Oh look, its suicidal fish number 2

Destination for the day was Rok Noi, some 50 odd miles north.
Hmmm motor or sail? If only!
We left at 0600 and a soon as we cleared the northern tip of Koh Tarutao, the water was BLUE!

NE tip of Koh Tarutao

 Looking back from our anchorage the night before, we could for the first time in days, see the top of the chairlift at Langkawi- some 35 miles to the south. Oh well, another time!

We  rechristened 20 miles of the sea after passing Tarutao- the "sea of flags". Beautiful as the day was, there was no time to kick back and read a book - there were a gazillion fishing flags and nets in this stretch of the sea.Most of them, but not all, had nice orange fluro flags which actually meant we could spot them, but that did involve actually looking instead of lounging.

The breeze finally  kicked in, in the afternoon- a real sail at last.

We have passed many FAD's (fish attracting devices) but today's was one of the best. It may, in hindsight actually have been more of a fish pen/holding area. It was enormous and would not be something pleasant to run into at night. It at first appeared to resemble a floating inverted pandanus tree. As we passed close by- completely failing to take a photograph, (which I will put down to it being a shot directly into the sun)- it actually appeared to be a huge floating basket, the circumference being an estimated 2m. It looked as though it had been woven from palm tree fronds. The bit above the water we could see, being woven from  the part of the frond closest to the tree. Each frond  end was probably about 30cm across. We could see about 1.5m above the water, so assuming the iceberg theory holds good, it was going to be a substantial mass beneath.

Then the excitement of the day occurred - a fish, suicidal, obviously, decide to catch a ride.
Oddly that very morning,Lynne had asked what we were going to do, if we ever actually caught a fish- the likelihood of which being  so  rare, that altho I now have a gaff, I never even bother to get it out in readiness .

So the plan:

• Find a suicidal fish
• Identify that it has accidentally hooked itself.
• Slow the boat down, which to date would mean reducing the revs, but of course we were actually sailing at a pleasant 5 kts on this occassion.

Whilst I haul in the captive, she was to get ready;

• The gaff
• The wooden chopping board ( and tie a handy bit of rope to it, in case it slips off the aft step in the excitement of the moment) 
• Something to despatch the captive with, fishing knife or a handily heavy wooden (or the metal one), pestle, bought as multipuposes devices for 'pestling' things, or as  fish concousing implements.
• If there was time, a piece of non skid matting for under the chopping board- again to prevent the whole lot disappearing off the step, where the deed would be done.

The plan swung into action and here it is- fish number 2

For all the anti blood sporters amongst the 'vast' readership, you will be pleased to know that within seconds of this photo, beautiful gleaming golden/green fish was released.Not kissed and released , just released!

In my mind, I was pretty sure this was a Mahi Mahi, one of my all time favourite eating fish.Also known as a dolphin fish.

This was only a junior-despite being the perfect size for two of us. 

Also in my mind ,was that one of  natures tricks is that quite often, everything that glistens is not, in fact, gold. Bright colours often mean danger- toadstools for instance come to mind! 

As my Mahi Mahi to date, has always been obtained at a fishmongers in steak/fillet size, skinless portions, there was enough uncertainty to make us decide that , a prudent sailor , who wasn't actually dying of scurvy or malnutrition, might be wiser to return the bounty, from whence it came.

Total stats on the hunter gather tally now stand at :

• 1 lost lure
• 1 fish - mackeral, caught and consumed
• several snags of detritus
• 1 (now positively identified) released Mahi Mahi
• for 3589 nm covered.

Now that is fish stock sustainability!