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Exody - Days 64-66: There is life out here !



Well at least there was irridescent blue life in the 1.1m blue marlin (we think!) as we flipped our third catch into the cockpit on Monday afternoon (16th March)! A baby as marlins go (or maybe something different with very similar features) but a good size for us - two or three meals worth. We had only started fishing the previous day as we neared the end of our fresh-fridged protein - so thanks to the reel and kit supplied by Marian's brother David.



Dolphins finally made an appearance on Sunday evening - such a commonplace in home and European waters yet so rare here! It was a treat to have the company of quite a large school frolicking at the bow and some leaping clear, the last few individuals hanging in for well over an hour. We got the identifier book out too late but Marian reckons in retrospect that they might have been rough toothed dolphins - distinctive white lips.



Mothers Day messages were exchanged in both directions on Sunday, with the short emails connecting us with our far flung family. One daughter had dipped her toes in the Indian Ocean, where we will be in a few months and the other had just done a 20 mile run in preparation for the London marathon in six weeks - reckon she runs at about the rate we sail! My mother is settling into a retirement home in northern Scotland..



Monday saw the end of our long and happy broad reach - not bad after 2000 miles. A slight wind shift required us to gybe and pole out the genny goosewinged to maintain our heading for the last 900 odd miles to Hiva Oa. We hope it will shift again but in the meantime are getting used to the slightly slower speeds and the extra vigilance this point of sailing needs by the watchkeeper. We seem to be doing OK in our midfleet position, especially as we are only using 'white sails' when we know others are flying spinnakers, chutes, code zeros and all the rest!



We set our clocks back a further hour today so Exody time is now UTC -8 hours (French Polynesia is -9.5). Otherwise more of what we have written about before- beautiful clear skies yesterday morning prompting a Paul Simon 'not a cloud was in the sky....etc' rendition.



This is our 13th day at sea on this leg and we are beyond the two thirds way point. Petter is into his Soduko + Kindle, Marian still into her books/Kindle + creative (or 'advanced' as Petter would have it) galley enterprises and we have all been checking out the exotic names and places in the charts and guides so as to understand and carefully plan our coming six week cruising period in French Polynesia.



Peter (Skipper)


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