Merlin Sea Fishing

I believe that you have to try everything in life, because from all you try and do you learn something about yourself and most of the experiences are great. So when Sil asked if I would like to go sea-fishing with some other expats, I had to say yes. I am somebody that prefers to see fish and meat on a plate with no bones in it and also have a preference that you do not recognise how the animal looked originally. In the Netherlands fishing is looking to the water waiting for the lonely fish to take the bait. It takes too long and I find it boring. Last time I was at sea was at the Heineken Sint Maarten Regatta with the Austrian Brewery Managers plus Magne our Norwegian Supply Chain Director. That was great but I also took from it that waves should be smaller then I am. And finally sea fishing is very synonym to drinking (no comments on this)…....

We had the evening before a party at the Jet Ski Club. We joined the club since it is a very nice place at the waterside and with a very relaxed athmosphere  The party was good but to be the next day at 6am at the boat was hard. Especially when our Captain (who was also at the party) arrived at least 1.5 hours later…...... So after setting out on the sea we started fishing. This means that the captain and his helper put out all the gear, while we (Sil, Paul, Steven and myself) were relaxing on deck, drinking water J. When all the equipment was out we started cruising until we finally hit our first fish. In total we got 3 Merlins and one Sailfish. My Merlin was really big and after fighting with him for almost an hour we swapped and 45 minutes later he gave up. The Merlin was estimated between 100 and 150 kg. After removing the hook we put them all back to sea which is really good. After that we went for Tuna and smaller fish like  Dorade and Yellowfish. We caught some and returned home somewhere late afternoon. In the evening we had a birthday party of Gijs and Steven offered to clean and fillet the fish. I was really happy with that offer. So Steven brought the fish fillet to the party in a big coolbox and we were all to take our fair share home. So when we left the party I took a big plastic bag from the coolbox. You can imagine my surprise when I came home that I had taken the ice cubes instead of the fish…..

I have been traveling in the last weeks a bit in Nigeria and have taken some flights. Nigerians are fantastic people with one but…..... In traffic they have a very specific style. You do not give space to anybody when you are in a traffic jam or crossing a roundabout or junction.

You do not look to the side if somebody is there. This implies that Nigerians have fantastic eyesight. The same principles apply in an airplane. When the plane has landed it does not matter who is sitting where and also it does not matter where your luggage is in the plane. Also giving somebody some space to stand (or sit) waiting for the doors to be opened. The principle is to be out of the plane first …. ...So when you are sitting at the aisle and somebody is sitting at the window, people are climbing over you to get up and are really actively moving through the corridor backwards and forwards to collect their belongings. Nobody gets upset and everybody remains smiling.

What a great nation!!!