all business and ready for the task at hand. We have lost 5 fish thus far and I can see determination in his eyes. We won't be losing this one.

By the time he reaches his rod the fish on Graham's rod has broken free. We are starting to wonder if the swell we surf down which causes huge fluctuations in our speed, is perhaps the problem? Perhaps causing varied tension on the line. It also could be how fast we are going. ;-)

Regardless we have all placed our hopes on the one fish remaining. As Berry reels we prepare for its arrival. Gaff, bucket, and rum to kill quickly. As it nears, Graham assumes position on the step with rope around waist and gaff in hand. It was a bit unsettling watching the video after of the ocean so close to him and us going so fast but for some reason at the moment I was just focused on the fish ;-). As it came out of the water we all saw that it wasn't that big and agreed we should let it go but unfortunately it's cheek was quite torn and end of life of was near so we decided best to land it. It was still about 2 and a half feet long. It didn't take long for Berry to gut, fillet, clean up and have it into the fridge ready for the next evening.

Graham has been talking of our amazing Mahi Mahi bites from our past voyages. We would typically batter and fry in a fry pan. You then dip in assorted sauces like sweet chilli. Berry hears this and emerges with a "Treasure from the Bilge"......wait for it......A DEEP FRYER!!!

I am pretty sure that if the ARC safety committee had thought that someone might deep fry mid ocean it would have been rule #1 "No deep frying while underway". (To our credit though it was electric so no open flame with hot grease.)

Lucky for us Mei had also provisioned with tempura batter and we were now in the deep frying business! As Mareas surfed down swell hitting speeds of 10+ we all sat around the table with various yummy sauces and Berry served up plate after plate of the most delicious Mahi Mahi bites ever. With taste buds peaked we were all like, "What else can we deep fry?". Well onions of course. Next round of tapas were delicious onion rings.

This is 100% never happening on a monohull and perhaps some may argue shouldn't have happened on a catamaran but regardless we weighed the risks and reaped the benefits. EPIC memories.

Now fully satisfied, we are left wondering what other treasures of the bilge lay deep within Mareas?

3 comments:

  1. Your new accommodations are even starting to sound tempting to me ;) I vote your next boat is a cat!

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