In general, life is an extremely difficult journey. This theory is quantified in Mozambique.
These past two weeks have been anything but easy for the team here at MSF. Multiple setbacks including a broken outrigger and broken ribs.
Our first big push to the farthest known reaches off Bazaruto Island was met with disaster when we collapsed our starboard rigger after a nice Blue Marlin pickup first thing in the morning. The collapse was not due to the pickup as Captain E remembers bringing in our starboard teaser immediately after the strike and the rigger was still upright. That morning had been “sporty” to say the least as we were seeing some white water hitting the fly bridge. The 400lb class fish picked up our right corner and ran like a bat out of hell. It was only after clearing the deck and nearly 10 minutes into the fight I heard odd chattering coming from behind me with E and Alberto problem solving the situation. I turned around and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The rigger had bent at a 40 degree angle and all of our plans and fuel burn investment was thrown away before we even got started.
Honestly I can’t remember even releasing the Blue Marlin as it came off almost immediately upon Alberto securing the bill for a release. Our concerns were for our season and what we had just lost.
The rigger was beyond any sea repair and we decided to limp home to not increase the damage to the rigger and any more components or Cujo itself.
Trying not to waste any filming time and being incredibly limited to the speed of which we could travel home we decided to run a single rigger, two rod setup for the longgggggg journey home. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished… our attempt at salvaging any loss was totally blown as we picked up a sailfish nearly at lines up off Baz and upon trying to release and film the fish at the same time, Cujo hit a big swell and my momentum carried my rib cage down into the gunnel as I lost my footing (both hands being on the fish or on the camera) and two of my left ribs crush under my weight. Immediately feeling two intense cracking/electric sensations and having the wind knocked out of me I knew it was bad. Rolling around on the deck for a minute or two wondering if I was actually gonna die from lack of oxygen, I finally regained the strength to get back to the cabin and get my wits sorted. Adrenaline and shock helped me out as we got back to mainland, got the rigger off and I was able to access my own damage.
Lees Outriggers in North Carolina helped us out with a brand new pair of custom HD outriggers which are on their way but in the mean time we managed to cut out and the splice the broken rigger enough to get Cujo game ready for my return to health.
On our first 3 trips to date we have 2 Blue Marlin and 3 Sailfish. What an amazing start to the almost year round April-December Billfish season off Bazaruto Island Mozambique.
10 days would go by before I was able to get back on the mighty Cujo to film our great friend and Legendary Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto.com on his beautiful 450-500lb Blue Marlin.
More on the amazing time with Captain Duarte and E in my next blog. And remember to check out our videos on Youtube and socials on Instagram, Facebook and the Tok.
Captain Aaron
