All Aboard Andi's Dream Ch. 04

At first Daniella looked gloomy, then she brightened. "How about if I say that I met you, the rescuers, we spoke in generalities, and won't even mention what really happened, so I won't have to mention that almost everything is covered by doctor patient confidentiality?"

"I agree with that," nodded Andi.

"Je suis d'accord."

Sunny made it unanimous, "Works for me."

Daniella reassembled her camera and tried again. "This is insane! I'm here in West Palm and I saw some little girls fishing off of this beautiful yacht and the next thing I know, I'm talking with a brave bunch of sailors who pulled off that amazing Treasure Coast rescue on New Year's Eve. We're not going to talk about that because I'm here to talk about fishing. I saw these little girls fishing and, WOAH!"

Daniella was jolted by the impact of a high speed 5-year-old. Sandy had a mullet in her grasp and was sprinting to the fishing cockpit to put it in the live well, and in doing so she ran full force into Daniella. "Sorry!" she called without looking up and headed over to the live well. Just as she was going to drop the mullet into the live well, she realized that the person she ran into was a guest aboard Andi's Dream. She walked over to Daniella and held her mullet up for inspection. "I have a fish!"

"That's a really nice fish! Did you catch it?"

"No, my little sister did. I get to fish now... whoops!" in her excitement she dropped her fish and it started flopping around on the deck. "Fish down people!"

As Sandy started scrambling for the flopping mullet, she was joined by Madeline, who answered Sandy's distress call of "Fish down!"

Daniella, still laughing at the "Fish down!" call, was overjoyed to find that the fisher-girls she stopped to video were twins. This was going to be gold on YouTube. She filmed the girls chase the mullet, and when they finally got it in the live well, Bitty showed up with a plastic pail with three mullets that she caught while the twins were wrangling their one fish, then all three dashed back to the swimming deck where Paul and Yi waited with their poles.

"Hi Bitty! You're getting tall."

"Hi Danni, can't stop now, catching fish!" said Bitty as she bumped into the twins and they dashed back to the swimming deck.

"Welcome aboard Andi's Dream," said Macy. "It's been like this the whole time."

"It's like this at home too," said Andi, as she tried to suppress a laugh.

Daniella turned her camera to Andi. "Mrs. Jarecki, this is such a great family vacation! How long have you had this boat?"

"I got it for Christmas," said Andi, but she was concentrating on watching Sandy, who was reeling in another mullet.

"What a great Christmas present!" Daniella turned the camera around so it was facing her. "Santa, I am going to send you an amended wish list."

"I thought it was a wedding present," said Macy.

"That what I thought," added Sunny.

"When did you get married?"

"At six forty-five PM on Christmas eve. This is our honeymoon cruise."

Daniella was stunned. "You brought your children on your honeymoon cruise?"

"It's a whole family honeymoon. Paul and I married on Christmas eve, and his application to adopt Sandy and Madeline was approved just moments after we said 'I do.' How could I deny them this?" Andi asked as Paul helped Sandy and Madeline reel in a fish that was clearly larger than the small mullets they had been harvesting. They were both taking turns reeling in the fish while Paul held the rod for them. Even Bitty helped crank the reel while Yi leaned over and eventually netted up a large fish with vertical stripes.

"That's insane!" cried Daniella. "their first time fishing and they pull in a stud! Look at that bad boy. He's a keeper for sure."

While the three girls tried to pet the big sheepshead, Paul carried it to the ruler marked on the stern transom and laid it down to measure it, "Sixteen and a half inches!" he announced. "It's a keeper! Do you guys want to keep it and have him for dinner?" to which all three girls (and Yi) shouted "Yeah!"

"Ok, let's put him on ice!" They carried the sheepshead on to the fishing cockpit and opened up the floor panel and there were already two fish on ice in the fish bin.

"The big ugly green fish is Mister Donald's fish, the nice pointy fish is poppa's fish," Madeline explained to Daniella.

"And what do we call that pointy fish?" Daniella asked.

"WaHOO!" shouted the girls.

"And what else do we call the big green fish?" asked Daniella, pointing to the Mahi-Mahi.

Sandy grinned and shrugged up her shoulders. "Delicious?"

"And what else do we call it?"

"Dolphin!" cried Madeline, hopping up and down in excitement. "Mr. Donald caught a dolphin!"

"We also call them Mahi-Mahi," said Daniella.

"What a silly name," scolded Sandy, then she brightened. "Miss Nicoletta is going to catch a sailor fish!"

"Sailing fish!" Madeline inferred.

Bitty crossed her arms and said with authority, "My momma calls them Billy Fish and she catches them all the time, right momma?"

"I'm staying out of this." Sunny raised her hands and backed away as Daniella chuckled.

Paul and Stan, who just finished setting up the downriggers, stepped up to the conversation. Paul smiled and said, "We have deep, intellectual discussions like this all the time aboard Andi's Dream, but no matter what you call them, we're headed out to catch some sail fish. Care to join us?"

"You're going to catch sailfish from this big old aircraft carrier?"

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"This is Daniella G out on the Big Blue Sea coming to you from the fantail of HMS Andi's Dream. The owners of this seventy-two-foot-long luxury yacht tell me that this is also a fishing machine, and it's decked out nicely with live wells, fish bins below the deck to ice your catch, downriggers, and look at this cleaning station! Once you clean and fillet your catch, you raise the work surface and there's a grill underneath. You can do it all right here - catch, clean, cook!"

"Not only is this carnival cruise ship equipped with all the hardware you'll ever need, but we also have an entire squad of girl anglers ready to fight some bill fish. You've met Bitty, Sandy, and Madeline. Let's meet their moms. Sunny, we know a bit about your history as a fisherman's wife and an amazing fisher in your own right. How do you encourage Bitty in the sport?"

"She need no encouragement, since she was first able to stand on moving deck she have wanted to fish. Bitty is always there to help when she on the boat and her dad or I fishing. Very smart girl when choosing bait or lure."

"Andi, how about you? What is your history in the sport? And what do you do to encourage the twins?"

Andi shook her head. "To be honest, this morning was the first time I've even actually watched a fish being caught. I've never held a fishing rod in my hand before, so I'm here to learn. As for the girls, this is the first time for them too. They've been handling bait fish this entire trip and are loving it. But it's time to learn. We have this big old boat, and we have a pond full of fish on our farm back home."

"Well, your girls are on their way to a great start in the sport. What about you Macy? How familiar with fishing are you?"

"I grew up in a family of fishermen in the Québecois village of Sainte Anne de la Pérade, ice fishing for tomcod all winter long and fishing for Atlantic Cod all summer long. I did not like the cold or the cod, so I moved on to modeling and school. Since I married John, Paul's brother, we have been down here fishing every winter for the past 6 or 7 years. Sport fishing in Florida is so much more fun than chipping holes in the ice. I personally like fishing for cobia, but you can't beat the fight you get out of an amberjack."

"Sweet!" Clearly Daniella did not expect that answer out of the beautiful, leggy model. To be honest, Daniella expected to hear, "Ewwww, fish? Ick!" She turned to Miss Nicoletta, "And you, Judge Atherton?"

"You know what they say, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you get him out of your hair every weekend. That goes for us women, too. I wanted nothing to do with fishing, except maybe eating them. But once Donald got me hooked on snook, that's all I want to do anymore... sort of," she added with a grin.

"Ain't that the truth!" Snook being one of Daniella's favorite fish to catch.

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Soon they were dashing out to sea. Andi's Dream was bounding gracefully over the waves as the twins told Miss Daniella about how they "used to live in the mountains" but now they "live in the sea." Daniella watched as Stan turned the reins of Andi's Dream to Andi as they approached the fishing grounds. There were three big multi-function-displays constantly feeding the captain information on location/heading/depth to bottom, and also cameras to the engine room, salon, and anchor. Another valuable function was fish finder. Every so often Andi would slow the big motor yacht to a crawl and engage the fish finder and peer at the display until she smiled and pointed to a cluster of moving images on the screen. "There they are."

"Aye, you found 'em," agreed Stan.

Andi hopped up and resumed control at the aft helm and leaned over and called out to Yi, Don, Paul, and Miss Nicoletta, telling them they were on the sailfish. Don and Paul swung out the outriggers, then went aft to set out the lures, while Miss Nicoletta and Yi attached their rods to the outriggers. The lures that Don and Paul set out were dozens of plastic squid tethered to what looked like a mobile you would see hanging from a ceiling. They were towed behind the boat and they excited the sail fish. Far to their port side, Daniella's boat, the Danni G, filmed the fishing expedition.

"You handle this boat like a pro. How long have you been a captain?" Danielle turned her camera to Andi.

Andi glanced at her watch. "About an hour. No, seriously, before last week I had never been on a boat in my life, not even on a cruise ship. When we first took this out last Wednesday, Stan and Paul wanted to do some fishing, so Sunny was at the helm. She looked at me and said, 'It's your boat, you drive.' And I did, and it's something I really enjoy. As for fish - I'm still at the stage where I'd rather touch them with a fork."

Laughing, Daniella made her way down to the mezzanine where Bitty, Sandy, and Madeline were lined up, kneeling on the bench seat, looking aft at the fishing cockpit. "Who is going to hook up?" she asked the youngsters.

"Yi!" they all cried.

"You sound pretty sure. Are you sure it's not Miss Nicoletta?"

"No, she's too old."

"What about your mom, Bitty? She's a very good fisher."

"She's not fishing, she's in charge," said Bitty as she sipped her can of cola.

Daniella watched and sure enough, Sunny was telling Yi and Miss Nicoletta what to expect should they get a strike, so she turned to the twins, "What is your dad going to do?"

Sandy looked annoyed. "He's going to go upstairs and get all kissy with mom."

"Happens all the time," added Madeline.

"YouTube GOLD!" thought Daniella.

The wait wasn't long. "I think we have a hit," said Miss Nicoletta, as the reel connected to the starboard outrigger spun crazily.

"Ok, who want it?" asked Sunny.

"I'll take it." Miss Nicoletta stepped up and took the rod and made sure she had a good grip on it, then seating the butt end in the fighting holster she wore, she set the drag. The tension on the line caused the clip on the outrigger to release, and the fish was all hers. Paul and Don set to reeling in the lure spreads and the Danni G moved outward to give the fishers on Andi's Dream room to fight this fish.

"Oh my God, I wasn't ready for this!" exclaimed Miss Nicoletta as she settled into the fighting chair. The fish was obviously much stronger than she was expecting. Taking Sunny's advice, Judge Atherton let the fish take a lot of line in its run for freedom, but all the while she tightened up on the drag. Finally, she started reeling it in, and when she did, she felt a strong vibration coming back on the line.

"He shaking his head," explained Sunny, "he want to run!"

The Judge fought the fish for what seemed like ages, pulling and reeling, pulling and reeling, only to lose whatever victory she had when the fish tried to run and pulled out more line. At one point, she almost gave up. Even though Andi was skillfully backing the yacht toward the fish, it seemed like she would never gain some ground on the fish. Just then, the fish jumped, showing his huge sail and his beautiful blue fighting colors, and the sight gave Miss Nicoletta the willpower to go another round. But after fighting that fish nonstop for ten solid, agonizing minutes more, the retired judge was exhausted. Sweat poured off of her. Her arms were shuddering from the effort. "Get ready to take this, darling," she called to Yi.

Yi peeled off her t-shirt and shorts and stood in the tiniest black string bikini she owned. She stared out at the fish, who leaped again, spinning as it fought against the hook and line. "Alright bitch, come to mama," she muttered as she put on the fighting harness.

"Are you naked fishing?" her mother asked.

"I may not get a chance to wear this again for six months," Yi said, considering her employment in the cold, snow covered north which will start in a few days.

"You not wearing much of anything now," Sunny said, distasteful of her daughter's exhibitionism.

"Mother, please?" agonized Yi as she took the rod and reel from the exhausted judge. At that moment, as if the fish knew what was happening, it gave a mighty yank on the line and nearly pulled Yi over the transom.

"Your boss is right here..." Sunny pointed over to Paul in the starboard corner of the cockpit.

Paul threw up his hands. "I'm staying out of this," he said, shaking his head.

"A wise decision," called out Andi from the flying bridge. Andi, too, had taken off her t-shirt in the heat of the day, but her bikini top was much more modest than Yi's choice. She was standing at the aft helm and facing aft to watch the fight. Stan and Macy were seated at the flying bridge outside dinette sipping cold drinks and enjoying a spectacular view of the fight. Occasionally Stan would offer advice to Andi, but she was smart as a whip and never had to be reminded of advice given previously. She took to manning the helm like a fish to water. Daniella was moving about the boat filming from as many vantage points as she could while her boyfriend Brad and her sister Marissa filmed from alongside in the Danny G.

Yi truly got into the fight and the girls started chanting, encouraging their hero as she fought not only the fish but her mother at the same time. "Yi! Yi! Yi!"

Yi put her foot up on the transom for leverage against the sailfish and pushed back against him and truly felt for the first time the power at the other end of the line. There were a series of repeated hard yanks on the line, and she felt like her shoulders were going to become dislocated from the slamming she received by the sailfish's head shakes.

Suddenly, the sailfish flew into the air astern of the boat. To Yi the moment became suspended in time, she could see the beautiful sail of his dorsal fin fully extended, cobalt blue in the bright Florida sun, his pelvic fins hanging straight down and fully unfurled, his vertical turquoise stripes literally glowed in the brilliant daylight. For Yi, the moment was seared into her mind. She could see the drops of water hang suspended below the fish, glinting in the sunlight. The fish slowly arc downward, pointing that great bill toward a perfect reentry into the warm Atlantic. His magnificent beauty touched her heart, and she wanted to cut the line and let this magnificent creature go free.

But she also wanted to cook him.

Time resumed normal function as soon as the sailfish dove under water, even sound which had become suspended for Yi returned. Now the sound of the purring MAN diesels just below her feet returned, she heard the twins and Bitty trying to determine if the fish were boy or girl (it didn't matter because when they saw the bill they decided it was really a unicorn), and the exclamations of surprise and delight from all those around her.

And the fight resumed. Yi was determined to bring that fish in. She wanted to see him in her hands or in the oven; she did not care which. Next to her, her mom kept up a running litany of advice, keep the rod tip up, not too high, let him take line, now reel it in... Yi and Sunny have a typical mother-daughter relationship, their verbal sparring may seem argumentative to an outsider, but to Yi and Sunny it was verbal love taps. When it came to fishing, Yi always deferred to her mom. Dad may be the captain, but mom was the true angler in the family. Sunny has caught literally scores of Florida sailfish, so why not listen to the expert?

Again, the fish took to the air. This time, he was so much closer to the boat than what Yi expected. He was even more magnificent than she remembered from his previous leap, his colors so much more beautiful and striking. His sail was iridescent, and his eye was locked on to her. He knew who was mastering him. Then splash! He was back underwater.

"He must like you bikini," said Sunny, "he come back for another look."

Yi started laughing and almost lost her grip on the rod, "Yeah, typical guy," she replied, which caused her mom to laugh and Daniella to think "YouTube GOLD!"

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the great fish was easily seen from the fishing cockpit. Andi did a masterful job handling the big yacht, keeping the sailfish astern on the port side as Yi drew it closer and closer. Now Yi was feeling the ache as she leaned back and pulled the fish in closer, then lowering the rod quickly and reeling up the slack over and over, pulling and reeling, all the while marveling at the strength and majesty of the fish. Her sun bronzed skin was covered with a glistening sheen of perspiration and she continually talked to the fish; "Come on stud! Come to momma! I just want to take a picture with you!" And as she fought the great fish, Daniella recorded the entire contest from there on Andi's Dream and by her crew on the Danni G.

And as suddenly as it began, it was over. When he neared the boat, the sailfish gave one last, weary fight, then gave up. While Yi's arms shuddered from the effort and her breathing was ragged, she still could draw the sailfish up to the stern of the boat. Andi had taken the props out of gear and was using the stern thrusters to align the boat as Sunny directed. Sunny and Miss Nicoletta stepped out on the swimming deck, crouched down, and held the sailfish tight as Yi joined them. Grabbing the long fragile bill tight as Yi reached in the mouth and extracted the circle hook.

"Smile for the birdie!"

Sunny looked up and saw that the Danny G had pulled in close and the cameras were trained on them. Daniella's boyfriend 'Punkin' had her sister Marissa lined up; their hands full of camera equipment. "Ok, we lift on three, very careful," said Sunny. The three got a good yet gentle grip as Sunny counted.

On "Three!" the fish came up with a few exhausted wriggles, but he gave up as the women lifted him waist high. Yi held the fish with her left hand and hoisted his sail with her right.

"Smile!"

One photograph was perfect, it showed the fish, the three grinning fishermen, right over their heads was the twins and Bitty up in the mezzanine holding up their cans of soda as they shouted "Cheese" and above them on the flying bridge was Andi, Macy, and Daniella holding up their glasses of wine as they shouted "Penis", and right below Andi, Macy, and Daniella on the transom of the flying bridge was the name of the boat, Andi's Dream, in beautiful blue script lettering. Daniella made sure all video and still photos taken were transferred to Andi, but she also sent beautiful, framed prints of the photo to every adult in the frame.