Blue Mahoe 2

Blue Mahoe offered something else which made it very special for me - two sleek, fast, deep-sea game fishing boats. At an early point Richard, who was the owner of Blue Mahoe and a keen fisherman, asked me if I would like to come out with him, my job being to haul in the tiddlers, mostly tuna, dorado, barracuda and wahoo under 50lb in weight. He was interested in the real fighters: marlin, sailfish and the big bluefin tuna.

Usually we went out for part of a day, often leaving while it was still dark and returning in the late afternoon, but on one occasion Richard (above) decided to take us out for two days, to a group of coral cays which were some miles to the south of Jamaica and a good fishing ground.

We left at about four in the morning and motored south at full speed. After an hour, and certainly before first light, we should have spotted a navigation beacon on one of the cays - but didn't. The reason we missed it was that Richard had recently fitted a ship-to-shore radio but had foolishly put it right next to the compass. As a result we ended up very lost at sea.

Richard wasn't the most patient of men and insisted on steaming around trying to get sight of land, which simply made things worse. We became so disorientated that at one point we thought we might have passed the easternmost tip of Jamaica and be somewhere on our way to Cuba.

We did do some fishing but it was a miracle that we located land and finally managed to get back to the anchorage before dark.

On better days the fishing could be spectacular. To see a reel smoking as the line screamed out from a fish which had taken the lure while travelling in the opposite direction to the boat is an unforgettable experience. The fish in this picture is a wahoo, a terrific game fish which produces excellent steaks.

We also went out once in a smaller boat with Horace, the Blue Mahoe caretaker, who is seen at the controls in these pictures. It was just a jaunt along the reef, so Gill came too. I did a bit of trolling and, to my amazement, hooked a fish which gave me a terrific fight. It was a salmon, presumably on the long migration which salmon do before returning to their home river to spawn. It's the only salmon I've ever caught.