Life of Reilly III - Happy Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated American Thanksgiving, in honour of our Texan crew member, Dirk. Chef Richard defrosted some rib eye steaks for the occasion and Skipper Peter selected a choice bottle of red wine from the wine cellar. But everything changed when we heard that whizzing sound from the transom. Fred, being the closest, grabbed the rod and cranked the drag as hard as he could, but still the big fish was taking line. We had hooked a monster! We were all afraid we would lose it, as had happened with another fish a couple of days ago, but Peter had rigged the rod with much heavier line this time. The fish gave up fairly quickly after a brief but intense fight for its life. The battle to land
it continued for some time though because the sheer dead weight of the fish dragging behind the boat at 7 knots made it exhausting to reel in.
Several of the crew took turns at the reel and the gaff before we had it aboard. It was a mahi mahi, also known as dorado or dolphin fish. Beautiful iridescent lime green in colour, it measured about 3 feet from nose to tail. Peter spent a hour or so painstakingly filleting it and we celebrated American Thanksgiving with a feast of dorado steaks, canned peas and mashed potatoes, washed down with a lovely bottle of Croatian white wine. We froze enough meat to repeat the same meal for 5 men at a later date.

s/v Life of Reilly III