Since Tim bought a spear gun from Jim on Endeavor way back at Agua Verde (our first time there) and Gary and Marsha brought Tim a couple of pole spears of his own, it didn’t take long before the boys wanted to try it. Alex was first, and he was in the water with Tim, Gary, and Marsha almost as soon as we anchored at San Juanico. It was cold and there were swells, but he was persistent. Very persistent. He wanted to spear a fish so bad he just did not want to get out of the water. They were out there a long time, so eventually, I kayaked over to say hi and check on him, and he was shivering like crazy, so I suggested it was time to get out, and Marsha said she was trying to get him to get out too, but he just didn’t want to. Marsha and I went back to the boat and Grandpa stayed with Alex, and eventually, they made their way back too. He came back empty-handed that evening, but it didn’t discourage him. The next day they were all in the water, this time Brenden too, and Alex came back with his first kill, a tiny little fish barely six inches long. He was so happy. Looking back now and comparing it to what they routinely catch it is quite comical. Then the next day, Brenden got his first kill, a tiny little fish like Alex’s first one, and Alex came back with a fish worth filleting. This time happy could not even describe it.
While the surface water temperature isn’t too cold, it can get quite cold down deeper, especially if you stay in for a while. The boys didn’t have their own full-length wet suits, so when they would dive, Alex would wear my full wet suit. It was big, but it did seem to help. Brenden would then wear both his and Alex’s shorty suits and then over that wear my long sleeve wet suit top. Brenden was always the first one to get cold and get out of the water.
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Brenden is a bit of a wild man underwater. He’s like a dart going this way and that and he loves being in the water with me swimming circles around me. They’ve learned all the safety precautions on how to handle their spears, but we’ve had to remind Brenden several times that he has to pay attention to where everyone is and not to wander off on his own. He just follows a fish without and awareness of where he is and where he is going. Kind of like a small child following a butterfly. It didn’t take long to institute the buddy rule and Alex and Brenden have to stay together and each has to know where the other is. Tim usually goes much deeper so he does not babysit the boys when they are in the water. They do a pretty good job taking care of each other, though.
I have a couple of most memorable moments of the boys spearfishing so far. The first is when we were in Agua Verde (the second time). Brenden was suiting up and announced to me that he was coming back with a Cabrilla, because at that point, I kept saying they were my favorite. They are very tasty, soft, white fish, and they are not easy to spear because they seem to have a knack for judging your range and staying just outside of it. Tim had mastered catching Cabrilla, but the boys had not gotten any yet, so Brenden was putting himself out there and guaranteeing one for me. And he delivered. He could not get back to the boat fast enough to show me, and he talked about it for days, how he “told mom I was going to get a Cabrilla and I got one!”
Then there was the time we were around the corner from Candeleros (outside the Loredo National Park). This time I was snorkeling with them and following Brenden around because I just get a kick out of watching him hunt. This time the prize was a Parrot Fish, and I watched Brenden pretty easily spear one. Again, he was so pleased with himself. Of course, since Brenden got one and Alex hadn’t, it was game on. I watched Alex hunt a Parrot Fish for a good 15 minutes, but eventually, I got cold, and Brenden and I kayaked back around the corner and back to Exodus. Brenden and I chatted along the way back about how there is absolutely no way Alex would be coming home without a Parrot Fish. Just think if Rylee were here too! Of course, when Tim and Alex came back in the Dinghy, Alex proudly displayed his Parrot Fish. And then Brenden told us he thinks the one he shot was sick or something because it was laying on the ocean floor when he first saw it and it swam away slowly and he was able to easily spear it. Under further investigation, it appears the fish Brenden speared had already been shot. Alex was certain that the first shot was his. The funny thing was that Brenden shared all this without any sort of concern, it wasn’t as if he was admitting anything. He got a Parrot Fish, and that’s all that mattered to him. I do think it helped Alex’s ego a bit to understand how Brenden got one so easily and he had to work so hard.
I should probably mention some of Tim’s spearfishing adventures too. As with most things, he is exceptional at it and almost always comes back with at least one huge fish. A couple of times he wore the GoPro camera, and there is a great sequence of him shooting a Parrot Fish and struggling with it and then having to drop the gun and go to the top for a breath and then return to retrieve the gun and the fish. I’ve tried to upload it to Facebook a couple times, but the wifi connection is never good enough. By far Tim’s spearfishing prize at this point is when we were at Candeleros Chico and he speared a very nice sized Yellowtail. Yes, that is correct, he speared a Yellowtail. These are not reef fish and are usually caught by line, not spear. But we had sushi rolls that night, which was an absolutely wonderful treat.
Fish are not the only thing the boys have come home with. When we were at La Ramada we had a few boats over for cocktails and talked about clamming. So, when we were at Bahia Candeleros, all the boys from Exodus and Lady Carolina went on a clamming expedition. No one really knew what they were doing, and the story I hear is that Tim came up with a clam or two, and Steve asked how’d you find them, and Tim said I just started digging. So, for a while, they were all down randomly digging looking for clams. Tim called it terraforming. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that there are two holes in the sand that can be used to identify where a clam is. While they were all gone I had the cookbooks out to figure out how to cook clams since I had never done it before. In one of the cookbooks, there was a discussion of how to find them, including a picture of the two holes. When the boys came back and I heard about the terraforming, I showed them the picture. Apparently, that would have been good to know ahead of time. Steve and Carolina volunteered to be the clam chefs the next evening (you have to let them soak overnight to get all the sand out), and that night on the Southbound radio net they asked the simple question of does anyone have any suggestions on how to cook clams. So, clams totally took over the net. They got several recipes and tried them all. The two recipes we have used repeatedly are the baked clams from Trisha on Interabang and the steamed clams from Peggy on Interlude. It was a wonderful dinner, and I think that was our first time over to Lady Carolina (now we eat dinner together almost every night and trade-off which boat we eat on).
Gresham Family Exodus 