This was the day of fishing! When we got here Steve had made enquiries about it and there weren't any 'official' trips so when we went to see the Marina, we'd booked a boat to take us out for four hours of fishing and one hour of snorkelling with turtles.
I was a little wary of it, I'd never been sea fishing before, and lets face it, fishing is not my thing, but Steve was so very excited and he wanted me to go with him, so off we went.
It was an early start, we had to be there for 8.00am so we had an early breakfast and walked the short distance to the marina. We met the guys there, and boarded the 'Liam'!! I know, funny name for a boat, but it was a lovely little thing. We had a guy sailing it, and another doing the rods for us, (well, Steve,) and I sat and then we were away and it was quite smooth to start with, but that was with us in the Marina!
Once we were out at sea, it was all I could do to stay seated. I sat on the middle of the boat with one leg bracing myself on the side seat and kept looking ahead! I asked if this was considered rough water, and aparently it wasn't!! My word, I could not imagine being out in worse than that! I couldn't understand how the boat stayed on top of the waves rather than under!
Almost immediatly, the guy on our level shouted and grabbed a rod which he gave Steve, and Steve reeled and reeled and I saw a flash of blue and sort of said, I can see blue, is it the bait?! and it wasn't, it was a mahi mahi fish, about 1.5 long and then the sailer guy grabbed a rod with a big hook and stabbed it through the middle to bring it in! No net or anything, and there was a lot of blood too. Steve thought it was great, and we sat back down and carried on.
Then there was nothing, and we'd been sailing for 2 hours when we got to Akumel Beach and looking over the side, there were turtles! Just like on Finding Nemo! They looked really chilled out and just drifting lazily, this way and that way, and we got our snorkal gear on and went off the boat for swimming.
This was only my third go at snorkelling and to start with, I seem to forget to breath so I did struggle a little but I got the hang of it, and at one point there were three turtles around me! We swam above them for about 40 minutes and then they seemed to head off, so we boarded again, and set sail for another 2 hours of fishing. And this is where my queasiness set in. Coming against the tide had felt bouncy but not too bad, but going with the tide, with the back of the boat being flung around, I suddenly had to concentrate very hard on not being sick. It really was hard work and I couldn't talk much.
Then about 1.30 hours later, another rod was thrust at Steve and he set to with the reeling and the boat stopping helped my sickness and I grabbed my camera and Steve really was setting to with a bigger fish! It was another mahi mahi and it flung itself out of the water and went from left to right and back again. Steve kept reeling it in and it was caught! Into the ice box it went and then 'thump, thump' it kept reminding us it was in there :(
We then got back to base for 1pm and they took the smaller of the fish, skinned and filleted it for us and gave it us to take away back to the hotel. We walked back, pretty sunburnt but happy.
On getting to the hotel, we had to sign a disclaimer saying we were eating something that wasn't hotel food, and then they took it and we sat down with a bit to nibble whilst we waited. We weren't sure whether to go up and collect it ourselves, when a chef made his way over with a big platter and it was Steve's mahi mahi!! It was so lovely, it was on salad and carrots and all beautifully laid out! It had been cooked on a grill and they even supplied a bowl of tasty oil dressing to go with it!
We got a plate of rice from the buffet to go on the side, and it was the most delightful meal, delicious and simple, rice and fish but knowing it was Steve's fish made it more tasty! Steve ate a lot of it and couldn't bear for any to go to waste!
Then, in the afternoon we took a siesta, the hot noon sun had taken it out of us, and my arms were pretty burnt despite my applications of sun lotion due to the sea spray out on the boat. The motion of the ocean plagued me all afternoon too! I still felt as though I was on a boat.
Dinner was a light one at the buffet restaurant on the Yucatan side. Steve said he wasn't hungry and just ate cakes, and I had a light nibble too.
It was a good day :) And we got some great pictures!
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