17:07.11N 33:08.46W
Dear All,
Another day in paradise...mid-Atlantic in the tropical zone. The wet weather gear has long been put away and I am even wearing shorts and a Tshirt for my evening watches.
Caught a big Wahoo this morning....we think it was one of those anyway...Tony H may be able to advise. Looks like a mackerel/couta. Weighed about 10kg and didn't fight much by the time we had it on-board....It probably drowned in the hour or so it was waiting on the end of the line to be pulled in... Thank goodness Belly made the fishing lines "bullet proof"...the wire tracers can probably handle a ton?? The lure on the end is now looking a bit tattered but is still catching fish... We took lots of photos of the fish before carving him up anyway. The fishing gear has now been retired until we need more fish to eat...Now have around 5kg of fillets in the freezer...
We passed a big tanker last night when the boys were on watch. They called me up to assess it. On the radar we tracked him doing around 18 knots.. The wind dropped out again in the early hours and we ghosted along at a meager 3-4 knots. At sunlight we saw another yacht pass us under motor, so decided to crank up the sailing routine and put the mainsail up (We sailed just under a spinnaker last night as the "bashing" of the mainsail in light airs doesn't help your patience when trying to sleep). Got him on the radio later in the morning and discovered he was a much larger and faster Oyster 56... Felt better when I found that out ... Other than that, there is not much traffic in this part of the Atlantic.
Looks like we'll be out here for a while yet and I anticipate it will take at least another 10-12 days to hit St Lucia...
We are now at 33 deg west and the crew are looking forward to the half way mark "party" that will be declared at "the nearest midday after we cross 38 deg West". At the current rate this is 2-3 days away. Will put the boys in charge of costumes, I'll chill the champagne, prepare the Cuban cigar and
the French brandy, Belly can organize a 3 course degustation menu and I'll put Stuey in charge of recreational endeavours ....Plan is to have a swim off the boat just so we can say that we have actually had a swim in the middle of the Atlantic...
I located the Womens Weekly Curry Cookbook today which was a bonus...So will make a Thai fish curry with some of the Wahoo for dinner....Belly can have the night off from cooking duties...
Cheers
Ian
s/y Mikado