28 kilos (60 pounds)

Sorry for the bad photo quality.. This was the greatest tuna we caught, so far. Almost 30 freaking kilos it weight and filled up our fridge in a second. The funny thing was that Alex reeled this thing up with our thinnest rod and the smallest Rapala on 7 cm (2,7 inch) and he worked on it for around 40 minutes. Still I don't understand how the hell he got it up.. Nice one. /T

My hunter

Alex got a new toy the other day. He declared to me that he will get us some BIG, big fishes, just by shooting them and grabbing them by hand. So I took my seat on the deck, I excitingly watched him swim around our boat, dreamed of what gorgeous dinner I could prepare with his harpoon caught fish. Maybe another Barracuda?! After some thirty minutes he showed up from the water, he seemed excited and made me understand he caught something! He pulled up the arrow and... the fish he pulled up was .. this one! Ha! Oh my wonderful baby love, that was the greatest fish I've ever seen. Not perfectly enough for dinner though, but big enough to give us a good laugh. And big enough to use for catching other ones. Lets try this out in other waters where the big fish hang around, very soon. /Taru

This is how we do it

This one is for Baydog. He's been asking for more tuna:

Choosing Rapala.. (we picked the red one)

There's something BIG on the hook... reeling in.

A 16 kilo's tuna!

Tada! Lunch, anyone? Fresh sushi and a sesam seared tuna steak. Oh madre mia, how delicious it was.

Barracuda fishing in Sardinia

So we arrived safely. It was a harch night, the first one underway towards this Italian island, let me tell you. We were well prepared for the strong North wind with gusts to 30 knots but we we're not expecting to get stuck in the middle of a thunder storm and the most intensive lightning show we've ever seen. It is kind of magical to see the lightning strick around you on every and each side and just having to sit there and wait for them to hit your mast, but they didn't, obviously.

We got a peaceful sleep in Porto Conte and headed up North this morning. This is the beautiful Barracuda we got today, just before arriving to Porto Mannu where we just anchored up for the night. Can't wait to have it cooked on the barbecue tonight.

Ibiza

Hi there, we've just arrived in the land of madness! Late after the original plan, but right in time for a friends birthday celebration on Cocoon later tonight. And this is the catch of today. This beast woke us up seven in the morning and right now we're just about to prepare a tuna feast for our friends on the boat in the harbor of Ibiza. Talk to you later.

Big fishing

This is a part of the big tuna we cought on our last passage between Mallorca and Barcelona. Weight around 12 kilos (26 pounds). The Shimano Tiagra 50W LRSA 2-Speed Reel works perfectly with fish in this size and bigger and it's a real pleasure to work with./A

Shared joy is a double joy*

It's been some good days that passed the last two weeks and very much easier than we expected. Everyone adapted impressively fast to the spartan and tight boat life and it's a bit sad it all went so fast. Two more people in tonight for one more Swedish influenced week on the sea and soon thereafter we'll set off for our four weeks vacation towards Corsica and Italy in mid July. Intense boat life but wonderful to be able to share it with people we love.

Pic: Fish soup made of Bonito and Mackerel, potatoes and vegetables.

*Swedish proverb.

Costa Brava some weeks ago

It's a pretty small area of the coast we're hanging around in at the moment. From Sitges a bit South West of Barcelona and along the Costa Brava coast up North. That's the area you see in the box around Barcelona.

Some weeks ago, we left our marina again for some quiet sailing up North along the coast. We decided to find an even better creek to set anchor, for a peaceful weekend in the nature. As you can see we had a really smooth and comfortable ride up, but on the way back we had to face conditions which made the regular ten hour trip to more than the double and forced us to a couple of stops along the way.

Anyway, the sail up was smooth and wonderful. At some points, the wind died out completely and we had a perfectly sunny day and plenty of time to fish.

We were hoping to get some of those big tunas we told you about but none of them in sight.

Only a couple of small mackerel's and bonito's which were good enough of course. Here one with coriander, lemon, garlic and spring onion, served with grilled potatoes.

In action.

We found a nice creek after Tossa, just in time for the sunset. We were totally left alone in this beauty of the nature, no other boats in sight for the whole stay.

So we anchored the boat, pumped up the dinghy and went out to explore the surroundings.

Beautiful rocks.

I can not in any way tell you how the sunset looked like, as these pictures doesn't give a fair expression, but it appeared like a dream... the last beams of sun covered parts of the mountains in a theatrical way before they disappeared behind the hills. Breathtaking. And the simple moment was so quiet and peaceful. Like a dream.

We paddled further in our small creek to the other side where we discovered some caves..

Inside. Beautiful colors.

Then back to Caos..

Where we ended the night with a cheap but nice bottle of wine.

Early morning and time to go home. This is what we got on the hook just before we left.

When we checked the forecast that morning, they announced wind south-east, wind force: 1-2, but the reality was more like south west 5-6. Crazy ride back and forth. We got seriously exhausted by the 20-23 knots of wind in our face for twelve hours, the 1,5 meter high waves and all that tacking back and forth so we decided to stay over night in Arenys de Mar. Which was pretty nice as well but made us miss one day of work at home. Thank God we're both self employed and able to schedule our days pretty much like we want.

If someone wonders how our home looks like from the inside, in conditions like that. Everything-up-side-down, would maybe be a fair description.

The wind was pretty humble the day after so I took the opportunity to work an hour or so on the way back home from Arenys de Mar... Thank God for the wireless dongle.. Over all it was a very beautiful and peaceful weekend, exactly what is needed after a stressful week of work. /T

Bonito/a

We've recently upgraded our fishing reels and lines for the wish of catching some of those huge tunas we had on the hook a couple of times but were to big to reel in. So far only Sea bass, Bonito's and Mackerel's, caught. Still waiting for the big ones. This is the dinner for tonight. A beautiful 1500 g's Bonito. /Alex

Last night's meal

What a beautiful Bonito we caught last night. We had it grilled with fresh lemon juice and garlic flakes. Served with a creamy potato gratin with mustard seeds, perfectly cooked in the Remoska. Food orgasm!!