For the 3rd straight day the fish have eluded us!! We've snagged several fish on our hook, but can't seem to get them in the boat. Usually we drag them around for awhile and then when they get about 25 yards off the back of the boat we see them do a leap out of the water, and then they are gone. We've tried setting the hook fast and reeling them in quickly. We've tried trying to tire them out and then drag them in, but neither is working. The bigger fish are gigantic. They look like Tuna to us and I would guess 3' long, and that's not a fisherman's story. We've snagged a few smaller mahi-mahi, maybe 10-15 lbs, but haven't gotten them in the boat either. We had one right on the stern and somehow Michael and I managed to leave him in the ocean. We did get one smaller fish in the boat, but we have no idea what it was, so he was tossed back, free to live another day. Thankfully we have plenty of food, and weren't depending on our fishing skills. We'll stick to sailing...
Speaking of food, our meals have been fantastic! Kyle, Captain Turbo's wife, loaded us down with a menu fit for kings! Breakfast could be eggs and bacon, eggs and sausage, or on the rougher days simple pop tarts and granola bars. We have two full snack boxes that fill in all the gaps. We didn't discover the bag of chocolate until about the third day. Once it was opened, that bag was never put bag into the snack box. Lunch has been hot dogs, deli sandwiches, or peanut butter and jelly. But dinner is where she has outdone herself. We've had hamburgers, filet mignon, italian sausage, chicken with peppers and onions, and several other dishes, that you wouldn't think 4 yahoos like ourselves would be cooking on a grill on the back of a sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean! I will say grilling in 30 knots and 10' seas isn't the easiest, but who's gonna let a filet go bad?! As an idea of the challenge, after struggling to grill the filets, we decided that the only proper way to eat them would be to wrap them in a paper towel and eat them like a Hardee's sausage biscuit. If we'd tried plates and knives, who knows what might have happened.
As I type this post, we are exactly 100 nautical miles from our entrance point to the Abacos. The high seas are forcing us to make a western entrance, which will add about a day to our journey, but is much safer than facing the rage in the closer inlets in these conditions. We were talking today about how it feels like we have been on this journey forever. Pushing off from Little Creek seams like an eternity ago! It's too early to start the whole reflective process, but it is wild that the end is finally getting in site.
On a side note as I typed this email we saw a ship. This is only significant because before that we had not seen any signs of human life outside of the 4 of us in 3 days. Life is much different at sea...