Sunny Islands, II

I actually forgot to mention in my last post,
I had a major singer/actor on my flight!!!!
I was super starstrucked *melt*... still good-looking, even though older.

So I didn't snorkel in Male. :(((
And I do believe that was why I didn't think it was that beautiful. Who doesn't snorkel in Male?! Wtf. Instead, I went deep-sea fishing....


I was the only one who had never been to Male before. The others have snorkelled in Male before, so when one guy suggested that we go fishing, the others were all very interested - it's not usual to get a colleague who's interested in doing something apart from the usual.
So we rented a boat with a set of crew for US$99/hr, for 3 hours.

The guys....
F/O Joe, William and Angus.


The girls...
Rebecca, Bee and Ann Gie.


Shortly after we set off from our little island, Joe said coolly, "Eh, look, dolphins." How come he could be so cool about it? I was the total opposite. I jumped from my seat and could hardly believe I saw them so coincidentally (it's not like this was a dolphin-watching tour).



Anyway it was scorching hot and humid when we set off at 8 a.m. I was thinking how I was gonna survive that 10 a.m. sun....

The bait being prepared. That's tuna.
And so we made good use of the waiting time...




First catch of the day! Note its colour...

The captain let the boat go in circles very slowly as we waited and waited and waited for the fish to deliver itself into our stomach. I got very frustrated because I kept feeling my line tug only to find the tugging gone after 2 seconds. And when I retracted the line, I found the tuna bait had been eaten, with a tiny bit left - the bit that's attached to the hook. So annoying. I must have changed my bait more than 10 times because of this. So at times when I got bored, I went to take some pictures....




My friends caught so many fish, especially Rebecca. For a first-timer, she had plenty of luck. I think she took mine away :( She caught 5, hello! that's like so many, and she caught the biggest one as well!

After about 2 hours of being at the same spot (actually we changed twice) the Captain said let's try trawling.
So we sped off with two of my colleagues sitting at the back of the boat. The bait was now a red colour flower. Here we managed to catch 5 skipjack tunas. It was much harder fishing this way because the boat was going pretty fast and the line was very long. With the current, it was really hard just holding on to the line without letting it slip past your hands.
I'll show you how William caught a skipjack tuna. First he felt a tug... then he saw the tuna jump out of water... the captain slowed down the boat and William had to continue pulling. He had to be fast or the tuna will let go of the bait.



So anyway almost everyone caught one tuna (like I said, we caught 5 tuna right) AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T GET ONE. Fed up. That was my last chance of securing a catch, so I had a go at it too. All the way until we neared Bandos Island, I waited and waited, but no freaking tuna fell for my bait, I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY:(

This is how the local fisherman catch their tuna... notice how fast they whip the rod and within seconds a tuna flies out! Incredible!




Here's a few of us with the tuna... remember I didn't catch the one I was holding though. I was just resigned to the fact that I wasn't gonna catch any that day so I borrowed someone else's tuna for a photo.



The tunas put up the biggest fight. They were struggling so hard that the stupid tuna I was posing with started splattering blood. Come on, if it didn't struggle it wouldn't die so painfully and also much less uglier *rolls eyes*
And that was how I got the blood stains on my dress! GRrr...

As we trawled, we passed several spots which were really nice, because at some of these points it was really shallow and we could see the corals under us and we could see the other chalets on the other nearby islands.






Anyways, the trip lasted a little bit longer than expected... This was all the fish that we caught - minus one very cute orange fish with big mouth and blue dots which William released back into the sea eventually because it was still pretty small.


Do you remember the first fish we caught? It is the 3rd fish on the top row. See how it's colour has changed. In fact, most of the fish we caught were colourful and nice (and I kept asking the captain if those fish could really be consumed *shy* because, you know, in nature all things colourful are poisonous/dangerous!)... but for some reason the colours changed over the hours so they look pretty crappy in this photo.

One of the crew kept insisting that we each took one fish to pose for a photo. I was extremely reluctant because
1. the fish were starting to smell... like the smell of market;
2. there was blood!!!

In the end, I gave in :(
Can you read my expression?

One last photo on the boat...

I quickly rushed back to my room to wash my hands right after we arrived on the island. I think I washed it three times but it still had the fishy smell. Each time I took a sniff, I wanted to puke. I'm gonna swear off going to the market for fish for the rest of my life.

Next...
a quick visit to the beach! :)