The story with the fishes started already in the late afternoon when we returned to MaRe from our first full day ashore. We saw one of the local aluminum boats leaving the little harbor north of the one we used as a dingy dock. At this other harbor, it is necessary to pull the boats ashore. For this they use long plastic pipes of about 10 – 15 cm diameter, and about 5 m long being placed parallel to each other so that on them, the boats can glide in to the water or out of the water easily with low friction.

The boat we saw leaving had only one person on board. “Fishing for dinner?”, was my thought. We continued to MaRe and did our daily evening routine.

Later, when it was dark already, I heard a motorboat with an outboard engine slowing down close to MaRe. I went to the edge of the cockpit and heard a person from the boat asking if we want a fish. “What kind of fish do you have?” “Tuna”, was the answer. “Wait a moment”, I said and talked quickly with Shigeo our chef de cuisine. Then the boat was already close to MaRe and the person in the darkness handed a tuna over to me. A nice fish! “What do you want for that” was my immediate question. “Nothing”, was the straight forward answer. Then I saw the person for short moment in the light of the our cockpit. “Are you Junior Andrew?” “Yes!” “Thanks you so much for the wonderful fish”. And Junior Andrew disappeared in the night.

Gosh what a big fish we got.

Then it became Saturday morning 0810 and we arrived at his house. “Here, for you.” And he gave me a plastic bag with half a yellow fin; the tail part. I was overwhelmed. But need to ask him if he can keep it in his fridge until we come back at 1000. He took it to where it came from.

When we came to drive with him in the trailer to his office, he gave me again this delicious looking yellow fin tuna.

Later in the night, I heard again an outboard engine slowing down close to MaRe. It was dark again and I could not see much and just asked into the night “Are you ok?” “Here is a tuna for you”, was the answer I got. The next moment the boat was already so close to MaRe’s stern, that a second person in the boat handed me big yellow fin tuna over. I exchanged a few words with Junior Andrew then the two in boat disappeared again on the darkness. It was the last time I saw and spoke with him.

What a wonderful gesture sharing so much fish with us. Another person and his family, which will stay in my heart and memory.