Either it was much more pleasant last night, or I’m getting acclimated. There was a nice breeze blowing, keeping the flies away, and I was comfortable under my sheet.
We were a bit late getting up, but the extra sleep was good. We finished breakfast and took a “war canoe” out to the reef to fish for shark bait. We used “Hawaiian yo-yo’s,” basically a big spool of line with a weight and baited hook. You swim along the surface and dangle the hook down. They you pull in what you catch. It was fun, though not very challenging. Mostly, we caught small grunts, so named because that’s what they do when you grab them. Nathaniel caught a yellow jack, but it was too small to keep.
I don’t know how many fish we caught, but I got at least 5. That even though I spent most of the time untangling a mangle of hooks, lines and a couple of dive bags.
We got back late from the fishing, so had to rush lunch to make it
to our afternoon activity. We took the Dusty Eagle Scout, under Capt.
Pat, back to Loo Key for another run at snorkeling. It was just as great
as yesterday.
One amusing experience happened when Josh and I were taking a break in the boat after snorkeling. We suddenly heard people in a boat moored nearby, yelling “Barracuda in the water! Everyone get out!” We knew there were barracuda in the water. We’d been watching them all day.
Again, we saw several good sized sharks.
I really enjoyed swimming down between the rows of coral, cruising thru the canyons. It’s just like flying.
On the way back from snorkeling, Capt. Pat showed that he enjoyed hot-dogging. He kept running in tight circles and bouncing over our own wake.
We could see a couple of impressive thunderstorms that looked like they were going to dump on us. When we got back to the island, though, it was still sunny. Maybe the rain will miss us. Darn.
The guys have been working together pretty well this evening. They
do seem to enjoy bickering debating, but there doesn’t seem to be
any real rancor. And things do eventually get done.
We had a great steak dinner.
After dinner, it was time for shark fishing. We kayaked out to the floating docks, where Adam had spent at least an hour cutting up the fish we had caught earlier. He’d been chumming the water to attract sharks.
We started out fishing for small bait fish off of the dock, using the Hawaiian yo-yos. As we caught bait fish, they’d get turned into bloody shark bait for one of the shark fishing lines.
The process of turning the bait fish into bait was, um, an experience. We learned what they called the “ghetto stomp” as part of the processing procedure. After removing the fish’s tail and smearing fish blood onto the face of the one who as about to fish, you put the fish onto the deck and stomp on it. If you do it just right, the head pops off and the rest of the fish is all nice and mashed. Somehow, I managed to get the technique down, impressing the heck out of the scouts. The head flew at least 5 feet across the deck.
The fishing was pretty slow. Even the bait fish were barely nibbling. And none of the three crews that were out shark fishing (on three different docks about 150 ft apart) were getting even a nibble from a shark.
Then, at about 11 pm, when half of us were about to fall asleep, someone on one of the neighboring docks hooked something that jumped out of the water near our spot. It looked big, and they said that it was really fighting. But unfortunately, in about a minute it broke the line. After such a long period of boredom, the excitement level picked up pretty quickly.
Adam was pumped (as was most of the crew). He cast Eric’s line way out into the general area where the shark was last seen. We settled back in for another slow wait. For a bit, it was quiet again, but in just a few minutes Eric said “I think I have something,” and then his line started to spool out. Adam had to adjust the drag on the reel because the fish kept pulling out line. That let Eric start pulling it in.
At one point, the fish passed near one of the other two docks, and the guys over there started yelling. They reported that that thing was big.
By this time, the crews on all three docks were going crazy. War cries filled the air.
Eric finally got the thing up to the dock, and Adam took over. It was huge, at least to us Midwesterners! Estimates varied, of course, but it looked like about 5 ft to me. Adam said it was a reef shark, and apparently reef sharks are considered “the” shark to catch in this area for sport.
By this time, everyone was totally excited, even those who had been saying that they were tired and wanted to call it a night.
Adam held it by the dock for a while so we could all get a good look. Its mouth was at least 7 in. wide, and it had three rows of teeth. (Un?)fortunately, it broke the steel leader before Adam could actually get it onto the dock, so we didn’t manage to get really up close and personal. It’s probably just as well. Also unfortunately, none of our cameras were both waterproof and with flash, so we didn’t get a picture.
After that, we fished for a bit more, but nothing else showed itself, and we called it a night.
Back in camp, we found that there was absolutely no breeze. It promised to be a muggy night. We all turned in, Josh and me at our usual spot on the beach, some of the guys up in trees. I was comfortable just lying on top of my sheet, and fortunately the bugs weren’t bad where we were. The guys in the trees said that they were bothering them.
Early in the morning, at about 2:30, I woke up feeling a cool breeze. It felt good, but it didn’t “smell right.” And it was starting to get cloudy. I decided that the two together were not a good sign. It had the feel of downwash from a thunderstorm, even though there was no thunder or lightening.
Josh and I decided to be prudent, and moved our stuff to our tent. Just about the time we got everything moved, I felt the first drops. I went around and roused the guys, and everyone managed to get under cover just as the heavens opened up. We had our first good downpour. It rained really hard for about a half hour, so we spent the rest of the night in our tent. Previous Page |
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