Club Med Bahamas -Deep sea fishing…wahooo-ooo!

I was defeated.

Four hours of choppy ocean waves in a clean, but sardine can sized fishing boat, with one hand clutched with dear life to the edge of the boat, while the other hand was clutched on to my prized digital camera was way too much for me. I quickly (and quite discreetly) lost half my lunch into a plastic bag, without anyone really noticing my moment of equilibrium imbalance (apologizes for the visuals, but I don’t know how else to describe “upchucked”, “vomited” or “threw up” with finesse). My experience was inevitable, considering how hard the boat was humping the ocean waves, is was impossible to stand in the boat without holding on to something.

Captain Clyde (not your normal looking Skipper, for sure)

I did it all in the name of photojournalism and exciting video coverage.

I threw all my motion sickness tendencies aside and continued to shoot photographs & video footage while the boat threw me off my feet, only finding myself bracing the side of the boat again and saying “1,2,3, cheese!” to my fishing comrades. The last thing I remember was telling myself, “don’t shoot one more thing, or else you’ll lose it….”.

When I look back at these fun and PRICELESS pictures of our deep sea fishing trip during this Club Med blogger trip, I don’t regret my humbling moment when I stuck my head in the plastic bag, nor did I regret the great pasta lunch I had a few hours prior.

setting the bait

The pictures tell it all: the fabulous day of deep sea fishing, the gorgeous captain(s) at the helm of the boat and the reels, the beautiful crystal blue colors of the Bahamaian sea and the camaraderie in the exuberant faces of my fellow companions. Besides, the best part is that we caught 4 wahoo’s and 3 barracuda’s!!! Every single one of us (Jaden, Matt, Adam, Alex & Steve-Anna) caught at least one fish.

Every morning, Captain Clyde accompanied the chefs from Club Med’s Food & Wine Festival event to the sea to fish for the evenings meals. Every day of the fabulous 7 day event, we were dining on fresh fish from the sea, all cooked to perfection by these talented chefs. Each evening I was dining on a fabulous seafood but I never understood the process of bringing in the evening’s  dinner, until it was my turn at the reel.

taking off from the dock

As we waited for the small bait to be taken by the fish, we chatted, quenched our sun parched thirst with refreshing beverages (wink, wink), listened to upbeat tunes, and occasionally tried to steal glances at our gorgeous Captain Clyde (well, most of us did). When our Captain yelled, “stop the boat!”, our attention was brought to the music of the fishing line, turning, churning and being pulled further into the deep ocean.

A fish, a fish! One of us immediately stumbled to the lucky chair and Captain Clyde placed the pulling reel-y thingy to the posty-thingy between the funny looking chair-y thingy that we braced ourselves in. With all our strength, we turned the fishing reel-y thingy round and and round to bring in the fish.

Sitting in the fisherman’s seat and turning the reel with all my might felt like a lifetime. I thought I was in good physical condition until after about 30 seconds of straight reeling, my arms were burning, my breath was heavy and I was ready to just give up. But with the supporting voices and calls from my cheerleaders behind me, I continued to find the strength to reel in my barracuda! It wasn’t the eighty pound mahi mahi that I was hoping to brag  about, but I was still thrilled at my catch. It was exhilarating.

catching a beautiful wahoo

happy me & my catch (photo credit:  below, jaden)

Our day’s cache of fish was brought to the chefs to prepare for the evening dinner. Chef Sean Bernal prepared one of the wahoo’s for an evenings Food and Wine Event demonstration. It was an amazing sight to see the whole wahoo cut and prepared right before our eyes for a delicious Wahoo Escabeche dish.

Read my 2009 Club Med Blogger series:

• Heading to Bahamas blogger bash
• Club Med -Day 0.5, cocktail party, Bahama Mama Cocktail
• Club Med -Day 2, beach photoshoot crazy
• Club Med – White Gazpacho Recipe and more blogger pics!
• Club Med – Fish & Cockburn Town
• Club Med  – Green Flash Cocktail
• Club Med – Deep Sea Fishing

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