10th Sep Cape Upstart - a day of rest.

 We woke to beautiful calm conditions at cape Upstart

We had to have a day of rest as yesterday was too hard on us. Often we said never again. It is great going with the wind but when the time comes to go against it - it is not pleasant.  We decided to stay the day at Cape Upstart and explore the area. The sea conditions were flat and very little wind which made our stay more enjoyable although it was very hot. We had heard it was good fishing and good crabbing. That was not to be. Graham caught two small blue swimmer crabs, I caught 3 fish that were too small and a large very colourful spotted stingray which provided lots of laughs around the bay. It was about 5oclock and I put a fishing rod on the back of the yacht with a small hook on it to catch a flathead. I had just completed my shower and got dressed in fresh laundered clothes for 5 o’clock drinks and Graham and Leanne were about to come over for the sunset. I was down stairs and heard a loud bang which sounded like the rod going over the side as it hit the BBQ on the way. I rushed to the back of the boat to see the rod just about disappearing into the depths. Not wanting to wet my fresh clothes, the quickest thing to do was peel off quickly and dive in to save the rod. I managed to get deep enough to grab the rod and come back to the surface with the fish still on the end of the line. I handed the rod to Tamara and climbed out of the water but the fish was still going. I had no option but to stand there in my birthday suit and start reeling the fish in. Realizing it was too big for the size of the rod and the strength of the line this was going to take a long time. Tamara was trying to cover me up with a towel but that did not stay on long so eventually I managed to hold the fish and put my bathers on. After a 10 minute struggle I finally got this big stingray to the back of the boat. I was disappointed it was a stingray so I cut the line and let it swim free. Lesson learned from this is to secure the rod in these waters and put the drag on. I managed to save my favorite rod which is over 10 years old and has caught many fish. It had a brand new reel on too. We had lots of laughs over 5 o’clock drinks with the brilliant sunset and the cane fires burning.