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No, I’ve got no chance of reaching Australia now, so I’ve decided to set course for Papua New Guinea. That means I’ll still be finishing on the mainland of somewhere at any rate, and it’s probably even 50 or so miles further. Now it just depends where I arrive. The southern side would be the nicest area, near the capital of Port Moresby, but in that case I’ll still have to maintain a fairly westerly course. The eastern coast, near the city of Lae, is more likely.
To my surprise I’ve managed to get a bit further south in the past 24 hours – four miles in fact. I saw some flying fish again today, so there must be a lot of bigger fish out here too. A while later I saw a few large dorados circling round the boat. I hauled in the oars and cast out a hand-line. I got a bite pretty quickly. It felt like it had to be a big ‘un judging by its weight. I began to have misgivings as I was reeling it in – it couldn’t be a shark, could it? – but yes, it was, and a big one at that. It got pretty angry when I lifted it partly out of the water next to the boat and started whacking it with its tail. That was a bit of a bother as I hadn’t secured my oars, so they were being thrown back and forth across the deck by the waves and my iPod earphones got all tangled up in them. With one hand on the line I held the shark next to the boat, while detaching the iPod’s Velcro band from my arm, untangling the earphones and securing the oars with the other. I needed all the strength of both my arms to get the shark over the spare oars and into the well of the boat. It weighed an awful lot; I’d say about 50 kilos. I grabbed the ruler and measured it from top to tail. Hey, not bad at all – 1.56 metres. It’s still a shame though, I’d rather have had a dorado. Oh well, it’s fresh fish after all. I marinaded the fillets in soya sauce, garlic and massala spices before frying them. I’ll get a dorado next time!
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