Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

Li Tsun's homepage

Atom RSS for your feed reader

 

Ikan Terbang, Labuan Bajo, Ubud: Wau fish; dolphins; back to Bali

Maurice caught a Wau fish of 1.2 meters and 20-25 kilos this morning. The fish belongs to the Marlin family but it lacks the Marlin's nose spear. It looks like a tuna. Thazard Raye is its French name. The species's max length is 2.35 meters. This fish will feed the crew for several days. They'll eat the tender meat as sushi and they'll cook the rest. The crew is super-excited about such a large catch.

The fish started tugging on the line at sunrise and everyone sprang into action. Maurice took the fishing rod and Jerome started reeling in the idle line, so that it wouldn't get tangled with the "live" line. My family jumped out of bed into observation posts. The Indonesians got out of the way of the rods and watched too. The crew was shouting so loudly that I thought that we had lost something overboard and we were scrambling to retrieve it. Maurice followed the fish around a quarter of the boat, reeling in when the fish rested and holding steady when it fought. The fish fought fiercely at first but tired quickly. By the time Maurice brought the fish alongside the boat, it was hardly moving. The net wasn't large enough to hold the fish, so Jerome hooked it with a large meat hook (gaffe in French) and pulled it on board. Then Maurice whacked its head several times with a stick so that it wouldn't flip about on the floor.

The bait that attracted the fish was a shiny green tackle. Maurice said that sunrise is the best time to fish because the sun hits the tackle just right, so the tackle dances like a little fish.

Maurice said that it's "thanks to you" (my family) that we caught this fish. Jerome emptied the toilet into the sea just before the fish bit, and the fish was probably following the boat because of the trail of sewage. "It wanted to eat American," said Maurice. Only we (the clients) use the toilet. The crew does their toilet business directly overboard, off the side of the boat.

Maurice remarked that we humans bring fish from the sea, eat it, and return it to the sea.

We started the five-hour journey back to Labuan Bajo at 3:30 this morning. We motored at five nautical miles per hour. A nautical mile is 1482 meters, so our speed was about nine kilometers per hour. The motor has 50 horsepower.

A group of 10 dolphins swam with the boat just before we entered the Labuan Bajo port. They jumped out of the water and zipped around, criss-crossing in front of the boat. Jerome said that they're the fastest creatures in the water. They can swim at up to 60 kilometers per hour.

Maurice got another bite on his line a few hours after he caught the big Wau fish. Maurice fought with the fish for a minute but the fish broke the line. Maurice said that it felt much larger and stronger than the one he caught. A large tuna is probably swimming around right now with a tackle in its mouth.

We arrived in the Labuan Bajo port 4 hours and 45 minutes after we disembarked. We talked and took photos and sang songs for an hour in the boat after we anchored at the port. Darna and Jerome took us to shore in the dingy with our bags.

We relaxed at the Gardena restaurant with Jerome and Maurice while we waited for our flight back to Bali.

posted by Unknown at 4:07 AM