Sentosa Charters

We woke up today in the morning around five forty five. Mum, dad and my brother had at least one piece of bread and each had a Travelcalm tablet. Then we did a few toilet trips and were finally in the going to drive to my brothers birthday surprise. Alan also didn't know what we were doing because it was his birthday too! My brother had to put mums hat over his eyes because it was a surprise, and he said it was stuffy.

The surprise actually started at Gantheaume Point. There we met Cameron who owned the charter we were going on. Then we hopped on Sea Legs, the zodiac that Cameron owns. Sea Legs is a zodiac with wheel that clip up and down so you don't have to get your feet wet when you get on and off. You can also just drive it onto the trailer. We hopped on holding our hats and wrapped in our jackets, because the wind was going.

When we arrived at the main boat we met Rachel, Cameron's deckhand for the day. We were run through how to put our life jackets on, where to get the drinks, how to use the toilet with flushing it before and after, and how to get onto the bow. Then we got settled in and left the mooring. We drove for a while wandered around the boat meanwhile. Rachel heated up some ham and cheese croissants for us because we didn't have much breakfast.

We spotted a LOAD of whales meanwhile. When I was sitting on the bow I saw one with its calf. We think it was trying to teach the calf how to breech - jump out if the water and land with a splash. After about and hour we were at our first fishing spot. Here we were fishing for Spanish Mackerel.

My brother and Alan got some rods and Cameron let them out so we could troll the lures. After about ten minutes Alan had a fish on. It looked pretty hard to reel in! I probably wouldn't be able to do it. When it finally came in the fish was a Mackerel. After another five minutes he caught another Mackerel. After ten minutes my brother caught one. Then we decided that three Spanish Mackerel were enough and we'd do some bottom fishing.

We drove for a while and hit the reef for some fishing. There mum did some fishing too. Mum had trouble, so I defiantly wouldn't be able to. We caught loads of Long-Nosed Emperor. We also caught two or three Crimson Sea Perch. Alan was our main shark catcher.

There were LOADS of sharks swimming around. When we caught a shark we had to let the line snap because they were so strong. The reason we caught them was because we caught a fish. We had to reel the fish up like there was no tomorrow otherwise a shark would swallow your fish, and your hook. We had to keep moving three hundred/four hundred metres because of the sharks though.

After a while Cameron decided it was time for some sail fishing. This is game fishing though, so we didn't keep a fish if we caught one. So we had to catch Sailfish. What we did was put hang a teaser into the water on each side of the boat. The teasers had plastic fish and squid on them and a real dead fish on the end. Then we hung out three rods with bait.

The method was that the Sailfish comes up and has a look at the teaser. Then it notices the bits of bait in the middle which have hooks and are attached to the rod. What the Sailfish does is go up to the fish and slap it twice with its tail. The turns around and slaps it twice with its long beak. Then the fish is stunned and eats the bait.

After about ten/fifteen minutes my brother caught one! It took at least ten minutes to reel the fish in! When the fish finally came in Cameron couldn't take it by the gaff hook because we had to put it back. We took strength to hold it up for the photo and then Cameron let it go. While we're on the subject of Sailfish, that morning the caught and tagged fifty/sixty Sailfish!

After that we had some lunch. It was buttered bread rolls, chicken, pasta salad and coleslaw. I didn't finish my bread roll because I was feeling a bit queasy because I didn't have any breakfast. We dragged the teasers for a while and dragged them in and put them out.

We were on our way back soon wan Cameron filleted our fish for us. That took about an hour because of all the fish. Then we took the relaxing trip back. Rachel asking people if they wanted tea or coffee, Alan, dad and my brother up in the wheelhouse with Cameron and mum, Judy and me lying on the bed/seats outside.

After a while all three of us fell asleep. I only woke up when we arrived back at our mooring. We put our shoes on, got our backpacks and fish, and hopped onto Sea Legs.

We enjoyed the trip back where we took some photos. When we were back in the car we drove back to the caravan and had some fish and potatoes for dinner. Then we had some mango and ice-cream for dessert. I was soon in bed. I had a great day even though I didn't get and fish!!!!