Squid fishing around Phu Quoc

The red Vietnamese flag flapped strongly in the warm afternoon breeze as we steamed out into the harbour past other fishing boats ploughing through the black-green waters for a night’s attempt at harvesting squid. Before dusk, we threw long lines overboard in an attempt to catch other pickings in the sea but only small offerings were hauled from the deep.
The silence of the sea was all enveloping apart from the putter putter of the real squid boats and the slap of water against our hull. As the sun, a fuchsia pink globe, dropped beneath the horizon, we prepared for more serious action. With the increasing darkness, all squid lamps in the area were turned on and the lights from the other boats bobbed on the horizon. Success, as one of the team drew up a squid — a translucent creature, rather like a Murano glass creation. It became clear that we wouldn’t fish enough for supper but luckily the guys on board had predicted that and ‘squid we had caught earlier’ was cooked on coals on deck washed down by cold beer.