Catching Fish

The morning is still. Stunning. Our cove is intimate. Trees flow down to the water's edge, reflected off glassy water. Staccato woodpeckers echo through the valley from time to time. Two bright white heads in the branches invite inspection with binoculars. Bald eagles. Their shrill, chaotic cries interrupt birds in the middle of their morning song. Jellyfish, large, orange and complex, drift by on a slow current. It's not a bad setting for breakfast.

A vessel carrying vacationing guests with kayaks joined us in our cove for a short time today, a few hours at most. At one point, a friendly chap motored over in their tender and offered us a large bag of uncooked fish. Three or so pounds of ling cod by the look of it. "We've got more that we can eat", he says. Do we believe that?

Chuck has been trying to catch fish eve since he climbed aboard Quijote, so far without luck. Went the gent handed over the gift of a ziplock bag of fish, he quipped:I caught a fish! And you didn't even have to clean it. That was very kind of the guy. We already had mushroom risotto lined up for dinner tonight, so we decided to wait for dinner tomorrow to cook the fish. Chuck and the guy talked fishing for a while, trading secrets. I gathered from listening to the discussion that our boat speed is too high.
I guess fish don't want to work too hard for their dinner.

Chuck installed a rod holder on the stern rail where dinghy davit would be if we had one. It's a good thing we don't

The risotto turned out well. I'd never made it before. The recipe came out of an instant pot cook book. We ate it with hot sour dough bread slathered in butter. We used over-ripe mushrooms, so the risotto had a lot of flavor.