Odalisque - September 26, 2004 Log

Log 2004 – September 26th

Sunday September 26, 2004 – “Blue Fish–Letting it Happen”
Crew: Caleb, Jessie, Noah, Nathaniel.

The wind was light (NE 5- 8) at Steppingstone as Jess and I set out under motor with main rigged. It never got any heavier the whole afternoon. We had a nice lunch on board of take out food from Kalustians in NYC (eggplant, lentils, garbanzos etc) when we arrived around 1430 so we were prepared for a short sail.
We had made it a far as the channel between Hewlett Point and Hart Island when we got a cell phone call from Noah who said he would be at Steppingstone by 1645 so we headed back towards the mooring field. Noah had wanted me to pick him up at the dock, which I was not for doing given the traffic and our lack of insurance. Noah is always up for stuff like that as long as someone else is at the helm. We made the mooring and waited for Noah and Nathaniel to arrive and a chance to fish from Odalisque.

We were all set up to go sailing but since there was at best a light wind at 1730 we set out under Atomic 4 power with the main up for Manhasset Harbor where we had heard there were some good spots for catching bluefish. Noah untangled his lures as we prepared to troll with the weighted surgical tube lure that looked like an eel. That lure trolled at 3 - 4 knots produced 4 bluefish in nearly 20 minutes and only one managed to slip out of Noah’s hands. These blues were close to 2 ft. in length and nearly 3 – 5 lbs. Once Nathaniel realized that we were catching plenty of fish he wanted to try trolling with the same rig with his light snapper gear. We had already taken 3 beautiful fish and the almost full moon was rising to the East, pale and pure, and the majestic sun was setting over the Bronx with a fiery red sunset with illuminated clouds.
It had not been a stellar afternoon for actually sailing with very light winds but the evening stayed beautiful as we made fast our gear and departed for land at 1900 hrs. This was our first fish kill on Odalisque with 3 five pound bluefish bagged. Half of the catch was grilled at Noah and Beth’s with a delicious marinade and our remaining fillet was marinated similarly (olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, habenero hot pepper diced) but first baked at 500 degrees for < 10 minutes and then broiled for < 2 minutes and was scrumptious, juicy and good the following day. Thank you blue fish.

Over dinner that night at Noah and Beth’s I mentioned that these bluefish were free. Then I started thinking about the costs of the boat and by no means where these free blue fish. We were free to catch them if we had the boat and the time to do so. The bluefish themselves were free while swimming in the water.

— Caleb Davison