Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

Having checked out of the marina yesterday afternoon, we’d planned on setting off early to head to Calabash Bay in the north of Long Island in company with Geoff and Ruth and on their boat Geru, a 38ft Prout catamaran. All we had to do that morning was to call our bank using Skype as our debit card had been stopped a couple of times, which we guessed must be a security thing but being unable to get a mobile signal they’d obviously not been able to call. After a 40 minute phone call (thank good for cheap Skype calls!), we’d finally got it sorted. I guess it’s all for our own benefit, though I must say that as our cards have been used continuously abroad for more than a year it’s a bit of a course filter they are using that it was only just getting stopped.

  In a flat calm approaching the north of Long Island

Consequently Geru was on the distant horizon when we set out from the marina on a perfectly still day with blue skies and scorching heat. Definitely not even motor sailing today, the sails stayed furled as we motored up the length of Long Island. The consolation for today though is that apparently this stretch of water is world famous for sports fishing, so all four rods were out. I am progressing on my apprenticeship now and am allowed to wind in and deploy the rods and didn’t we get some practice with all the seaweed in the water. As it was a pretty boring motor though it did provide us with something to do as literally as soon as one rod was cleared another one would foul.

Kevin marlin spotting from the bimini

All the effort was eventually rewarded when one of the bigger reels suddenly spun off briefly and stopped. We both looked round to see a now familiar circle of disturbed water behind the lure – the sign of a marlin strike. We could still see a shadow in the water behind the lure, we were still being hunted. I went up on to the bimini to see see if I could see it any clearer. Kevin excitedly ran between the two bigger lures as he saw the shadow move between them to let them off and wind them in to try and tempt another bite. After about 5 minutes of cat and mouse play, the reel screamed again and we were hooked. I put us into neutral and Kevin started the fight, the reel ran off about 100m of line straight off as the marlin ran off. He’d was hooked for 10 minutes or so and Kevin just had it beginning to turn when the line snapped and marlin swam off with the lure. We were both very unhappy to think of the fish having to struggle with the lure attached, though this is the first we have ever lost, we were also pleased to have used the less barbed hooks that with the tension released off the line should soon be dislodged. I still didn’t manage to get a photo despite more tail walking but if anything this one was larger than the last one - 8ft plus.

We rounded the northern tip of Long Island and got another bite, this time some sort of mackerel, but he got off before got him on board. We worked our way round the reef to anchor beside Geru and then got in for a swim straight away as it had been such a long hot day. We spoke to Geoff and Ruth on the VHF, but as the grey clouds were gathering on the horizon and the thunder was getting louder and louder we agreed to stay aboard our own boats and said our goodbyes (they are heading the same way as us all the way to Canada though and much quicker than we have planned).

A quiet early night on anchor as the rain hammered down and the thunder and lightening flickered all around.