Pitufa.at

Big fishing fleets empty the Pacific, but we still troll a simple handline whenever we sail between islands and sometimes we get lucky! On the last sail we caught a jack while still in the lagoon–perfect size and timing and Christian quickly cleaned it with Smurfy eagerly watching and waiting for the first bite of sashimi… When we were in the middle of the passage and pitching in rough seas, the line stretched out again: we use a 30 m long, thick line with a metal leader and the yoyo is attached to a bungee cord that stretches out to take the impact when a fish bites. This time it was something much bigger. We reefed the genoa in a little bit to reduce speed from 5 to 4 knots, Christian rolled up the yoyo and yanked the fish over Pitufa’s high stern and into our multi-purpose bucket. A quick moment of panic: Is it a barracuda? Then we’d have to quickly throw him back as we don’t want to risk ciguatera poisoning. No, it’s a wahoo or something similar! A quick pic to identify the species later…(Turns out we caught a king mackerel).
Murdering and cleaning a big fish in rough seas on the rocking and rolling stern isn’t fun and Christian was holding on with one hand, holding the bucket with the second, cutting fish with the third while I did my best to keep Smurfy’s paws out of the bloody mess. As we didn’t have enough space in the fridge to simply put all steaks in and process them later on, I had to get to work in the galley immediately. Some drops of stugeron to fight sea sickness in the hot, sweaty, wildly rocking galley, then I skinned the fish, cut out all bones and red meat and put as much as we 3 can eat within a week into a plastic container and into the evaporator. All that’s not sashimi quality is cut into pieces and stuffed into jars. A squirt of soy sauce, the rest filled up with water, lids on and then the jars go into the pressure cooker for 1 hour (steaming up the cabin to sauna temperatures with the hatches closed underway). As we don’t have a freezer this is the best way to keep fish for later–the preserves stay good for months! Lots of work, but worth it.