Chapter 32

“Fish on!” squealed Madeline, loud enough to be heard throughout the yacht. She started reeling in her catch as fast as she could crank the reel. “It’s fighting me!”

Paul crouched down next to her. “Easy, or you’ll shake him loose, reel him in nice and easy...”

Paul had set up the safety railings on the swimming dock and they moved in close to shore to catch some bait fish for their sail fish outing. They had netted a tank full of mullet and they let Sandy, Madeline, and Bitty try their hand at the rod and reel and they took to it marvelously.

“I’m hooked up!” called Bitty from the other side of the fishing dock and Yi bent to help her little sister. Andi and Macy watched with excitement from the fishing cockpit. They were so engrossed in watching the little girls’ fish they didn’t hear someone calling, “Ahoy!”

Andi turned to see a small fishing skiff had quietly pulled up alongside of them. On board the skiff was a smiling, well-tanned, blond girl along with a brunette girl and a tall, slim fellow. “Hi!” called Andi, wondering if they had bumped into her boat.

“I’m Daniella G, you know ... Daniella G on the Big Blue Sea...?” she paused for recognition from Andi and Macy. Getting no glimmer of recognition, she pressed on. “I’m a professional sport fisherman and I do a series of YouTube videos. Can I come aboard and talk?” Getting an approving nod from Andi, Daniella stepped aboard.

“Foremost, I am an advocate of female anglers and I try to prove daily that fishing is for girls, too. Saying that, do you mind if I video your girls fishing and, if possible, use that footage in a YouTube video? They are so adorable! Then maybe a quick interview with the parents?”

“It’s ok with me to video the twins,” said Andi. “We’ll want some control over what is put out there, no addresses or contact information or anything like that.”

Sunny stepped down into the cockpit from up in the galley. “You still have permission to film Bit-na.”

“Sunny!” Daniella and Sunny hugged like old friends, “I didn’t recognize Bitty. She’s grown so much!”

“Yes, she cabin girl on this cruise. She teaching the twins to catch mullet for sailfish later.”

Daniella gestured to the two people on the small boat who then pulled out to video the three little girls fishing off the swimming dock. She then made sure she had everyone’s name and asked if she could video them, do an interview, and she held a GoPro out at arm’s length using a selfie stick. The camera was pointed at her. “Ok, so I’m here with an old friend, Sunny Carlson. You remember the trip we shot with her and her husband, Captain Stan, a few months ago? If not, I’ll link it in the remarks section below.” And with that, she pointed at the deck.

“We’re here aboard the yacht Andi’s Dream with owner Andi Jarecki and her sister Macy Jarecki, and their daughters are fishing off the fantail of this...” suddenly Daniella stopped, caught in mid-sentence as her mental gears engaged.

Sunny leaned over and whispered to Andi, “Watch this, she just realize where she is, who we are.”

Daniella’s eyes opened wide, and she cried, “This is crazeee! Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! You guys rescued the Garcia family! This is insane! This is sick!”

“Is she mad at us?” whispered Andi to Sunny.

“Oh no, this is how she talk when she is excited, sometimes she swear.”

“This is a-mayyyy-zing!” panted Daniella. “Can we do an interview on the rescue?”

All three women frowned. “Stop tape for a moment,” said Sunny, pointing to the go-pro camera that Daniella was holding.

Daniella turned the camera off and said, “Just to show you I’m totally legit...” she took the memory card out of the camera and put the camera in the cleaning station refrigerator there on the fishing cockpit. “Ok, we can talk now,” she said, holding up the memory card.

“You didn’t have to go to that extreme,” said Andi. “We just need to tell you that we are all professionals, and we can’t really talk about what happened. A lot has to be kept in doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“Oui,” agreed Macy. “Sung-Mi is a registered nurse. She did a lot of the delivery. Andi is a pulmonologist who saved a life, and I am docteur en théologie, and docteure en psychologie so everything said to me by anyone is kept in stricte confiance.”

At first Daniella looked gloomy, then she brightened. “How about if I say that I met you, the rescuers, we spoke in generalities, and won’t even mention what really happened, so I won’t have to mention that almost everything is covered by doctor patient confidentiality?”

“I agree with that,” nodded Andi.

“Je suis d’accord.”

Sunny made it unanimous, “Works for me.”

Daniella reassembled her camera and tried again. “This is insane! I’m here in West Palm and I saw some little girls fishing off of this beautiful yacht and the next thing I know, I’m talking with a brave bunch of sailors who pulled off that amazing Treasure Coast rescue on New Year’s Eve. We’re not going to talk about that because I’m here to talk about fishing. I saw these little girls fishing and, WOAH!”