Postcard (10 March 1999)

10 March 1999

Postcard

from Justin Langer

What a catch! Pigeon and Tugga are the king fishers

Yesterday's unexpected day off gave a few of the more adventurous of us an opportunity to once again hire the excellent services of Island Yacht Charters. After our day around the picturesque, and wonderfully relaxing Trinidadian Islands last week, we felt it would be a terrible waste not to experience it all again.

After a well-deserved night drinking Coca-Cola (with a splash of Trinidad rum of course) and more than a few very cold Fosters beers (imported in for the occasion), it took a great deal of bravery for a few of the boys to board a boat in the afternoon. Having spent the last trip simply 'chilling out', or 'limeing'(a Caribbean word for relaxing), we decided to try our hand at a little deep sea fishing.

Andy 'Barman' Bichel, an experienced fisherman, decided that his stomach wouldn't survive the choppy seas, and cleverly felt it better to take the safe option of staying on one of the islands to recover from a bad hamburger he had eaten the night before.

In hindsight Matthew Elliott wishes he had chosen the same option ...

I can categorically say that I have never seen a man so sick in my whole life. If you thought he was sick the other day when he was out for a duck in the second innings, I can promise he was about a thousand times sicker yesterday. Anyone who has experienced seasickness may remember that there are few less terrible experiences in life. For four hours he lay in a coma while S Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Slats, Pigeon and myself braved the conditions waiting for the elusive strike.

After an hour or so of trawling, one of the fishing rods sang its squealing tune as a 60 pound wahoo fish took the lure. Glenn McGrath was the first man on the scene and after a 10-minute struggle he landed a beauty.

With 'Herb' still in a coma, our skipper Peter told us it was time to return home to the island. As he began to reel in one of the rods, a massive screech filled the air as the rod hit a strike. In a few seconds all five rods were buzzing, as were the excited Aussie Rex Hunt wanna-bes. With all five of us fighting a wahoo, we were blown away when a huge sailfish leapt out of the water. One by one all of our lines were snapped as the sailfish ripped across all the lines, saving his four wahoo mates.

Unfortunately for the hero sailfish, he picked the wrong guy to mess with. After a monumental battle our new cricket skipper landed an 80 pound sailfish. We were all pumped! What a buzz, and what a great fishing story for us to tell about the ones that got away.

With the country of Venezuela as our backdrop, we eventually aborted our fishing and returned to dinner on an island that is as close to heaven on earth as you could imagine. Poor old Herb was so happy to back on dry land that he almost laughed himself silly, as the rest of us reminisced on a fantastic day, probably the worst day in the life of Matthew Elliott.

Today we arrived in Jamaica, home of Bob Marley, and reggae music. The rumour is that Curtly Ambrose won't be playing the second Test because of a back injury. From a batsman's point of view this is heartening news, but I won't be holding my breath as the big man was sitting just up from me on the plane today. I am not sure he would be here if he wasn't going to be playing on Saturday.

We will wait and see!

From Jamaica, JL