Total distance......................585 miles
Distance traveled.................420 miles
Distance remaining...............165 miles
Wind...................................10 knots ESE
Sea state.............................good
Weather...............................good
SOG....................................7 knots
Another beautiful night, despite the fact that we are motor sailing, due to a lack of wind.
02.15 hrs The fishing rod starts to Rzzzzzz, oh, oh, have we eventually got lucky, now that we are on a very long line.
Skipper grabs hold of the rod and its solid , bent like an S hoop under the pressure. Following 10 mins of hard work trying to reel in the pray, the line went limp, and the whopper got away, blast!
06.15hrs The rod starts again, Rzzzzzz Rzzzzz Rzzzzz, once again the skipper grabs the rod, oh oh, the strain, so
slowly, ever so slowly we begin to reel in this monster, well , lovely fish, if he stays there on the end of the line. 80m of line or more, but then it paid. An hour later, we had the fish alongside, John got the fish hook and hauled the fish out onto the aft deck, gosh! he is big..... We referred to our fish book, and here we have a very nice " Wahoo " about 25lbs. Out with the knives and the filliting began, yeach, the mess. Another hour later, we had the fish totally cut up into meal portions and placed in the deep freezer, keeping one piece out for dinner tonight. A job well done, we were as proud as punch.
10.30hrs The wind increased, so we shut down the engine and sailed again.. lovely stuff... However, the wind was up and down, so we decided to have a go at putting up the KITE. This could be trickey with just the 2 of us, but we were determined to try it at least.
11.30hrs We had the Kite flying, without a spinniker pole. it dident look good, so we attached the pole and it looked an afull lot better, and the speed was also better, in 14knots of breeze, we were doing 7 knots, with just the spinniker on its own. The great advantage of using the Kite is its stability, no more rolling around. This is Sailing at its best. Later, we had a light lunch, followed by some naps, more reorganising the boat, checking the sea cocks, and polishing the ss items on deck. There is always things to do, as soon as the list is cleared, another longer one appears.................. That's boats................
18.00hrs John cooked our " Wahoo" dinner with fried potatoes, carrots and white sauce, excellent!
Full Moon again, and this is our last night at sea for a day or two. We should arrive in Nuie about 05.00hrs, tomorrow morning, at our current speed. We took down the Kite before dinner, just in case. It is very, very big for 2 people, and taking it down in the dark makes the dropping that little bit more difficult.
Night watches :- Skipper..........................21.00hrs / 01.00hrs
John..............................01.00hrs / 05.00hrs
Skipper .........................05.00hrs hopefully arrival.
Stephen Hyde (skipper)