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Makena - Nov 21 PW Reporting



November 21, 2014

Makena: Lagoon 620

Position at noon

We woke up to a grouchy sunrise. As the red and orange backlight filtered between the horizon and the low clouds, we imagined a row of jagged teeth biting at the rising sun. The deepening red lit wispy clouds shooting straight up over the the sun erupting from the horizon. All around us we saw the dark heavy pockets of rain that marked the uneven rows of squall lines passing through our corner of the Atlantic. The saying “Red sky at night, sailors delight; Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning” would prove it's worth today.

By noon, we had close encounters with four squalls, each bringing lots of wind and rain. The moonless night produced the first squall at 0340. Wind gusted to 30 knots and every exposed part of the boat got a nice fresh water rinse. 0700 brought another just before sunrise. The third was relatively benign, with little rain and moderately strong winds. By the time the forth squall tempted us with free fresh water, we were on the foredeck, soap in hand, taking advantage of the cold downpour, coming away invigorated and clean.

We needed this cleaning, because today we hauled aboard a big tuna. This is the fish that we have been waiting for. She tipped the imaginary scales at around 12 kilos and made a very bloody mess on the deck. By the time I had cut her up, skinned and removed the last bone, I was pretty messy.

Any guesses as to what we had for lunch? Seared tuna with a salt rub, coated in sesame seeds. Very, very good. The fresh salad with thinly sliced carrots rounded out the meal.

Difficult sailing as we went from dead calm to 30 knots, relatively shifty wind direction as well. We can see some of the other boats around us and we may be doing 5 knots in low wind conditions and we see a boat three miles away pulling down 9 knots.

Dinner was epic. Sashimi was the opening dish, followed by a gorgeous and tasty fish casserole. Simply, in Irish “fish pie”. Wine was a Portuguese Cabernet Sauvignin, 2007 Pactus. Somehow, Sarah managed to whip up an apple pie that was the final nail, driving me into a food coma. I will need a coffee before I begin my night watch.


[Submitted by SB for PW Nov 23. Photos on facebook!]


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