The one that didn't get away
Kalandia Web Diary
Bill Peach
Fri 27 Nov 2009 06:11
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Its Now Thursday evening and Kalandia is on a broad
reach under a very bright moon high in the sky. We have removed the Bimini so we
can enjoy the night sky while at the helm (well sitting in the cockpit having a
coffee). Last night was the first night we didn't need to wear a jacket at all
it was 26 deg C all night. PERFECT
At long last Rich got his tackle out and put my
Pink Squid from my tackle box on the end of the line with dramatic results. Just
as it was getting dark the reel started screaming as a large fish bit
Pinky. It took 30 mins to reel it in to the boat at which point, after one
look at Rich, it managed to get off the hook and away. So, as you can
imagine, Rich and I were really pumped up and ready for the next battle.
At dawns crack this morning we got pinky out again and within 30
minutes had an Atlantic Mackerel about 50 cms long on the Deck - first strike
for Kalandia. I then used my new fish filleting skills and had it in the pan and
on the breakfast table in a jiffy. the fish that is!
Light winds for most of the day and a lumpy
sea had us spending lots of time playing with the rig and sails. While Bll tried
to fix the sat mail system Rich and I
manage to take some Sextant readings of the sun in order to get a Sun run Sun
fix in the traditional way. In a lumpy see its about 10 times harder than
rubbing your tummy and patting your head while riding a bike on a beach. Any way
we did it and over the next 2 days we will try and work out where we were at
four oclock this afternoon. Well you have to learn sometime, Rich has
nearly got it sorted but I think Shackleton would have found my attempts
highly amusing.
Love to all back home
Dick
Now the truth: Now "we" have caught a fish it
is of course his Pinky,he wouldn't let me go near it before in case I was too
rough with it and it got broken. Dick has been carefully explaining how when we
caught a fish he would administer alchohol directly into the gills which would
dispatch it instantly, he even bought a bottle of cheap stuff in the Canaries
especially for the task including scouring the shops for a water pistol
which would be used to ensure accuracy. So, after I had bravely battled this
fish for a while and safely landed it, I was ready to witness the master apply
the alchohol and imagine my dissapointment when he beat it to death with a winch
handle!
The race is on (and always was) we have learnt
that we are leading our class and doing pretty well overall. Tonight we
are practicing sailing at 120 degrees "up in the lulls and down when the
pressure comes on". As Dick has said it is a very nice evening but we
would like another 5 knts of consistent breeze please. We are
cuurently at 21.40 N 27.04 W,approx 260 Nm NNW of Cape Verdes, Africa is 600
miles behind us and St Lucia is 1990 Nm away hopefully all downwind. Bill
and Liz are sleeping (its 21.20 UT) as they are on from 24:00 to 06:00 and Dick
is about to go down to our snoring laboratory, I will then get a peacefull
3 hours just me and the moon, sailing the angles!
Take care
Richard
After the world of 'fish tales' according to
Richard and Dick the more mundane world of running the boat continued
alongside. The cockpit resembled a chinese laundry at times after some major
clothes washing sessions, then rummaging through the food lockers using Colonel
Manders locations spreadsheet to find the allocated food for the day. The
problems with the sat phone now seem resolved (hence the emails to update the
blog have worked) although rather frustratingly I still do not not know what I
did to fix it!. To avoid damaging the fresh fruit we keep it net hammocks in the
forward cabin, and have to check every day to see if any fruit has gone off, so
far we have had to get rid of three bits of fruit before it effects the rest of
the fruit in the hammock. Anyway its nice to have the fresh stuff.
We are now on the Great Circle course directly to St Lucia, having come south as far as we
need to pick up the trade winds, although at the moment the winds are not quite
as strong as we would like
Bill
a bit later.....
the winds have picked up nicely. We havea
more consistent 20 knots and doing 9 - 10 knots of speed
Liz
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