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American Spirit II - Day 63; Bread Disaster & Blue Fin Tuna Catch; Friday, March 7, 2014



6:00 AM. Overcast. Wind light, 6/7 knots from the SE. Speed 5.5 knots over the ground. Two large rain showers ahead, one on our left and one on our right. Not a pleasant sight to wake up to.

However, let me digress to our last stop. Something I neglected to mention previously. One of the things about the Galapagos Islands that is a little unusual is that the US Dollar is the preferred currency. However, even more unusual is the number of Susan B. Anthony $1.00 coins in circulation. They're everywhere. No wonder they're hard to find in the US. They're all in the Galapagos. And not shiny like in the US. Dull.

At 9:38 AM we had to turn the engine back on. The wind had dropped to 4 knots. Back to motor sailing. We motored at 6.4 knots over the ground thanks to a helping current of 1.2 knots.

At 10:00 AM as we were preparing breakfast, I noticed that all of the bread on the boat had spoiled. It was all moldy. Big time. No preservatives. I'm going to have to learn how to bake bread on the boat for our next long passage.

At 11:50 AM we passed thru a school of blue fin tuna. I had put the lines in the water at 7:09 AM, almost 5 hours earlier. Both fishing lines rang out at the same time. Wham! The fish on Joel's line was bigger than mine. Much bigger. Really bending the rod. After fighting it for a few minutes, it broke free. I continued reeling mine in, slowly. Then we slowed the boat and I was able to reel it in quickly. You need to be quick or a shark will take the fish. Happens 30% of the time. The fish was a 9 pound blue fin tuna. After filleting, the carcass was thrown back in the sea. Filet and release. Charlie Tuna is coming to dinner tonight. We won't put the fishing lines in the water again until we've eaten all the fish we'd caught. Probably take 4 to 5 days for that to happen.

Noon position 4 degrees, 55 minutes South; 101 degrees, 46 minutes West.

For a change we had freeze dried for lunch, plus Ritz Crackers with peanut butter and/or jelly. Not bad. With no bread, we can't have ham and cheese sandwiches any more.

Rain showers everywhere. The Tropical Trough we thought we'd left caught up with us. It's racing West like we are. Bummer. Wind 2 knots. Just crossed 5 degrees South. At 2:25 PM we passed 102 degrees West Longitude. Only 37 more degrees to go to Hiva Hoa (139 degrees West Longitude). Each degree is 60 nautical miles. Long way to go. The Galapagos Islands were at 90 degrees.

The blue fin tuna was the dinner main course, cooked on the grill at the back of the boat by Chef Joel. Olive oil and spices (Seafood Magic bought at Publix) rubbed into it. Plus baked potatoes and sliced, chilled pineapple (from a can). A glass of wine after dinner, watching the sun set.

At 8:00 PM during the evening Rally Radio Net, we talked to a couple of boats south of us, and since they had wind (and we didn't), we decided to turn left and go south in search of wind. By 'turning south' we turned the boat 40 degrees left and headed 225 degrees instead of the 265 degrees we'd been motor sailing. Not towards Hiva Hoa, but we need wind to get there.

At 9:00 PM we watched the first episode on the Sopranos on DVD, with micro wave popcorn. We have 5 seasons to watch.

At 9:50 PM we passed II Audeacious, another sailboat in the Rally, 100 yards astern. Amazing. Five days of sailing and we're that close to another boat. I actually had to make a course correction as we were on a collision coarse. We radioed them and told them we were heading south to find wind. They turned with us. A while later I noticed that our boat tachometer wasn't working. After turning off the engine and restarting, it worked. Like rebooting a computer. Never a dull moment on a boat.

From 10:30 PM on it was one heavy rain shower after another. I had to stand right behind the dodger to keep from getting wet.

Let's hope we have wind to sail by tomorrow.

Brian Fox

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