Flying to MSP with a 28qt cooler full of Dorado thanks to Captain Manuel and his first mate Juan! I could offer the team no fewer than five stars. My wife and I didn’t lift a finger on the boat and the crew was polite with above average english proficiency.
Word of Advice: If you want to take fish home DO have a plan for getting them cleaned, packaged, iced down, and in a cooler before you get on the boat.
We had no plan. Upon docking, we were told ‘Julio will clean your fish for you’ and sent chasing him down the dock as he pushed a wheel barrel full of our fish. He appeared to speak no english.
We then watched Julio fillet our Dorado in a less than sanitary back alley communal fish shack 1/4 mile from the slip as a dozen other non-english speakers milled about.
I felt the need to hover during the 15min process while observing other bags of fish being handed off to locals’ vehicles pulling up alongside the shack. My (albeit pampered, white, english-speaking American) spidey senses were on high alert.
I failed to clarify with Capt’ before leaving whether Julio was pre-paid, or if I would owe him. Once the fillets were in my hands I was asked in broken english for $30 plus some
Dorado as a tip.
After settling up, we hurried back to the marina feeling anxious about what to do now with two walmart bags of Dorado-length fillets.
As we walked briskly back to the relative safety of the marina, we were asked by a shop owner to set the fish down and browse her inventory as her hermanos eyed up our fish hungrily. Needless to say, we hurried by.
We Ubered to the local walmart to buy a cooler, packing supplies, a knife, and ice before finishing the packaging in our hotel room. Dry ice proved impossible to find in Cabo, but we were able to check the wet-iced cooler without issue at the airport.
Five stars stand for the Black Marlin and crew. The charter itself and the uncomfortable situation to follow all could have been improved had I better planned, communicated, and/or carried higher proficiency in the Spanish language.
I think it rather unfair to expect a better experience being a stranger in a strange land. If you book with Black Marlin please learn from my mistakes!
Flying to MSP with a 28qt cooler full of Dorado thanks to Captain Manuel and his first mate Juan! I could offer the team no...