Sailing for Snapper

One in three people in Auckland own a boat. That’s an amazing amount. OK, the figure is slightly distorted by the distinctly rich who own more than one, but it’s still an amazing proportion, and one of the reasons why Auckland is know as the ‘City of Sails'.

Our flat-mate, Phil had previously asked us if we’d like to come out on his parent’s boat with him and his girlfriend sometime. Then Sunday came, the sun peeked out from behind a veil of grey, the water appeared calm, and the day was decided. For Lucie & I, it was a chance to do as the locals do, see a little more of the area, and try to catch our own dinner again. For everyone else, it was just another Sunday.

Upon boarding our vessel for the day, Phil’s dad pointed out proudly that the boat’s designer was an Englishman named ‘Fred Parker’ from Southampton. Should we have been in America, I would have immediately followed this comment with the declamation of being related to ‘Fred’, but I resisted here.

Sailing (do you still call it sailing when using an engine?) out from East Auckland we slowly made our way over to ‘Waiheke Island’. Our first destination was a spot marked promisingly on the map with a large fish. Confidence was running high as we baited up and cast out into the depths, and before long, the first catch of the day was reeled in – a monster 20 cm long 'Yellowtail'. On the west coast of Australia, Lucie and I would have had this thing killed, gutted, and on it’s way to digestion within minutes, but thankfully for us (and the fish), we were in the company of people that knew better. One, this was too small to legally kill, two, yellowtail are only good for the cat to eat, and 3, they’re generally full of lice. Education is a wonderful thing sometimes.

Unfortunately for us, despite horribly wounding numerous fish, and one small shark, nothing was actually worth killing and taking home. The ‘Red Snapper’ we’d managed to lure into our hands were too young, and the only fish of a decent size, our hosts couldn’t identify. As I said before, this wouldn’t have ordinarily dissuaded us from throwing him onto the grill pan, but it seems you shouldn’t eat what you don’t know. Not letting a little thing like an unsuccessful fishing trip get in the way of dinner, we stopped off at the supermarket on the way home, and picked up a feast of king prawns and red snapper. Sure, it would’ve been nice to eat something we’d caught (and cheaper), but the meal was too damn good to worry about the minor details.