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SHARK SLAYER IS HISTORY


 

Once upon a time there was a fishing lure named Shark Slayer.  It was a large flat headed lure with a red and white skirt, sporting two tandem double hooks.  Shark Slayer was a bargain purchased for only twelve dollars at a fishing tackle store in the Canary Islands.  Unfortunately, I only bought one of these lures when I should have invested in at least two or three, because Shark Slayer had an extremely short life on Exit Only.

 

Shark Slayer was such a large lure we didn't expect to catch anything with it.  We thought it would be used primarily to attract fish to the other lures that we trolled behind our yacht.  At times we trail up to eight lures, and Shark Slayer created a great deal of turbulence and left a large bubble trail in the water.  Pelagic ocean fish are attracted by bubble trails, and it made sense to put Shark Slayer at the head of pack generating a large bubble trail.  We trailed Shark Slayer about twenty feet behind the boat, but we didn't believe there were any fish big enough to attack such a large lure on such a short tether.  We were wrong.

 

We wanted to catch mahi mahi.  This species of fish have a peculiar habit of living under floating debris.  If you sail by floating crates, barrels, or logs, there is a high probability mahi mahi are lurking in the area.  We were sailing in the eastern Atlantic when Morgan spotted a large floating crate just ahead of Exit Only.  He called me on deck to take a look at it as we sailed by with the crate fifty feet from the boat.  I told Morgan to keep a sharp lookout on our lures because there might be a mahi mahi hiding under the crate.  Within fifteen seconds of speaking those words, a giant mahi mahi hit Shark Slayer at high speed and started thrashing in the water.  Since it was only twenty feet behind the boat, it was easy to pull him in and land him on the transom.  It was a big mahi mahi, forty two inches long, and Morgan estimated that it weighed about thirty pounds.  Morgan and I double teamed him, cleaned him, cut him up, and we had four good meals from this bounty of the sea.  Donna prepared the fish in four different ways, and we voted on the most delicious recipe.  Fried, curried, and ceviche were all at the top of our list of the best ways to enjoy mahi mahi.  Chalk up an unexpected victory for Shark Slayer.

 

Two days later we placed Shark Slayer back in the water as we approaced the Cape Verde Islands.  We used 175 pound nylon test line so there would be no chance of loosing Shark Slayer.  After all, what type of fish would be capable of breaking 175 pound test line.  We later found out the Cape Verde Islands are one of the best areas in the world to catch giant blue marlin.  People fly from Europe to engage in sport fishing trying to catch marlin.  But we didn't know that at the time.  We had five lures trailing behind the boat at eight o'clock in the morning, and suddenly, whammo!  A massive blue marlin came up out of the deep and hit Shark Slayer about thirty feet behind our boat.  He instantly broke the 175 pound test line taking Shark Slayer from us as he took off running.  He was one supercharged marlin jumping out of the water behind our yacht.  We could see Shark Slayer hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he leaped into the air trying to shake free from the lure.

 

Alas, Shark Slayer is gone to the depths of the waters around Cape Verde.  He will have an exciting ride with his new friend, the marlin, for the next week or two until the hook rusts out of his mouth.  Then Shark Slayer will go to the bottom, and the marlin will be free from this temporary irritation in the corner of his mouth.  Then all little fishes of the Cape Verde Basin will need to watch out, because the blue marlin will be on the prowl once again.

 

P.S.  There are sharks out here in the Atlantic Ocean.  One of the yachts traveling with us stopped for a swim because there was no wind and the seas were flat.  Their swimming session didn't last long, because a big Mako shark cruised up to their boat, and they instantly got out of the water.  So much for swimming in water that is five thousand feet deep and that has finned predators - denizens of the deep - on the prowl for easy prey.
 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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