Bassas Da India Adventure: Thurs 7th July

We hit the water at about eight fifteen for the day’s first dive – still in the cove, but because of the high tide the current was very strong and we had to claw our way along the sand from the boat to the reef about 50 metres off, for a second dive on this amazing reef.

Greg and I between dives... (Look how blue the water is)

A breakfast of bacon, fried eggs and freshly baked bread (Brent is amazing in the boat’s little galley) followed the first dive of the day, then we set off trawling for some fresh fish for lunch, using mainly the rods and tackle on the boat, under instruction from Brent, who I am sure was thoroughly frustrated by us divers...90% of the charters that Brent takes to Bassas are fishermen, and I’m sure he’s never seen the number of line tangles and lost tackle that he saw on our boat!

My line was taken first, and I’ve never felt a fish so powerful as the tuna that was on the end of my line. I fought it for what seemed like hours, and in the end, with chunks of skin scraped off my thumb from the reel winder and arms so tired I just couldn’t wind in any more, the tuna stopped fighting so hard (for reasons about to be revealed) and Mark helped me wind in the remains of what we estimated to be a 50kg tuna. I say “remains” because my weak arms took too long to get the fish on the boat and the ‘taxman’ – some large shark in the area - had bitten most of the tuna off (in what looked like one huge toothy bite), leaving me with only a head and the front fins (all the good eating parts gone) – but even those remains were heavier than any whole fish I’ve caught before – probably weighing in at about 7 or so kg for just the head.

Net Income after Tax

Fighting the tuna beast

"The Head" (all that the taxman left me). Look at those teeth marks on the left. This shark could easily bite through a large man's thingh!

The others (not me as my arms were spent at this stage) pulled in four smaller tuna, but not without incident as Phil managed to get a hook right into his hand as he unthinkingly grabbed his lure with his hand as the tuna flapped on the back of the boat before it had been unhooked and “bagged”. Brent had to inject local anaesthetic and cut the hook out of Phil’s hand with a surgical blade, while Phil turned white then passed out briefly – some medical drama for the day. It was a relief to know that aside from tour guide, mariner and chef, Brent is also pretty handy with giving emergency medical attention too.

Phil looking a little white after surgery

Miguel and Brent filleted and cut up the freshly caught tuna, and we had the most delicious (and freshest possible) tuna sashimi complete with wasabi, pickled ginger and soya, followed by seared tuna with sesame seeds. I could get used to eating like this! Fresher sashimi would mean taking a bite of a living fish! We threw the remainder of the tuna carcasses (fillets removed) back into the sea, and watched the potato bass squabble over the huge scraps, taking almost the entire tuna in one mouthful (see pic on previous day's blog)

Tuna Filletting on the back of the boat

Freshest Tuna Sashimi ever

We dived a second dive in the cove – Brent (an open water diver), joined on the dive this time, insistent that he would only dive with his shark prodding pole (fishermen?!!)

Brent with his prodder

The Cove was a gentle slope up from about 30m under the boat, with outcrops of reef getting gradually closer together as you move towards the main reef. These outcrops formed lots of interesting gulleys and nooks and crannys, with each outcrop absolutely teeming with fishlife. There were several large Potato bass that followed us around on our dive, along with the amazing corals and huge variety of fishlife, and on this dive I saw my only Lion fish of the trip (unusual as we are used to seeing so many on our dives around Mozambique and in the Red Sea.)