10:15 PM
Still at Barit
Lost a big one meter and a half sailfish or swordfish at about 5:00 PM at the channel between Mabag and Fuga near the line of rocks as we were going northeast trolling at the current. Before that I lost another. And in the morning the fish just stole my bait.
So it has been a day of fishing disappointment. There seems to be more in this game fishing meets the eye.
I was using a handline in the morning and a fishing rod in the afternoon. We started to fish at 8:30 AM around Barit and after visiting Mabag, knocked out at about 12:00 AM.
The first fish was dragging the line when the line just went slack and when we pulled the bait in, the hook was all twisted.
The second I had been able to pull close to the boat when everybody started getting excited. Johnny [Juan] Ponce Enrile pulled at the string Larry Cruz started working on the spool or reel. Then he or I jammed the line on the reel or spool. Then when Cresencio, our pilot pulled at the line, the fish went under the boat, although we had stopped the propellers by this time. Then the line snapped. All confusion, shouts, then silence!
Too many cooks!
So we went around Barit. Imelda whom we had landed at Fuga had taken the Hughes 500 helicopter of Al Lim and gone around the island of Fuga. She was all excited about the beauty of the island. She flew low over us, hovering like a bumblebee then landed at the beach. We cast the small boat to pick her up and we went around the north side of Mabag.
By this time it was 6:20 PM and the wind had risen. The swells were high and the sea getting turbulent. She told us of a big 5,000 ton boat that was grounded on the rocks on the eastern part of the Fuga implying we should go back to calmer waters as fast as possible. And indeed the Barit was beginning to list 30 degrees. Johnny [Juan] Ponce Enrile who was in the flying bridge came down and commented that the boat was wigwagging like a flag up on the bridge.
As we fell we rounded the rocks at the eastern island of Mabag into calmer waters and headed for home.
Imelda cooked the banak that the boys had caught with a tabokul in shallow water—in
Entry is mislabeled as May 11.
No Official Gazette entry for this day.
tomatoes is my style of sinigang, I liked it (and so did everybody else was a favorite) and overate, as I also ate [bagnet?] prepared by Johnny Ponce Enrile and Teresita Dupaya, pinakbet, and the ear of the big lechon in sauce so well prepared I ate it with some rice.
Some of the boys are going fishing tonight. I go fishing at ______ AM tomorrow, leave for Cauayan at 8:00 AM.
Gen. ______ in his U-17 will reconnoiter Cauayan as the winds were 700 feet high this morning according to him.
There are great plans by everybody to develop Fuga into an international tourist spot with an international airport, hotels, casinos, nightclubs, fishing, golf, water-skiing, under water swimming etc.
This will depend on the feasibility study. I would welcome its development. But it will also make me sad as the coming in of many people will be the loss of its pristine quiet beauty.