Gap year on the Endeavor

posted by Jack 1/8/2020 On the 4th of January we were sailing back from the U.S. Virgin Islands and the fishing line started to click. We started reeling it in. It looked like a tuna but it never jumped so we couldn't be sure. We reeled it all the way in and saw that it was a barracuda. Nobody wanted to lose a finger trying to unhook it so we cut the line and lost the lure.  We bought a new lure to replace the one that we lost. It was shinny and green like the last one. When we were sailing to Vieques we had another bite on the rod. The fish was putting up quite a fight. It did jump a couple of times, and we thought it was a dolphin fish. We reeled it all the way in and it was another barracuda. We cut the line again. You can't eat barracuda because most of them have ciguatera, which is toxic to humans. The symptoms are: vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, hot and cold sense reversal, nausea, abdominal pain, and muscle pain. Fish that have it are: Spanish mackerel,

posted by Jack The worst day we've had so far was December 26th, 2019. We were going back to the Virgin Islands, it was a rather rainy day when we set off. The waves were steep and close together. The only good thing about that day was that a third of the way to St. Thomas we had a very strong bite on the fishing pole. It turned out to be a huge dolphin fish; it was so big we were worried that it was going to break the pole. It was putting up a huge fight and the line was starting to chafe through. We reeled it in to about fifteen feet behind the boat when it started to really fight again. It went under and it must have ripped its jaw or lip because it came off the hook. The rest of the way to St. Thomas still had pretty bad waves. We made a pit stop in Charlotte Amalie and continued on to St. John. It started to rain and the chop got worse. Then a storm came and it rained harder, we were all cold, wet, and miserable. Then the wind was coming on the nose. Everyone started gettin