Fishing

We hoped to catch fish, but we couldn't be sure we'd succeed, however in the event, we did ok! After 9 days at sea, we were forced to bring in the lines and stop fishing as the freezer was full and we still had 6 big Dorados in there! At this point we had been fishing for 9 days and had caught 18 big fish.

Catching the Fish

We had 2 secret weapons onboard, the magic lures chosen by Graham (he used to work on fishing boats in Canada) and being a catamaran, we have 2 hulls, hence 2 lures out at all times! We just let the lure out every morning and only brought them in when we had a fish on the line, or when it started to get dark at night. 10 hours of fishing a day with 2 lures was averaging out at 2 fish a day, not enough to make a living as a fishing boat, but great for supplementing the diet! We were listening in to the ARC position updates during the crossing and after 8 days at sea, their record "fishing boat" had caught 4 fish!

A few Flying Fish
Just a few we caught!

Gutting, Cleaning and Filleting

Graham had demonstrated the gutting and cleaning techniques and Floris and I ended up doing most of them. Graham held the speed record at less than 2 minutes to gut and clean, whilst Floris and I took longer but were a bit more thorough!

I had a strange fish early on, which appeared to be full of water when we caught it! After killing it and starting to gut it, it became clear that the skin was barely attached to the flesh! I inserted my fingers and just pulled the skin off! We never caught another one of these "skin fell off" fish and we didn't think to take a photo first, but it certainly tasted good!

Half way through the crossing we decided we needed to be more imaginative with the fish, so Floris started to fillet them and we had fish curry that evening. Natalie had stated she would not be gutting any fish during the crossing, but after losing a game of cards, she chose gutting a fish as her forfeit! The next one we caught was one of the biggest, but she seemed to enjoy it once she had her knife in her hand!

Floris became the official Fish Filleter, after training from Graham, he set about the fish with a determination that there would be no bones in his fillets!

Cooking

Cooking fish was easy, once cleaned, gutted and beheaded, just stick them in the oven with some lemon juice on and maybe garlic inside. That was how we started! We progressed to Dorado in mayonnaisse and dill sauce. Fish Stew with zuchini and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, Fish curry, fish sticks.

It seems that 20 minutes at 250°C was good for plain fish, or more like 40 minutes in a stew or sauce!

If we get a day with no wind, we might spark up the barbeque and have barbequed fish for a change!