A Kenyan Christmas

Luckily it only took a day or so to get the car all sorted, during which I got to spend some time with Dad, including having drinks in a local bar with a rather “overly friendly” barmaid who tried to convince me I wanted her to be my Dad’s girlfriend – possibly the ickiest half an hour of my life! My Dad however loved the attention and found it very amusing. Once the car was sorted and Dad, Chris and David were set up with windsurfing lessons and beach time I got the time to take Mum on a trip to Kilifi and show her my “home”, and all the little bits that make up my life in Kilifi, including the office, the veg market and boatyard. Once the trip to Kilifi was done we also headed on a little  shopping trip to Malindi. My Mum, as I knew she would, loved it there. We spent hours going round the market, had a lovely lunch, bought a bunch of bags, kikoys and ordered a few pieces of clothes to be made for friends back home.

Then came Christmas day! I had been planning it for a while, and so by 5am we were all up and on our way to Kilifi to meet Rossano at the boatyard. If you are going to have Christmas in the tropics, why not do something a little different… For us a day of deep-sea fishing! I had never been and was desperate to go. The boys were keen too and for Mum the idea of a day to catch some sun and the possibility of dolphins meant that we were all very excited as we stepped onto Matamu.

Our Captain for the day

I will be honest… The first 3 – 4 hours were not great! There was nothing out at sea. Not even a single bird…. Ok well there was one, and this was the start of the excitement. Ross noticed a drowning gannet and being the lovely man he is, decided to save it. Problem is, when you have an exhausted bird close to death they don’t feed so well and beyond getting the thing out of the water, Ross hadn’t given much thought to the situation. So of course it fell to me, the only person to have ever handled birds professionally to deal with the thing.
So here is your lesson in what to expect when trying to save a half drowned sea bird….
1) They are very defensive and have serrated beaks to grab at slippery fish – so when you approach one it will go for you, and when it gets your skin it hurts!
2) A half drowned bird will not feed well – solution you must hand feed the bird, again risking your fingers on the beak,
3) If so exhausted there is the possibility that the bird will not even take food from your hand (as with our little fella), therefore you must personally put the fish into the birds throat! This is where the fun really started (well for all those watching at least). I was sadled with the task of using one hand to ply open and keep open the exceptionally sharp beak (basically shoving my fist in its’ mouth) and with the other hand putting the fish at the back of its’ mouth so it would swallow the fish

One rather soggy gannet!

The damage done on my first attempt to feed the bird!

Luckily after a while, and with some very sore hands the bird began to pick up and started to get its’ energy back. This in itself was a bit of a problem. The bird didn’t quite have enough energy to fly, but did have enough to run around the back of the boat getting in the way, and trying to bite everyone. We tried moving him to the front of the boat, but the force of the wind, and a minor incident of him nearly falling through a hatch into the lower decks of the boat meant that in the end we spent the rest of the day fishing with a rather snappy gannet terrorising the boat boys and being hauled around the boat so people could actually fish.
Shortly after the gannet was back on fighting form (literally) the dolphins came. Two huge schools that kept coming in and out, crossing the path of the boat and playing in the front wake of the boat for ages. They were so stunning and it was great to watch them.

Not long after the dolphins the fish began to bite! First Dad and Chris were up for the small bites, two Dorado. Then the bigguns began to bite and it was Uncle David’s turn with the first sail fish of the day, somewhere in the region of 22-24kgs. David successfully pulled his in, got it tagged, got his photo and the fish was released back into the water. About 10 min later another reel went and Dad was up. A little more of a struggle this time, but again it was successfully caught, tagged, photographed and released.

Chris reeling in a Dorado

David with his Catch

Dad and his sailfish

Then a little while later was the triple hit! Chris first, who got down into the chair and stared reeling in. Then within seconds two at a time, one for Ross upstairs and me downstairs. Ross’s soon dropped off much to his disappointment, but Chris and I had ones on for the fight. I was left standing to reel min in, which for most of the fight required one of the boat boys to cling onto my back to make sure I didn’t go anywhere! But soon we were there. Both of ours came in at the same time and the decision had to be made what to do – we couldn’t have two sailfish in the boat together if we were planning on releasing them. The boys had a look and noticed that the hock from Christopher’s rod had unfortunately gone through the eye of his fish, meaning he couldn’t release it, so mine was tagged on the side and let go and Christopher’s was bought in. But the boys made sure they did a weight check on mine before it was released and at an estimated 26kg mine was the biggest catch of the day!

Me giving it all I've got and John near by to make sure I don't go overboard!

How is it the strongest got to sit down??? 

The fun wasn’t over yet, once back on shore Christopher’s fish was hung up and measured at the boatyard and officially recorded. The Sailfish was then sent off for the meat to be smoked and the bill to be prepared for the wall in Uncle David’s new apartment in Hong Kong.

Chris weighing in his catch

Once all was settled we made our way back to Watamu. We arrived in time to change and exchange our Christmas presents before a wonderful Christmas meal of our freshly caught Dorado (which was incredible), lobster and some of the yummiest prawns I have ever had. Quite possibly one of the best meals I have ever had in Kenya, if not in my top 10 of all time. It was fantastic, and a wonderful way to end a really lovely day.

Our Christmas tree and presents

Our freshly caught Dorado

Yum!

Family Christmas Dinner

We then had a couple more days around the house and at the beach before Chris was off back to the UK and the rest of us were off on our next little Kenyan adventure.