06:45S 108:00W

 

I know it’s boring to write about wind and weather but that remains the principle item on the agenda on Lovesail.  Since the last blog, we had wind and some lovely sailing under blue skies with decent daily mileages.  But now the wind has deserted us again and we are going 2-3 knots.  At least it’s calm, quiet and very relaxed.  The wind will come, and probably too much of it.

No more whales, and no fishing success but we did hook another marlin!  This one was even more huge that the previous one.  I don’t know how to estimate size and weight but our guess is that it was going on for 400 lbs, leaping out of the water, shaking its heard violently to get rid of the lure before returning to the sea with a huge splash.  What a monster.  Of course it ended the same way as the previous one: marlin breaks line and swims off; we lose yet another lovely lure!  If only we could catch a nice mahi mahi for dinner.

We lost sight of our fellow fleet yachts some time ago but yesterday a sail appeared on the horizon and radio contact made: a Norwegian couple, just 25 years old, in a 35 ft yacht on their way to the Marquesas (where else).  And later that day one of our fleet closes up on us so that tonight there are two lights about us in addition to the billion stars.  It’s a new moon, which is to say no moon, and great for star gazing.  But looking at the southern hemisphere one is struck by how little there is in the way of interesting constellations.  It’s as if the stars were just arranged randomly and all of a rather similar intensity.  How lucky we are to have the great Northern sky to stare at at home with the ancient constellations looking down on us.  But the Southern Cross is a big exception and it’s a pleasure to see it hanging, low in the sky, night after night.

Yes, we are awake and on watch at night, naturally.  With the four of us on board we have a revised watch system which seems to be working well: one person is off watch duty each day.  Instead they are responsible for preparing meals and generally keeping the boat clean and tidy.  The remaining three of us do 4 hours on, 8 hours off, meaning that we each do one day watch and one night watch during a 24 hour period.  There’s plenty of time to catch up on sleep and we all get together for lunch and dinner.  Happy crew!

 

M