Find Us On Facebook
Follow Us On Twitter
popular tags
Tag Archives: fishing
Turkey To Egypt Podcast: Part 2
This is the second 20 minute instalment of our 400nm crossing from Turkey to Egypt. In this episode Liz catches our first official trolled fish, Jamie proves he can’t navigate by the stars, we ride 3m waves and eventually land in Port Said. You can either listen online or you can download the mp3 file to listen to at your convenience. Enjoy!
Drains, Damn Traveller and Dorado!
With these two rather important features broken we were getting a bit tetchy. Our bodies hadn’t adjusted to the night watches and we were still motoring. As the second day aboard came to a close, the entire sky bathed in a dreamy pink as the sun dipped its head, I decided to go for a nap. This was shortly broken by Liz banging on the hatch, shouting something urgent.
I Feel So Reel!
I was very disappointed to read some of the comments you lot made about my dad’s efforts to line-fish off the back of the boat. You have to remember that whilst they look small to you, they are in fact a complete meal for a cat like me, so when he starts getting so good he pulls in not one, not two but three fish, one after the other, you have to admire his success. My dad’s great, I love him!
Catch #3: Carangidae/Pompano
Started fishing at 5 this morning, about the time the cicadas started. The anchorage is a stunning setting, especially at that time in the morning. I put some coffee on and chucked some crumbs out the back. Not much action for a bit until I attracted the attention of just three fish. In all the time at this anchorage (two nights) these are the only fish I’ve seen.
First Official Fish Caught Off Esper
Yes, after four years, three near misses, two lines and one very impatient cat we have finally bagged our first catch off the back of Esper! Under the guidance of our fishing guru, Matt, both Liz and myself caught a fish each within the space of 24 hours. Of course we frequently pull up a cage full of tiddlers and live-bait with our lobster pot but, according to our guru, “that’s not fishing, that’s just being lazy”. Click on the link to read about this very exciting moment…
From South Africa To Turkey
It’s perhaps not surprising that my best holiday so far was the result of a series of coincidences and good fortune. Even now, parts of it feel like a dream. How likely is it that your boss in South Africa tells you that you’re being sent to a conference in Istanbul and that – taking a chance because you know your friends are sort of crazy – when you email friends in London to say you’re going to be in Turkey for a few days, do they want to join you, they come back immediately to say that they’d love to.
Speak Soon, Spooners!
I learnt a lot about sailing, it was like a crash course as I had never really done any hands on sailing previously, all my boating experience has been under motor and I can definitely see the appeal when the engine is cut and you are purely under way using the power of the elements, it is quite cathartic.
Highly Dynamic
We woke up to hear that Liz had been up at the crack of dawn and managed to catch the same species of fish as Jamie but slightly bigger! [Ed: what utter nonsense 
]
Our Greek Ancestry
The town of Simi had its own charm as well and after a bit more of an orientation exercise i.e. drinking more beer we decided to go and have dinner. The restaurant we chose was recommended to us by an Australian waitress who said she had eaten there recently and it was fantastic. Well if she’d eaten there on her wages then I’m a Monkey’s uncle
Beautiful Bozburun
My strategy was to snorkel around with the boat’s sweeping broom and poke the handle into various likely looking holes in the rock with a view that the Occie would get very pissed off with this intrusion and wrap its tentacles around the broom allowing me to extract the Crustacean, at which point I was going to turn its head inside it which is the way to dispatch tour eight legged friend
In The Summertime
I was glad to be back in Turkey, but the thing about Alanya is that it also doesn’t have any fish. It does have a marina with no boats in it and a few fairly scary feral cats. That didn’t bother me though. I still managed to trap myself inside the marina boss’s yacht and had a fight or two with the local moggies. I won.
Beaucoup Fish
FISH, now they are quite a different matter. Oh, just that word brings me out in goose pimples. F, I, S, H, fish. Tasty, fleshy, scaly, spiky, slimy, fresh, wriggling fish. Yummy, yum yum.
Getting To Marmaris
till, we spotted a turtle whilst running goosewing (Esper was running goosewing, not the turtle), this time with the main, jib and mizzen, hitting up to 8kn speed over ground. By the time we’d reached Kadirga Br., the last corner before Marmaris, we were a sweating, sunburnt and tired mess. We’d travelled over 50 miles today and still managed to get to Marmaris in time to drop anchor, have a refreshing swim, shower, get ashore and have a silly evening with our friends Benn and Becks.
The Best Sail All Summer!
Whilst at the top of one of the hills, looking out north towards Bodrum, we could see the sea state was looking a little messy. I knew we were going to be in for a bit of a rough ride, sailing close-hauled back to the marina, but I had to get these boys back in time for their flight.