preparing the turtle eggs

They tell me these taste great. I can't imagine eating baby turtles.

I kept thinking of the far side cartoon of the polar bears eating an igloo. One polar bear says to the other " hey, this is great, crunchy on the outside with a soft chewy centre"

Turtles are so lovely, I couldn't bring myself to try this delicacy . I have difficulty accepting that others enjoy eating baby turtles....

No, I don't feel the same way about chickens!

This is George holding up our "winning" fish.

It was this fish and a combination of 5 catch and release marlins/sailfish that placed "Monique" second.

George was the most amazingly enthusiastic hard working deck hand I have ever come across. His keen eye and enthusiasm certainly contributed to "Monique's" success.

The Prize a Rolex watch- and a year worth of bragging rights.

My thoughts : I don't think the owner really cared much for the watch -I hope he gave it to George although this is probably unlikely.

Bahia del Sol fishing tourney

Every year there is a Bill fish tournament hosted by Bahia del Sol Marina and Hotel- the Prizes include outboard engines, cars, Rolex watches, tenders, among other things. The event attracts bill fisher's from all over the world, however the majority of entrants were from Central America. The most "valued" prize of course is a year of bragging rights. The officials take the judging quite seriously and previous tournament results have been hotly debated. To resolve this the event organizers have recruited "cruisers" to participate in the tourney as onboard observers, recording all catches on video. Cruisers were deemed to be the best choice for this job as they tended not to get sea sick and are unbiased. I was lucky to be selected as an official on the 58foot viking luxury fishing vessel "Monique" owned by a Casino business man from El Salvador. Some of the crusisers didn't fair as well as I did and had to suffer slogging about in the swell in much smaller boats.

What not to do

A cruising fact of life....

When packing for your trip, clothes and personal items go out and boat parts go in.

Heavy items - carry on

We became pretty creative getting our bags under the 50 lb limit. Having said that, we had a lot of explaining to do when this fuel filtering system went through the x-ray machine at the Seattle airport.

We got every ones attention including Seattle Police.

Jovietal

Hola - El Salvador November 2006

Mom- arriving on Jovietal for the first time

I would of never imagined buying a boat in El Salvador while sitting at home in Canada. Thanks to the techno gods for bringing us Yachtworld.com- which made this venture possible without a hitch.Well.....maybe a few hitches. After the purchase it appears we have been affected by a lightning strike.

Yep' welcome to the yachting world another day another $$$$.00

The boat is parked in Bahia del sol which has a rather tricky bar to navigate to get in and out. You have to pick your days to go over the bar. On my first visit we could not get out for even for a day sail. I spent my time cleaning out lockers at a snails pace because of the heat , humidity and the cervesa's that went along with it.