Some days ago we heard clashing in the cockpit. It was our fishing alarm, a few empty beer cans, connected to the fishing line. They did not only fall off, but have been catapulted through the cockpit. At that time I was kneeling dough for baking bread. “As usual, fish are biting when it’s most inconvenient.” crossed my mind, but I said “ I’m coming”. We always are landing fish jointly. I mostly pull the line and Christian is working the gaff once the fish is close. Just when we caught our largest fish, a 25 kg yellowfin tuna, I haven’t been strong enough to pull him in.

However, at that day we didn’t come this far. I was still cleaning my hand when Christian shouted “Stay! He ripped the line!”. “Heavens, he must have been a monster!” I instantly thought, as our fishing line is not a standard fishing line, but a 3mm rope with a long, 1.8mm monofilament leader. The rope indeed was ripped just before where it’s attached with a knot at the elastic buffer band. It was the same line we have been using to land the yellowfin. At that moment, I was glad the fish had vanished. I still have no clue how big it was, but landing definitely would have been impossible. We would have had to cut the line after a fight. I just hope, it managed to get rid of the line.

The next day, the captain made a new line and lure. It wasn’t taking long as the elastic band was not lost. At dinner, there again was rattling. But the line was loose, the lure still intact. Within minutes, same thing twice again. „Strange, we usually barely miss a fish, once the alarm goes off.“ I have been thinking when it rattled once more. This time something was pulling on the line. We went for our life jackets, the gaff, a knive and a torch - it was dark already - and I started pulling in the line. „Something is glowing from time to time, where the fish is supposed to be“ I noticed and then „That fish is looking strange, maybe it’s an octopus“. It was a 1m cuttlefish, constantly shifting its colour between glowing white and orange red. In the meantime the kids had made their way to the cockpit and now curiously watched as we craned in the thing with a bucket on deck. After detaching the hook we wanted to release him, however we changed our mind as we saw he was already close to dying. There will be Calamaris today!

It is uncommon to fish a cuttlefish by trolling. Apparently, we sailed through a big swarm. The hook went to the meat and was fixed to the funnel they usually use for pushing out the water to move. This way they are able to go quite fast. After all, he bit as we sailed 4 knots. Wikipedia says there is more than 250 different species of cuttlefish, the largest one is reaching 12 meter in length. That’s the same size as Moya! But luckily these guys are just living in the deep sea.

Yesterday, the sea was glowing in hundreds of large luminous patches around Moya, not the little spots we usually spot. I’m pretty sure, we disturbed some cuttlefish, again. It was fascinating! Neptuns fireworks for Joshi‘s birthday!

I’m wondering, whether the ocean is more healthy here, whether animals are using the area as a retreat. I don’t know! But at least we barely saw a freighter (they go the direct route, north of us), left alone a commercial fishing vessel.