Cruising Log—9...Great Keppel Island

While doing the Lighthouse walk on GKI we met another bushwalking couple, Joce and Ted from Wollongong, who were staying at the resort. The views of Wreck Bay from the lighthouse were magic, so we stopped there for lunch. We had to drop over the side of the high ridge to avoid being blown into Asia.

Over lunch we talked about what we’d been doing. When they heard we’d been out sailing for seven weeks and had run out of fresh food six weeks ago, they delved into their lunch and gave us a mandarin and an avocado. What bliss!

Leanne will no doubt tell you about her fishing exploits in “Commodore’s Corner” but I’d like to mention the Sucker Fish. These weird fish, mostly around half a metre long, have a big suction cup on the top of their head. They use it to stick to other, bigger fish, such as sharks, mackerels and rays. They get a free ride and get to eat the bits that fall out of the big boy’s mouths. What a lazy bunch of sods.

It so happens that Sucker Fish like sticking to our hull as much as to other fish, perhaps even more. Again they get a free ride and get to eat the bits that go overboard. But any fish that comes near our boat is in grave danger of being assassinated by Leanne, Sucker Fish included.

It wasn’t long after she first noticed them that the first one was hooked. It was awkward to get in the net and, while we were struggling to land it, it shot under the hull and stuck firmly to it. We pulled and pulled but couldn’t get it off, then the line broke. “Never mind” I said, “It was a Remora, and people don’t eat them.”

While Leanne kept fishing, I looked the fish up in the book. It wasn’t a Remora but a related sucker fish called a Slender Sucker Fish, and the book gave it a three-star rating out of four. Damn. So I got out my line. Leanne will later on boast about how many flathead she caught while I caught nothing. However, whilst filleting her fish at the end of the day my line suddenly went off and we landed the biggest sucker of a Sucker Fish you’ve ever seen.

 Now we’ve eaten two of the suckers and we won’t be eating any more. The flesh is too mushy, it’s really only two stars, but the main problem is they are the slipperiest, toughest, bloodiest, gutsiest, pooiest, stinkiest fish to clean and I swear I’ll never fillet another one again. They’re all guts and little meat, and the back of the boat looked like a cross between a slaughterhouse and a faeces-fertilised rice paddy afterwards.

Leanne’s “Commodore’s Corner”

I spend many hours at the back of the boat fishing and get frustrated when I run out of bait which up to now had consisted of hot Hungarian salami. Here we are at Svendsen’s Beach on Great Keppel Island without any bait and me wanting to try out the new location for fishing. I asked Grant what else could I use for bait but as we were virtually out of fresh food nothing sprang to mind. I mentally went through all the food we still had on board and thought the only possibility was a crust of bread which was left. My dilemma was then how to keep it on the hook as I was sure it would just fall off when it got wet. So I put my brain into gear (I was surprised it still worked) and thought I would try some peanut butter (crunchy of course). At this point Grant was convinced I’d gone totally mad and said I was wasting my time.