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Sweet Dream - Day 239 September 11, 2019



We were motor sailing along with the main up when Captain called me to take the helm for radio time at 08:55. Our SSB uses so much power and gets so much interference from the autopilot, that we turn off the chartplotter electronics and give dear “Pi” a break when ever the radio is being used, so I hand steer a compass course while Lars mans the radio. Well, this morning we had a pleasant surprise! Just as I came up, a fat tuna was caught on the hand line. Poor thing! We discovered it just at 08:59. Lars said if it hung on we’d get it after radio time. Well miracles of miracles, after all the fish we lose as we try to get them in immediately, this one stayed on the cedar plug lure hook for over 30 minutes! Captain filleted it out and I immediately put it in a pan of hot butter and sliced some lemons over it, sprinkled some thyme and black pepper on top, and poached it a few moments. What a delicious “second breakfast” we enjoyed. Amazingly enough, as we were eating our tuna, we were sitting side by side in the cockpit, a huge swordfish came cruising by. It’s giant dorsal fin stuck up just like a shark, but the wrong shape. It moved so smooth and fast just below the surface, we were astonished to see it hunting for its breakfast. We were glad that monster fish did not get on our lure or take our tunny off the line! That was the most excitement of the day until the fickle wind came roaring back at 13:00 smack on our tail. We put out all the canvas wing on wing and started drift racing manoeuvres. After a few minutes, we put a reef in each of the big sails, left the staysail full out and cruised merrily along occasionally hitting eight knots of boat speed. After the 17:00 radio call we ate the last of the morning’s tuna on a bed of yummy coleslaw. At the beginning of our night watches, the sly, sleepy wind closed up shop, took our leave without even a promise of, “see you later”, and suddenly, we were rocking and rolling in the three meter surf stirred up by the boisterous blow of the afternoon with no wind in the sails to propel us forward. On went the engine, up went the temperature immediately! Off went the engine, Captain fiddled around with the exhaust flap, on went the engine, up went the temp. Off went the engine, down into the bowels of the ship went the intrepid Captain, he checked the water intake..seemed fine, put it back together...on went the engine, and down went the temperature! Yay! Was I ever glad that skipping song was over! We had to put the sails away because there wasn’t enough wind to counteract the popping and snapping that occurred as we violently rolled in the contrary surf. Lars remarked that the seas were really confused. I answered with no wonder, the wind has literally blown from every point of the compass over the past 36 hours, and now it’s down to two knots! Oy vey! This is crazy! At least we are able to read. Captain is on his second James Patterson thriller, whilst I read one of the Patterson stories just before we left Darwin, then Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary, and am now flying through Arthur Ransome’s Swallows And Amazons. It is a delightful breath of wholesomeness after the murder, mayhem, and jaded decadence of Patterson and Thompson.

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