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Mischief - A little bit of Mischief Log 2 Through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes Chief cook and bottle washer (Grade 2)



Day 5: Sunday 4 March 2018. Famine and feast;fish for lunch and tea; interesting facts.

"Hope lives eternal in a fisherman's heart", was the phrase that came to mind as Trevor deployed his fishing lines at first light and in no time a duck became interested, more so than a fish.

At least the rain has stopped, albeit still cloudy. There is literally nothing about, not even on AIS. Dave put the generator on at 0600 as the batteries were low but it makes the Watt & Sea generator vibrate which sounds like a demented cow so at 0700 we turned it off as Dave had gone below.

1000: No sooner had Trevor taken some chicken out of the freezer to defrost for tea when we noticed a small Skip Jack on one of the closer lines. It was too small to eat so we threw it back albeit Trevor was eager to keep it - it was our first catch after all and we'd waited a fair time for it too. As soon as the Jack hit the water "Whizz!!", went the rod line and suddenly we had fish on all four lines simultaneously - Tuna! The one on the rod made his escape as did one of the others but we still had two in tow both of which we eventually landed, both about 7lb. Trevor jumped on the first and Dave dispatched it with a blade behind the head, then the second, blood everywhere. Dave then filleted both.

1200 Position 05 degs 25.7'S 099 degs 31.5'W C: 260 degs W: SE 18 knts SOG: 8 knts Noon/noon: 175 nm

1300 Fresh sashimi for lunch - raw tuna with wasabi and soy sauce. Gorgeous! We are going to BBQ the rest for tea with salad. Sun is out now and bowling along on track under main and genoa. Sparkling day's sailing now the clouds have gone.

1700 SSB interesting fact competition: Mischief entry - Take the entire population of French Polynesia and lay them out head to toe from Hiva Oa in a NE direction, they will mostly drown. Fact; but possibly unappreciated by whomever was listening.

Lovely sunset and clear night ahead.

Day 6: Monday 5 March 2018. Groundhog day; whales; IT issues; Sick squids.

Very uneventful night. No course changes, sail changes, indeed we have not touched a sail or a steering button since…. Can't remember. Watches become a bit akin to Groudhog Day when nothing is happening and accordingly tend to drag on a bit. We have seen no shipping nor yachts for days now, even on AIS, the South Pacific is a big place. We are really starting to eat the miles now and feel as if we are getting somewhere. 818 nm as at 0900.

Dave and Wendy did see a small group of whales early today, Pilot Whales they think, headed across our stern. Good job they didn't go for one of Trevor's fishing lines as I don't think we have enough room in the freezer for one of those.

A bit of an issue arose this morning. I have given my office the boat email address just in case but one message has taken 80 minutes to download over sat phone which has cost a fortune but more importantly a second has blocked the system by including a string of previous messages just to say sorry for the first, so can't get weather or fleet information until these have cleared! Eventually advised to email Airmail who have cleared out the offending mails on the server and told us how to set a size limit so it should not happen again. Ooops!

1200 Position 05 degs 59.9'S 102 degs 39'W C: 255 degs W: SE 18 knts SOG 7/8 knts Noon to noon run: 192 nm !!

A bit of a slow news day otherwise other than Trevor prepping for tea - green chicken curry - when he came across a dead squid in one of the pans under the saloon table. How on earth that got there is anyone's guess, obviously through the saloon hatch, but these things don't fly…..mystery. Anyway, it allowed me to present it to Dave saying, "Here's that six quid I owe you". He didn't laugh either.

1830 We retrieved the fishing lines again for the night and noticed one had been bitten through and the lure gone. There are some mighty big fish out there with sharp teeth. Otherwise no bites all day.

Day 7: Tuesday 6 March 2018. Thousand mile mark; pedicures; bad eggs; unwanted guest; vegan option

Another fairly uneventful night other than the wind hitting 25 knts temporarily and a couple of waves came over the coach roof. We put in a reef around 0200 but shook it out again an hour later. Fishing lines went back in at first light.

0912 Just passed 1,000 nm mark!! We are getting there.

1200 Position 06 degs 34.4'S 105 degs 15'W C: 256 degs W: ESE 15 knts SOG 7.5 knts Noon to noon run: 180 nm.

Wendy was offering pedicures all round this afternoon. She had her work cut out with mine but they felt like new afterwards! Horrible things feet. But meanwhile it was a beautiful day with sparkling seas in lovely sunshine and all we were missing is a fish. So I made a Spanish omelet for lunch, preparing the chorizo, onions and pepper then breaking in the eggs. Unfortunately I got to the fifth egg and broke it directly into the pan and it was off! It absolutely stank and I was sure someone may notice if I served this up so I had to start all over again; worth it in the end maybe.

1630 Bang!! Something just ripped one of the trailing fishing lines clean off the stern. Given the 250lb breaking strain it must have been some fish and very welcome to the lure and accompanying line. There are some big critters out here, this one probably a shark. So in the further absence of fish we had garlic spaghetti for tea. Very good too - if it wasn't for the parmesan cheese (optional) it was a vegan meal not that we are so inclined but it's very topical back home and we are anything if not "with it", man!

Day 8: Wednesday 7 March 2018 Chart plotter woes; massive Wahoo; Dave's mortal wound; funniest joke; fish for lunch and tea!

Another uneventful night albeit some horrid dark clouds came over around 0400 and dropped rain for 20 minutes or so. Regardless the wind stays stubbornly ESE at 16-20 knts and we trundle down the rhumb line on 260 degrees at 7-8 knts. However, we did spy a fishing boat on AIS that proved that it was indeed working (so many of the fleet have been having doubts as there is really nothing to see) and it was the first AIS target for days. Trevor set his lines again at 0900, a little late this morning, perhaps he is getting disillusioned or maybe running short of lures!

Unfortunately, the Raymarine chart plotters are playing up. These are state of the art touchscreen models, one by each wheel, but they steadfastly refuse to respond to touch no matter how hard you press although they do allow current position data and AIS. These have both been replaced previously in Lagos for the same malfunction so is therefore even more disappointing. Dave has emailed ahead and asked to be met somewhere in the islands with either replacement units and/or a permanent cure.

1200 Whizz!! Off went the rod reel and took most of the line with it. Dave leapt into action (quite a sight!) and grabbed the reel before the line disappeared. Whatever it was it was big and made a big splash some way off the stern plus had the rod bent double. It took 30 minutes to reel this thing in constantly aware that some other predator may well come along and nab our catch. It was a Wahoo and a big one but we managed to gaff it after slowing the boat down and bring it close in, then hauled it over the stern. Huge, about a metre or so long. Dave dispatched it with a blade to the back of the neck then we hung it up on some luggage scales: 20 kgs! However, as I lowered it back to the deck the boat rolled and the fish slid and got Dave on the toe and foot with very sharp teeth - getting its own back no doubt. There was blood everywhere but this time it wasn't all from the fish!

Dave stripped to his underpants for whatever reason, only to display the fact that he was wearing his budgie smugglers inside out; this was either an error first thing this morning or it was the third day in the four day life cycle of a pair of pants: normal wear, back to front, inside out and inside out back to front. Anyway, suitably undressed for action he started to filet the fish - there was tons of it. We now have enough fish for at least four days so the mince went back in the freezer. Needless to say Dave's injury has slowly been embellished to a frenzied shark attack that nearly had his leg off to my favourite, Monty Python's Black Knight guarding the bridge, "Come back here and I'll bite your legs, it's a mere flesh wound!"

1315 Position (missed 1200 due to fish) 07 degs 07.8'S 108 degs 42.3'W Same course & speed Noon/noon run 185 nm.

1700 SSB net joke competition. How many sailors does it take to………? Our effort, thanks to Trevor was "How many sailors does it take to create a French multihull disaster? Une, deux, trois, Cat Sank! Oh well, nobody on the net got it either but we thought it funny, certainly better than all the other drivel we heard.

Funnily enough Trevor made sashimi from the Wahoo for lunch and a fish stew with tomatoes and tarragon for tea, excellent. Has set us up for a cloudy and by the look of it, a potentially rainy night.

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