Day 7: Ocean Motion

Today was an early start! After a night of staying up until 11:00pm (we even danced to a few Karaoke songs (we as in Krystle danced, Tyler took pictures)), we were up at 5:15am. An hour and fifteen minutes drive to the dock, we arrived at 7:00am and hopped straight onto our boat. It was a hazy morning, but our hopes were good, as the sea had settled from the past two days.


On board with Captain Jean Claude (above) and Skipper Nicholah (below).


We had SEVEN rods on the go! All with different weights, lines, reels, and hooks on them (hooks MUCH bigger than ours, I might add!). In the middle you can see "the fightin' chair." We had our hopes up for Tyler to catch a big ol' marlin (but not too high, as we're a few weeks early for marlin season.)


We were just over an hour in, still on our way further out to sea, when a pod if dolphins started swimming with our boat!!! I mean like 30+ of them!


(Bad pictures, but it was so neat!! We got a few better pics on cameras.)
It was so neat!!! They were jumping all around!


They stayed with us for about five minutes!

Then, just as that excitement started to wear off, Tyler got a bite! It took a while to reel that sucker in, but finally...


A dorado!!!


Against my wishes, there is no catch-and-release here, haha - Nicholah looked at me like I was crazy for asking (though I kinda got the impression they keep everything when they gaffed anything we got near the boat).

Already we were ahead of the game, as two days prior the guys were skunked, and yesterday they only caught one, as they were headed back in for the day. It was barely 9:30am and we already had a dorado in the boat and a frolic with dolphins!

About an hour later we got another hit, and I brought in a wahoo. Mark another one on the list for "the boss." Lol.


Around noon Tyler pulled in a little Kingfisher, and then around 1:30pm the birds just started pooping up everywhere!

You see, we had been looking for birds over the water all morning, but could mostly only find flocks of about 3-8. Now birds started popping up in flocks of 20-60! This was important because the birds show you where the fish are. The tuna swirl the feeder fish around in a circle and then push them up to the surface to eat them (the same way sharks get their fish); the birds can then dive in to eat the feeder fish, too (so the tuna really help the birds eat). Thus, the birds tell us where the tuna (and other larger fish) are.




It wasn't long and Jean Claude had us pulling in the Skipjack tuna like nobody's business (actually, it went in little waves, but we were having a blast and loved that we were catching anything - anything was better than nothing!).





Our final tally...



16 skipjack tunas
1 kingfisher (bottom, little)
1 wahoo
1 dorado


:)


Took us an hour and forty minutes to get "home," with rush hour, and we were fast asleep by 8:00pm, literally feeling the ocean-motion of the boat all through showers and supper.

Day 5-6 "Mauritius: the only place the weather changes faster than Alberta!"

Today we headed into the capital, Port Louis, to check out the market and the horse-racing track.

On this island they speak French, English and Creole.

The Harbour was pretty- reminded us of Victoria.














The local market was busy, but pleasant. Krystle went a little crazy shopping (hear that, Debbie? Krystle shopped!)






She even paid $115 for a wooden Dodo bird (their national bird).

Then we went to the racetrack- it's the oldest racetrack in the southern hemisphere, and the second oldest one in the world. It is a favorite event for locals, even though it is apparently all rigged to ensure the track does not lose money, haha.

It was R175 for Tyler (ladies are free entrance), and it wasn't long before we were swept up by someone who took us up to a box suite to watch from. (They also offered to take us to the paddocks, but we unknowingly wore shorts, which is a faux-pas to special events here, so we're not able to go).





We placed a few bets - 10MUR (Mauritian rupees) per bet... About $0.35 CAD.



The horse-racing lasted until 5:30pm, and then it was a return taxi trip for about 20km, which takes close to 40min!

After another great buffet, tonight of Mauritian food, we were in bed by 7:40pm!!!
----------------

My new husband continues to make promises of waking me later than the morning before, however he continually wakes me up an hour previous than the day before. Hence to say, we are now waking at 4am (going to bed at 8pm doesn't help, mind you, but we are still recouping from jet lag and time change, as we are now ten hours ahead of home).

But, what does it really matter when you wake up to have a lazy beach day anyhow?



The weather seriously does change faster here than in Alberta, though! Really hot one moment, pouring rain within 20 seconds, and then windy and sun again... Keeps us guessing :)

We took up snorkeling this morning, and water-skiing this afternoon - we both got up in our second tries (pretty darn good, considering it's been so long!).

We decided we'll stay up "late" tonight and go for dinner at 8pm. Haha. Here's hoping...

Cheers
Tyler & Krystle

Day 4: Beach Day

Today was fairly uneventful... We changed from one room in Paradise to another room in Paradise. The people here are very friendly. The weather, mostly warm, but also seems quite windy. The water is not as warm as I expected, but as clear as the beaches of Zanzibar.












We booked a day tour of the island, and a day of deep sea fishing.

The food here is great. The resort is small but has everything one needs. Very glad we went with the all-inclusive option :)

Love you all,
Krystle & Tyler