We rose early and after breaking fast on what I dubbed, “festival eggs,” we set off for the days cruise to Isla Cebaco. As we set out the poles we swore that no matter what clamped on to the other end of that line, we were eatin’ it! 30 minutes and, you guessed it, four mackerel later we followed through with our promise and Dan carved up a 20lb specimen that we’d just reeled in. I took this opportunity to have a little sashimi, yum! We pulled the poles up at that point, or else we never would have made it to our anchorage.
With as much ocean as there is, it would seem like the odds would be against repeatedly running into the same ship over and over again, but that’s exactly what happened next. Judy points way off the port beam and says, “La Masquerade!” Sure enough, there she was again. “Quest, Quest, this is La Masquerade,” came clearly over the radio. “Dan!” we yelled in unison to pull the captain away from his nap in the salon. What followed next was the kind of old-salt, boat-loving, captain conversations that must be shared the world over; except that Dan was confabulating with a boat more than three times our size, and we were the ones being admired! Chalk one up for the little guys. With some parting advice regarding lures for catching mackerel, seeing as we were experts at this point, and a shared laugh over what could be weeks of bumping into each other we continued on.
Isla Cebaco provided us with a chance to try a new stern anchor technique that makes parallel parking in San Francisco look like child’s play, but we managed nicely. Anchoring is more than just putting down the anchors; it also includes the habitual after passage dip which we partake in enthusiastically, followed by another go at fishing off the deck. Adam and I threw around a couple lures until Dan re-outfitted us both with some jig set-ups. Zzzzzksgggg! I caught two little white fish, at the same time. We put the line out again. Zzzzvvvkgg! Four more, all at once. Oh yeah, we got some cool toys. We saved a couple for eating and tossed the rest back before heading inside for dinner. Fresh, grilled fish tastes superb and is recommended to be served in an air-conditioned dining room, conditions were perfect. At this point, when we’ve almost come up against the 7th parallel, AC is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Close up all the windows, we were going to get some sleep that night! After winding down with several rounds of Uno, we said our good-nights and headed to bed for a solid, much appreciated, night of sleep.
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