Santa brought Drew a pole spear for Christmas. In his great wisdom, he also left one for Pat. Since our arrival in the Bahamas, the spears have been well used. In fact, you could say a certain member of our family has become “obsessed”.
There was that first casual father-son outing... a little afternoon snorkeling; turning over a few rocks here and there in search of lobster. Then a shot was fired; then another and another. Once he actually caught something, there was no turning back.
Now we’re in the company of several other sailboats with spear poles (and kids)(and similarly obsessed dads) aboard. The guys have been getting together almost daily for “weather meetings” even when we know we’ll be staying put for a while. At first they were scheduled during the cocktail hour... makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Now the group seems to prefer morning meetings - just after breakfast and approximately 2 hours before the hints start dropping...the degree of subtleness varies:
“____ told me about a GPS coordinate with a reef I.. I mean we.. might want to check out.”
“What were you thinking for dinner tonight? Do we have any of that lobster left? I.. I mean we.. could try to catch some.”
“You should take the kids to the beach this afternoon. It would be a nice day to fly a kite don’t you think?”
“I’m going spear fishing at 1:30. Drew can come if he wants to.”
The biggest single-day catch so far has been 5 lobsters and 3 fish. At least this is a “hobby” with practical value!
Of course, we have to cook everything up quickly...fish hunters are very anxious to eat their kill; they also go to bed very early (to rest their shooting arm).
So far, there have been no puncture holes to human flesh or inflatable dinghy; no run-ins with sharks, other than an occasional nurse shark sighting; and thanks to Santa, no fights over whose turn it is to shoot. Jake, at least so far, has been content with “eating” v. “catching”, and Emily much prefers “gathering” over “hunting”... sand dollars and shells, mostly.
There was that first casual father-son outing... a little afternoon snorkeling; turning over a few rocks here and there in search of lobster. Then a shot was fired; then another and another. Once he actually caught something, there was no turning back.
Now we’re in the company of several other sailboats with spear poles (and kids)(and similarly obsessed dads) aboard. The guys have been getting together almost daily for “weather meetings” even when we know we’ll be staying put for a while. At first they were scheduled during the cocktail hour... makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Now the group seems to prefer morning meetings - just after breakfast and approximately 2 hours before the hints start dropping...the degree of subtleness varies:
“____ told me about a GPS coordinate with a reef I.. I mean we.. might want to check out.”
“What were you thinking for dinner tonight? Do we have any of that lobster left? I.. I mean we.. could try to catch some.”
“You should take the kids to the beach this afternoon. It would be a nice day to fly a kite don’t you think?”
“I’m going spear fishing at 1:30. Drew can come if he wants to.”
The biggest single-day catch so far has been 5 lobsters and 3 fish. At least this is a “hobby” with practical value!
Of course, we have to cook everything up quickly...fish hunters are very anxious to eat their kill; they also go to bed very early (to rest their shooting arm).
So far, there have been no puncture holes to human flesh or inflatable dinghy; no run-ins with sharks, other than an occasional nurse shark sighting; and thanks to Santa, no fights over whose turn it is to shoot. Jake, at least so far, has been content with “eating” v. “catching”, and Emily much prefers “gathering” over “hunting”... sand dollars and shells, mostly.
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