Deep sea fishing for John

Deep sea fishing with the local villagers was quite an experience for John on April 6th, 2010. He was invited by the Base Spanish language school director, David Nelson, to join him and the local fishermen of the village for the morning excursion of bringing in the nets that had been set out the night before. High waves crashing against the shore require exacting experience on when to push out and launch the small fishing boats. One minute too late and the next wave is upon the boat, lifting it up and turning it over, dumping all the equipment that has been placed inside for the fishing trip. One minute too early and you are hitting the breaking of the wave which slows the process for launching way down and again, puts you in the position of hitting that next incoming wave.


On this day, the haul was not too large but the currents of yesterday had been too strongly mixed and had tangled the net so that parts of it had to be cut off. The haul was pulled out of the net and placed in coolers. A big block of ice was picked apart and scattered around between the layers of fish as they were packed. David shared many tidbits of information with John about the different kinds of fish and the ways to handle them because most of them have sharp fins and barbs that can easily cut the hands deeply. Some fish were described as being quite dangerous because they can carry venom or electrical voltage up to 200 watts. You would definitely want to learn what you were handling before you reached your hands into the net too casually. A red snapper and jack of around 2 lbs each were cleaned out and put aside for John to carry home. Once they reached “home”, they were immediately washed, seasoned, and baked in foil for a late breakfast at 10:00 am. Big smiles were all around the table as John, Joyce, and Chris dug into such a sumptuous fare. We were blessed and thankful for the Lord’s gracious provision. Until the next trip!