I found myself laying face down on the tailgate of a pickup truck in the Agat Marina parking lot as an off duty corpsman poured vinegar onto the jelly sting on the back of my thigh. I reflect on how I ended up in this particular position and come to this conclusion: no day is complete without some sort of scar, break, inflammation, rash, bite, or sting. It was a great day.
The first time I was here (Guam), some friends and I chartered a fishing boat and ended up catching 5 huge mahi mahi. Downside to that trip: the captain was less than stellar and we nearly capsized in water more than a mile deep. But it was an adventure and the fish tasted wonderful. So I wanted to do it again, perhaps this time with a different charter boat and a more….ummmm….sober captain.
I made the arrangements and on a lovely Saturday afternoon, John, his awesome friend Danny (the corpsman), and I drive to the pier to board the boat for a 4 hour fishing trip. Yellow fin tuna, mackerel, and sailfish are in season, we are told. Yeah, right.
This captain, a young guy named Tim, seemed cool enough and the boat was descent so we boarded and headed out to open water. After a couple hours of nothing but talking over the loud motor and enjoying the breeze, John, Danny, and I headed up to the bow of the boat. Shortly thereafter, the captain cuts the engine and calls to us that we got a fish. We run to the back of the boat and I take the reel and start to bring it in. It was a big mahi mahi that was fighting like crazy against the line. After a few minutes, I passed the reel to Danny to bring home and the line snapped. We laughed and got excited that we now know the potential is there to actually catch something. So we hung out in the back of the boat and hoped…
Then we caught a little bait fish. It was about 4 inches long and after laughing hysterically that a little tiny fish was caught on a huge hook, we let it go and John and I headed back to the bow and left Danny to talk to the captain. We sat there and watched the sunset over the water. It was beautiful. The strange lighting illuminated the clouds, the sky, and the island.
Even though the trip was coming to an end and we still hadn’t caught anything to speak of, we were still having a lovely time. After some time passed, Danny came to meet us and we sat with our legs over the bow and kicked water on each other, laughing and having a good time. The engine suddenly stopped and the captain calls to say we caught another fish. John took the reel and after a few, handed it to me. We caught a 20lb wahoo fish. So pretty! Blue and shiny with killer teeth and apparently quite the catch, it is the cash fish of the island.
While the boat was stopped, we jumped in the water to swim. Even though the sun was down and it was dark, the water was the perfect temperature and we played and swam. John is a Navy diver and Danny is a rescue swimmer so despite the fact that the water is well over a mile deep, I felt safe with them. Then something bit my thigh. The boys looked at my leg and told me it was a jelly sting, not a fish bite.
All 3 of the guys were very sweet, offering to urinate on my leg, but I declined, opting instead to wait until we got to the pier in lou of vinegar. Didn’t realize that it was going to hurt that much, if I had I would have let them do it.
We got to the pier and unloaded the fish and cooler. Tim cleaned the wahoo for us and gave us 4 huge fillets to take home. My leg still hurt so Danny went for vinegar to treat it. So I’m laying on my stomach on the tailgate of his pickup truck with my shorts leg rolled up a bit while he is doing this.
Now after a few days it’s just a line of raised bumps on the back of my thigh which should eventually go away too. The wahoo was amazing to eat and we thoroughly enjoyed it. If I had to be stung again to have a day that wonderful, I’d take 2.
