Circle of life

2012 July 27
by Mike

This is the cycle of life as it stands around our boat:

  • Minnows eat krill (or sea grass, or whatever it is that they find tasty which grows upon our hull).
  • Jacks eat Minnows.
  • We eat Jacks.

At various times through the day and evening we’ll hear a loud commotion outside our boat, sounding almost as if someone is outside slapping the hull. After inspecting the noise the first time it occurred, we came to find that it was being caused by a school of Jacks (at least we think that’s what they are) in an eating frenzy, grabbing up as many of the small minnows as they could.

It was too big a temptation for me to not want to catch these fish, which are often so close that we can almost touch them, and the most efficient way that occurred to me was to use our hand net. After only one false start my effort was rewarded when I scooped up an unwitting 13″ Jack which blindly chased a minnow into our net. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, let it be known, I am smarter than a little fish. :)

For the record, barbecued Jack with some Jamaican jerk seasoning doesn’t taste too bad.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy…

Patiently waiting.

Samantha believes she is helping.

9 Responses leave one →
  1. Jim Deatsch permalink
    July 27, 2012

    Mike, Mike,

    It’s pretty obvious that without Samantha’s help you’d not be able to harvest the wily denizens of the deep.

    Credit where credit is due.

    Jim

  2. July 27, 2012

    Barbecued anything with some Jamaican jerk seasoning doesn’t taste too bad (except liver). How often on average a week/month do you guys eat from the sea?

    • July 27, 2012

      Agreed.

      Frequency? Not often enough. If we catch a big fish that breaks down into 5-6 meals, we might space that out over a couple of weeks. Unless we’re traveling though, we don’t usually catch fish. Until now that is. :)

  3. Tytti permalink
    July 27, 2012

    I’m book sailing with Slocum’s Spray -classic (translated to Finnish by
    http://www.johnnurmisensaatio.fi/?lang=en
    and he was not happy to see a school of fish that had accompanied his boat to switch to follow a bigger one with more to eat on it.

    • July 27, 2012

      These ones seem to be making the rounds, going from boat to boat in the anchorage.

  4. Helen A. Spalding permalink
    July 27, 2012

    Samantha is waiting for you to drop one of those fish!

  5. July 28, 2012

    It looks like Samantha has completely settled into life with you guys. How cool. Does she get to bite fresh fish if you guys net a catch? (Maybe she’d benefit from a few thought bubbles about her observations of life on ZTC.)
    :)

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