14∞18.61N - 037∞13.56W --> 14∞40.74N - 39∞54.73W
Mid Atlantic, Piers and I (Giacomo) are seated in the Cockpit:
"What are you doing?" .
"Nothing, I've read a book for a couple of hours, now my eyes are staring at the sea, at the waves, at the clouds. And you?"
"I've finished my watch, now I'm resting, I'm doing nothing basically"
It's a hard life at sea, isn't it?
"So, it's beer 'o clock for us?"
"Yes of course!"
Tschhh, Tschh, cheers, sip, ahhhh. Relax ...
Five seconds later ...
"What is that?"
"Where? What?"
"What the .... !"
The rod's fishing line is running away from us really fast. Something has bitten our lure and is now on our line.
The 'something' is leaping out of the water ... it seems really big.
Four of us alternate on the rod to bring some line in on the reel while pouring fresh water on it to cool it down; we furl the jib but we still have the mainsail with two reefs in; Will is helming with the engine in astern to slow down the boat.
After about 30 minutes the fish is close, then it is scared by the boat, so it starts to run away, taking lot of fishing line with it.
This happens again and again but each time we get the beast a little bit closer.
Now we can see this something: it's an energetic Blue Marlin, and it's quite big.
After another 10 minutes he is exhausted, and so are we. It is really close to the boat now. Wow, it's big!
Will and Piers manage to gaff the fish and bring him onboard.
The fish is now lying in the cockpit: Will is sitting on it, riding him like a rodeo because he is strong and thrashing about, Piers is holding the fish's sword and covering it's eyes with a towel, I pour some vodka (bought specially for this purpose) into its gills.
When the fish is drunk I kill it with a knife in the middle of its eyes, directly into it's brain.
Its nerves are still twitching, we're exhausted from this butchering. We're real dirty, blood is everywhere in the cockpit. This little marlin is almost as long as we are tall, his weight is more or less 25 to 30 kg.
We proceed with the butchery: remove the marlin innards, chop the head and tail off, making steaks and fillets, putting them in plastic bags for fridge and freezer, wash the cockpit and our hands, cleaning the crime scene.
For the three of us this marlin is the biggest animal ever killed and we're really glad for our next meals.
But strange emotions are behind our happiness and our excitement: a subtle line of sadness mixed with a tiny gratitude for the sea ... for life in general, to support our lives with other lives.
Once we were hunters, once we were symbolic animals in an animated world, where every happening was part of a meaningful whole.
Perhaps, deep inside us, it is still so?
Well done Piers ... that's a proper fish!
Piers and Marlin