What happened here?

We have been scouting one by one the passes of the atolls we cruised by, all the best, with the proper tides. The quest was for the big Dogtooth Tuna (Gimnosarda unicolor), an animal that can grow in excess of 250lb and bite a jig with rage. We sure hook some of them but none of us was able to bring it to the boat. Several monster strikes all burnt in few seconds. Broken lines, bruised leaders, hooks pulled. This is how fishing can be at the Maldives.

When we got to the southernmost atoll of our cruise, during a slow jigging session outside the main pass I had a strike of a large fish. The fight lasted few seconds and then the hook pulled. Sad news I thought, another one is gone. Yet, while retrieving the line I felt some weight. Then some pressure and finally the line started peeling off the reel at a quick pace. John, the skipper, quickly motored the Dhoni to the open seas, in order to keep the fish off the coral, and once in deep waters I started to fight the fish.

At the beginning everything was normal. The fish would take some line and I would get some back but at one point everything turned into a dead weight lifting. Boy, that thing was heavy but it was unable to steal any braid now, while I was suffering to retrieve every single inch. When we finally saw the fish under the boat we exploded with joy, they have been fooling us for so long that this was like a sweet revenge. To our surprise the fish was foul hooked on its flank, close to the pectoral fin, and this explained the odd fight. I surely missed the estimated weight by a great deal, it was 30% less than I though but hey, who cares, it was a nice fish and a great one to photograph

Bermuda: new jigging paradise?

Is probably too early to say but the first clues have been quite impressive. We have just spent 5 days of fishing in the waters of this beautiful island and every single one of us has returned home excited and happy with the result. It was an exploratory trip, but the bases on which it was put together were strong. Bermuda holds 3 or 4 IGFA world records for both kind of Amberjack (Dumerili and Rivoliana). The biggest Greater Amberjack ever caught around the world comes from here, and if you put in the mix the abundance of Yellowfin Tunas, Groupers, Wahoo and many other different species, the landscape looks pretty bright.

Let me spend a word about the island itself first. It simply is a beautiful place. Neat, tidy, coloured, warm, peaceful, not polluted, green, blue... Again, a small and remarkably amazing paradise. People are nice too. Our captain, Peter Rahn, his wife Leslie and the boat's mate Steve are wonderful people, as well as many other inhabitants that we met and spent some time with. Lodging and dining is not the cheapest around, yet with the current value of the Euro compared to the Dollar is still doable.

Talking about the Captain and his fleet I have nothing but good words. Peter worked hard on something that is quite new for him. Jigging is a technique that requires a specific knowledge and thanks to his vast experience on the local reefs, he managed to constantly put the boat in the best spots. Theres many banks and reefs around the island, and not all of them are prooductive, yet he seemed to always know where to put the boat, and even if sometimes the tides were playing big time against us, when the fish turned on again, we were on top of them.

The first day we fished with the boat that we booked, a 41' Custom Express. But once returned from our fishing we noticed a super jigging boats moored near the Overproof. It was a 36' lobster boat, just arrived from Maine, and o boy, that was perfect. From day 2 we fished every day on the Son Rae, 5 guys in a row jigging elbow to elbow, or not even that because there was room to spare, without a tangle or a problem. The Son Rae is just the perfect jigging machine and we took full advantage of it.

One of the highlights, unexpected to be true, has been the variety of species we caught on jigs. I don't know if ti was 20 or more but every day we would catch 4 or 5 new critters. The mix of the subtropical water with the warm current of the Gulf creates a perfect environment, where fish from more moderate latitudes meet with other more typical of the tropics.

The amount of fish we caught has been quite impressive, I still wonder if Peter was expecting this result or if he was a bit skeptical. Millions of small Almaco Jack where ambushing the reefs. Even during the deadly tides you would manage one of them to bite the irons and I'm pretty sure that, because of the abundance of those smaller critters, we found it more difficult to hook serious contenders.

The big fish didn't participate too actively to the party. We hooked few of them but for a series of reason we only landed one, a 40lb Almaco jack. Thus, they are there, I don't have a single doubt about it, and for this reason I want to come back in May, when the summer starts and the migratory species are more likely to show up. Peter told me that the Yellowfin Tuna stay deep on the drop-offs, and that he can see them in the sounder. Quite a good change for a target fishing like ours: can't wait to get rid of the winter.

Bermuda was also a great lab for my photographic experiments and I have learnt few more things. The most important is that I don't have to clean the sensor myself, and the second that I need to buy a GOOD tripod.

You can see more images here http://www.caranx.net/bermuda_report_2008.htm

Painting with flash

Last week I was in Bermuda, what a beautiful island and incredible fishing ! It is also plentiful of photo opportunities, and I spent a lot of time behind the viewfinder of my D80. By the way, before my departure, I made the mistake of cleaning the sensor myself... I wish I have never done it ! Since I started working on the images I spent more time cleaning the photos rather than editing them.


Back to the photos, very close to shore there was a subject that caught my attention and I wanted to portrait in various manners, a wooden boat. Among the exposures I took, my favourite came out at night, slightly after dark. I put the camera on the tripod and choose an aperture of f8. I could have opened even more but I'm not too happy with the CCD results with the too long exposures (a lot of noise) and also, since it was just an experiment, I didn't want to keep waiting 15 minutes before closing the shutter. So 185sec was the right time, it came out after a couple of tests and I was happy with the way it looked. The Sigma 10-20 allowed me to place the camera very close to the boat and yet have a lot of background in the image. I also put the WB setting to Tungsten to achieve that deep blue sky, and since I was going to use the SB600 to paint my subject, I put a CTO gel to warm up the light and counterbalance that specific WB. During the time the shutter was opened I hopped around the boat flashing the light 1/64. I wish I could have excluded completely the grass to make the boat stand even further, but I couldn't. Next time.

If fishing can go wrong it will go wrong

Figure that! Three days of shooting in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Big Fish is the name of the show for the Italian Satellite TV Sky program Caccia & Pesca. Last year, same dates together with some Japanese anglers we caught 3 Amberjack over 70lb and Pink Snappers in the 30lb range. Perfect deal for the show. We have new moon, great tides, wind and the best skipper. Sound awesome! Unfortunately things are not as bright as they seem.
Fish don't want to cooperate. No bites. Plain dead. Day one welcomes us with heavy winds, too heavy maybe even though I favour them to flat calm at least for fishing. The crew is affected by the waves. One guy spends the rest of his time lying on the floor. The others do a bit better but due to the lack of action, happiness is not exactly what you feel in the boat. Tomorrow is another day!
I spend some time in the evening trying to grab some decent images around the beach. Not a great result though. Tomorrow is another day!
Day two. Fishing wise it gets a little bit better but nothing to rave about. We had probably more bites but anything is better than 2 in my accounting. The skipper, a very good fisherman, beats my ass. I save my day with a decent Bonito. The wind is lower, sea more bearable. A frigate mackerel decides to commit suicide to serve as a great sashimi, readily fixed and served in the cockpit. Tomorrow is another day.
Day three, last chance. The crew has lost their hope. I still believe we can sort out something good. I know the big cows are there, is just a matter of finding one in a bad mood. We're jigging. Solely jigging with heavy irons and short rods. I have a good bite. Spit the hook, one more jerk and hits again. Solid hook-up, heavy headshakes and then a heavy dead weight coming up. Uuuuhm, I know what this feels like. Grouperish I'd say and in fact the animal comes to the surface and shows its hefty body. Maybe a 20/25 pounder, not enough for the show yet a precious catch for these waters. I can smile. Same exact moment, Jose, my fishing buddy from the Island, has a furious strike. Short fight. Too short. The fish pulls the hook and I'm sure it was a good one, maybe the one we were looking for. The drag cried loud.
Day 4, I fly back home. Lots of work to do and another trip in 7 days time. The day after they return to the water with Jose and enjoy the best day of fishing. 6 or 7 fish and yet no giant.
Kudos for Victor, the smiling skipper that never gets out of ideas. We'll come back, I know they are there....

Tungsten WB and CTO Gels

I finally managed to try the tungsten WB setting matched with a CTO gel during a fishing trip. I red about it some time ago in one of Scott Kelby's book and found more information in http://www.strobist.com/ but never really put it into practice for good. The opportunity came during a very early morning fishing session in the Strait of Gibraltar, south of Spain. I was there with my friend Francisco Martínez in his game boat, chasing the Bonitos (Sarda sarda) with top water plugs. Unfortunately, due to the wind I couldn't use any of the soft umbrellas I had with me, and the light is a bit harsh, but I like the final result, even though, being the first one, it can sure be improved.

Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20. Manual exposure, f 6,3 x 1/30 sec. Iso 200. Center weighted.

Put a Leica lens on your camera!

If you are a Pentax owner, there's a small internet shop based in Barcelona that gives you the possibility to use a Leica-R lens on it. Check out their kits, they seem pretty easy to use to me and they are now working on adapters for other major camera manufacturers. http://www.leitax.com/

The web page is in english

Puerto Banus Trolling Fishing Tournament

Fishing Tournaments are really not my piece of cake but the one in Puerto Banús is quite unique, believe me. This port near Marbella holds the biggest fleet of super yachts of the Spanish coast. It used to be the base for many of the richest Arab kings and oil businessman and is a place where you breathe and smell wealth. Due to the large quantity of Yachts and extremely fashionable cars, Banus has become a main tourist point of Andalusia, where people come just to see those beauties and dream for one day. Is probably futile and materialistic but if Las Vegas has a reason to exist so Banus does. It is also a nice town, that must be said, and the nightlife, that develops mostly around the port, is quite exciting. For the sake of the truth I also have to mention the abundance of stunning females who help "decorating" the great scenario, even though this will probably cost me a punch on my neck....

Well, I was there, invited by the "alma mater" of the Tournament, Mr Jorge Haenelt (in the picture, at the weighting station), a truly nice gentleman who runs this big event every year since quite a long time, 12 years I'd say. Jorge knows a thing or two about running a competition of this size and saying that everything went flawless is an understatement. My mission was to give a speech after the first day of the tournament and then follow the event for a fishing magazine. I did my duties and covered the event, even here, in this humble blog, you'll find some bits and pieces about the competition.

On day one Red Herring, a beautiful 40 Cabo Express, in my humble opinion the nicest boat around, weighted the heaviest load of catch, 36,850kg with the biggest fish of the Tournament, a 14,550kg Dorado. Alila was good second, with just a couple of kilos difference and El Barracuda came third a bit further behind. The weather during the days was near to perfect, with calm seas and very hot temperature.
Day two was Nanis landing the biggest load with 26,200kg coming from 5 fish, all Skipjacks. Cap Cana, the team from the Dominican Republic grabbed the second place and El Barracuda came third again, for sure the most regular team of the tournament (not counting those who DID NOT catch any fish for two days in a row... ! ). A bit of wind showed up in the morning to drop again in the afternoon, again a wonderful day to be out at sea.

The final result, as far as total amount of catch is concerned, was in favour of Ian John Dixon's "Red Herring" , the team that won most of the available awards (there were many of them available). This is the men to beat next year, and I hope I will be there again to see it. There's many nice people I met and at the most glamorous fishing tournament of Spain, and I long to see them again.

Dolphins feeding frenzy, what a show!

This week-end I was in Puerto Banús, near Marbella, Andalusia. There was a big event taking place, the XII international trolling tournament "Copa Principe de Asturias". I was there mainly to give a speech about jigging, a technique that is pretty much in fashion lately, and to cover the event for the publishing group I work for. I'm not a big fan of Fishing Tournaments but I must admit that the one in Puerto Banús is pretty much unique but I'll talk about it in another post. On Saturday I was on board the Bormar VI, one of the boats competing for the tournament. Fishing was pretty slow for us but on the way back we found this amazing sight.
There were various schools of Dolphins working the bait and feeding furiously together with the birds. The strategy was pretty wild; the mammals would slam the balls of bait with their tails to stun them, and afterwards eat at an easy pace. We thought that Tunas might be feeding with the Dolphins but there was no presence of fish whatsoever, thus we spent quite some time just enjoining the show.

The new Tropical fishing season is about to start

It truly is, in less than one month I will be hopping on the first airplane with the first group of costumers. Destination Bermuda, for an exploratory jigging trip, the first both for me and the costumers. I have always been curious about this spot. In the IGFA book of records there is a good deal of massive Amberjack caught in these waters and I wonder how our irons will behave. My friend Miguel, an excellent Portuguese fisherman, last year landed this massive Amberjack in Cape Verde, I'm showing here the photo for you to see what we are after in Bermuda... pretty ambitious guys uh ???

I like this photo, do you?

Last week-end we went for a day to Medinaceli, a small village north of Madrid, quite a nice one. I like to walk around town grabbing images of the historical part (well, almost the whole place is historical). I have done it two or three times already and have collected a nice deal of images. I said a nice deal of... I didn't say nice images...! Well, the other day we walked to the other side of the village, where the fields and I saw this image in front of me. No tripod available so I had to rely on the lens' VR to get a decently sharp image. I kinda like this photo, is a bit "empty" on the left side but the landscapes with the windmills generates a decent contrast with the "old fashioned" foreground. Do you like it at all?

Studio work

I don't know if is necessary for me to keep saying that this is NOT the Blog of a professional photographer. My images speak for themselves and I am trying to be as honest as I can when it comes to describing my photographic attempts. I’m not trying to teach anything, just sharing my experiences for those who, playing in my same league, want to read.

After the purchase of a second soft umbrella yesterday I played a bit with an improvised studio in the living room. This gave me the chance to use for the first time two soft lights and the Elinchrome Skyport as well. The set-up of the studio was quite simple, a white cardboard for the background, one light left of the camera at 45º and one on the right at product level. I had to do a photo for an article in a Spanish and a French magazine and wanted to try something different.

It has been an educating experience, never worked with two lights and the remote so I thought it would have taken me more time to grab the concept but it wasn’t so. Not that I figured out the perfect match and consider the result as a masterpiece, but I’m happy with what I got at least for a first timer. Funny enough, the table surface is white and is quite reflecting as well (yes, is a horrible table and we need to buy a new one), which gave me the opportunity for a nicer composition. To achieve the right exposure I had to play a bit with the camera meter. This came out at f18 x 1/100sec, ISO 200 centre weighted. I was using the D80 and the Nikkor micro 60mm. Left flash was at 1/8 of the power and right flash at 1/2.

Well, it was two toys I got myself today....

The first and most expensive one is the Elinchrom Skyport but I also wanted a portable device to soften the flashes' light and found this cheap and quite small umbrella that might fit the bill. Is the Lumi-pro soft Umbrella, 80cm diameter and easy to carry, also in my luggage with the reels, the lures, the tripod etc. I tried as soon as I got home, put together a small dodgy set on my table and started shooting. I could not believe the difference between the light coming from the direct flash, even with an omni bounce and the light coming from the Soft Umbrella. You can judge it yourself here below

Flash with omni bounce shot directely

Flash through Soft Umbrella

Look at how different the shadows are in the first image from the second, much harder, harsh and sharper. This is just a simple and cheap white umbrella that softens the light shooting through it. Imagine what kind of results you can get with the pro products in the right hands....

The lighting experts will laugh at my observation and they have the right to do so, but for a total novice, like myself, to the whole world of strobes, lights, light direction and alike, is an amazing discovery and such a raw and self explanatory example might even help the other non-expert in this field, or at least I hope so.

Got myself a new toy

That's right; I made the mistake to walk the door of Madrid's largest photo retailer (Fotocasión) and came out with a complete set of Elinchrom Skyport. One transmitter and two receivers for the SB600 twins. I could sure fire them with Nikon's CLS but sometimes this wouldn't work and for a flash freak (even though new to the game) like me, this is not bearable. Tried them briefly in the house and I could almost trigger both of them from a different room, with quite a substantial wall in between. I got to find the chance to test them properly this week-end, can't wait for that.

This is not my job...

Yesterday it was my niece's first communion, a big family party. Her mother asked me if I could take care of the photos, something that I happily accepted. Poor crazy man, you don't know what you're doing...! and in fact I didn't, don't and won't probably ever know how to shoot such event. The good part is that everything happened at the family house, the bad part is that I had nowhere to put the strobes (one ended up on a tripod bouncing the light on the ceiling and the other on a Manfrotto clamp), and truly no clue of HOW to put them. I ended up with a mixed solution, trying to balance the light coming from the big window and the rest of the room, but it was only partially successful. Using a wide angle to take unusual shots I ended up with the majority of the photos with the flash well visible in the image, and a mixed bag of different exposures, from pretty clear images to very contrasty and saturated ones.

Well, eventually when we left the room to the garden things changed an my luck turned a bit. This is where I had most fun when the kids where playing or riding a mechanical bull, a very interesting photo op. I tried all possible combinations with the strobes and both in daylight (close to sunset with the sun already low), to twilight and night. This is where I probably spent an entire 2GB card, great fun.

Is quite a different thing photographing fish and people holding a fish from a family event like this. The responsibility, even you you're just doing it as a favour, is huge and the experience is very important. Something I truly don't have. Though, I sure learnt a thing or two and next time I would probably do it a tad better...maybe.

Horse Power anyone?

I wonder if any of you guys has ever entered the engine room of a big boat. Not a huge oil tank or alike, just a big sport fishing boat for example. I did that last week-end, nosing around the twin engine room of my friend's Fernando 58ft Hatteras. The original diesels have been stripped out the belly of the vessel and replaced with two flaming new 1000hp Detroits. Now, these, for a profane like me are quite impressive, they probably are 4 feet tall and 6 or 7 foot long and must weight a ton or two, God knows. anyway, is not the technical stuff that interests me, is what I can do with those fine pieces of machinery and my Nikon with or without my strobes.

I have to admit I'm a flash fanatic at least as much I am a flash dork. No clue how to use them, yet I insist and dare to. This is a series of images of the same stuff, none of them really successful but I have a moment in this lazy Friday afternoon so I enjoy working a bit on the Blog. I have spent zero time in editing the raw images, these are the basic jpegs exactly how they came out of the camera, just reduced in size.

This is the dark view, quite futuristic of the whole thing. Like a spaceship... The flash commander don't work so well when there's heavy metal stuff in front of the strobe, hence only the right flash sparked a bit of light. a too high shutter speed and a not too open f-stop did the rest.

I wonder why this one came up so green, I shoot in cloudy WB and should have been warmer, but maybe this IS warmer, for the light I was using... No flash here, just available light at f3.2

Only one flash fired here, the one on the right. f5.6 sunny WB

Here we have both SB600 working, one is low on my right and the other one is on top of the white cabinet. There's a lot of reflecting and shining stuff here, the light is bouncing all over the place but hey, this is a dork at work, don't forget this. f5.6 sunny WB

A couple of bonus images, this one I don't have a clue of what it is. I put the flash on top of it to spread some light from above. Looks pretty average to me. f4.5 Sunny WB.

At least I know what this is. Flash still above but eventually who cares, is not a good take.

These shots have been taken with a Nikon D80 and Nikkor 10.5 Fisheye. It was darn hot down there. I know is a dirty job but somebody has to do it :-)

Can you get back home happy after a dreadful fishing week-end?

Yes, you can. This is my answer to the title of this article. Last week-end, having been released from my duties as a father and husband I picked up the phone and called my friend Fernando in Marbella, to see what the weather was like and if there was a chance to do some jigging in the Straits of Gibraltar. Fernando, probably a saint or at least a man of great patience and a great friend of his friends, told me that the forecast was fantastic and that he would be very happy if I could go and stay with him. I didn't have to think about it for too long, picked up the phone, booked me a hop in the Ave train, and on Friday morning I was at the Atocha station, loaded with luggage, ready to begin my journey to the south.

Atocha, for those who don't know, is one of the most beautiful train station you can find in the world. Inside the huge building you find a gorgeous tropical garden, perfectly taken care of, regularly sprayed with drizzled water or steam to keep the temperature constant. I got to the station almost 45 minutes before the train departure and soon put my hands on the D80 and started taking some pictures. People were looking at me in a funny way, wondering what that guy was doing in those weird position loaded with a quite large suitcase (at least for a week-end) and a long black tube that looked pretty threatening (the rod case). Couldn't care less, I was in my own little world, right behind the viewfinder, trying to awake the photographer in me.

The train trip was relaxing and comfortable. I love trains as much as I started hating airplanes. I spend a good deal of time travelling from one end of the world to the other during the tropical fishing season and I'm getting planephobic, if I'm allowed to say. But trains are different and the AVE (Spanish high speed trains) offers a beauty of a ride. Is fast, quiet, spacious and in less than 3 hours it delivers you to the Malaga station, something that by car takes at least around 5 hours and dimes. During the trip I took some horrible pictures that nobody would ever want to see. Thus, since this is a diary of my week-end I will show them, sorry!

After a quick change to a slower commuter train to Fuengirola where Fernando was waiting for me we headed for the first important stop, the restaurant. We picked a good meat place, in fact we though we would have enough fish during the following days. Lunch was average, the meat OK but not impressive and we resumed our short drive to Marbella. Once we were done with the supermarket shopping for food and drinks for the boat, we unloaded the luggage and the purchase into the Bormar VI, Fernando's beautiful 58ft Hatteras.

This was going to be home for the next two days, and I couldn't be happier. What happened was that once Fernando knew that I was coming, he called our group of closer friends and organized a live aboard trip, where the crew would stay on the boat, for fishing, eating and sleeping. This was a major surprise for me, I wasn't expecting it and I thought was just the perfect plan. Even if the fishing sucked we would have had a hell of a great time, in fact the company couldn't have been better. Imagine yourself stuck for 2 days in a limited space with some of the nicest and funniest guys on earth. The only risk you can run is to die of a heart attack because you laughed too much, but apart from that, nothing could go wrong. Of course I spent some time taking pictures of the port, but there's no need to say it right ? After dinner, only myself and Fernando would sleep on the boat, the other guys were expected to arrive at 06:30 in the morning for the departure. None of their wives allowed them to join us on Friday for an early start, good boys...!

Saturday morning, as sharp as Swiss watch all the guys arrived at the mooring. I had a bad sleep and woke up early to catch the sunrise (too early though...), but we were fast on maneuvers and the boat left Marbella at first light. We cruised at good pace heading to Gibraltar where we could refuel, buy some spirit and depart again towards the fishing grounds.

A good chunk of the morning flew at 18 knots, cruising and cruising until we hit the first spot. At this point I have to tell you that I will talk about the fishing at the very end of this piece, there's no point now. For some strange reason while on a boat I eat like a hyena. Everything edible that was coming from the fridge, was being processed at the speed of light. The massive supermarket purchase was shrinking as fast as it gets and my belly slowly changing shape, into a more rounded one. Yep, more than usual.

In the evening we approached Barbate, our port for the night and we saw an helicopter and a rescue boat working right on the area of Cape Trafalgar, a good chance to use my 200mm. Now, you have to understand that in Barbate there's one of my favourite restaurant ever. I have been there with some Japanese friends a couple of years before, again with Fernando and his boat, and just loved it. El Campero is the name, and if you ever happen in this pretty ugly and not too interesting town, please pay it a visit. The entrees are just fabulous, but my target was pretty clear: Toro sashimi.

Barbate is a major point of Bluefin Tuna processing and harvesting. The Almadrabas (giant fish traps) still catch a good deal of giants before they enter the Mediterranean for the spawning, and the tuna meat is either sent to Japan (the largest part), a bit to the Spanish market and a part is treated locally in form of canned Tuna, smoked etc.

Back to the sashimi, this is made with the most priced part of the Tuna, the belly. For a tray like those they serve at El Campero, in Japan you would pay a fortune, but here hey, ain't cheap but neither is untouchable. Tuna belly was also my choice as main course, this time grilled, and a couple of bottles of Luis Caña, a delicious red wine from La Rioja, killed our thirst. The dinner was a truly joyful moment. Six grown up men behaving like silly teenagers and having pure straight fun. It could have been great even without the wine but it sure helped warming up the atmosphere. Somehow we left the restaurant on foot and got the the boat for a sound sleep but unfortunately the only sound was coming from a club all night long, until 06:00, with painfully ugly music.

The following morning was not so easy to leave the bed and we had quite a slow start. The sun was already high on the horizon and our faces didn't look as good as the previous day, we needed a rush of adrenaline to clean the arteries and get back on track. And adrenaline we had, or at least Fernando had, because one of the engines started heating too much. Fortunately was a minor problem and once fixed we could resume the cruise and the fishing. We made our way back slowly, from spot to spot, looking for finned critters willing to give us a thrill. Once my stomach settled down, I resumed the eating process and most of the guys helped me clearing what was left in the fridge. The day was slow and nothing exciting was taking place so what could we do better than eating and chatting? Well, some sleep wouldn't hurt, in fact between one spot and another people were disappearing downstairs and coming back with wrinkles in their faces. The pillows were being hammered.

We arrived late in the afternoon to Marbella, and while the Atlantic in the Strait was pleasant and flat, the Med welcomed us with a rough face and lots of big waves. No big deal for the large boat, and we moored in the Marbella port safe and sound. It was finally time to say goodbyes and hug the Andalusian friends. I put my camera on a tripod, grabbed two flash and the remote control and shoot some group photos, as a memory of a beautiful week-en. From left to right: Fernando, Victor, Cecilio, Kikin, Juanjo and myself

And the fishing? Well, you can imagine, it sucked. One of the worst week-end ever, this fish you see here below is the only think we landed that was over 100g. Who care, this was one of the best fishing trips of my life. I relaxed, had fun, and enjoyed the company very much.

Muchas gracias chicos.