Wahoo!!!....."ocean to table"....in 3 hours!

Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Sun 28 May 2017 14:20
26:43.2 N 69:03.03 W Motoring along, at 1500 hours, with a near
perfect "oily sea" (meaning the sea was like glass...no waves, and almost
not a ripple)...and "Cav" yells "Fish On"!! So all hands jump to and head
to the stern....Cav grabs the belt for the rod, Rich puts the rod in the
belt holder and starts reeling, Nick graps the vodka, Kris gets the Gaff
hook, and Mike gets the camera. About 30 minutes later, a beautiful wahoo
.... 3 feet and 12 pounds.....was aboard, and "drinking vodka through his
gills"....what a blissful way to go! When it expired, Rich filled the fish
on the deck, as Kris poured buckets of water to wash off the "stuff", and
Nick connected the water hose to continuous wash the deck down. All the
"extra cuttings" were tossed, and Rich passed out "civiche"!!
So....the intended steaks were put back in the fridge.....the red wine was
buried and the Cloudy Bay was put on ice .... and 3 hours latera wahoo,
broccoli, "special rice" dinner was served!! As morning broke, and
the new weather report came in, it was clear that we WILL NOT see any really
good winds.....so fuel calculations become the critical activity again. We
are motor sailing (with the engine at 1800 rpm, and burning 8 liters per
hour), making 7.5 knots, with 850 miles to go, and 850 liters of fuel
available for motoring.....do the math.....we either need some good wind for
about 36 hours, or we will be stopping at the bottom of the Bay, at Little
Creek, for fuel! The sail up the Bay is 125 miles, and about 18 hours.
But for now we enjoy another really beautiful day......last night on watch
EVERY STAR IN THE SKY WAS CLEARLY VISIBLE....and we have not seen another
boat or ship or land for 3 full days!! Signing off, Captain Mike.