Day 11 Noon Thursday 3rd December

What a day !

Today the skipper decided that if people wanted to swim mid Atlantic over 1,000 miles from the nearest land now was the time to do it. The sea was relatively calm by Atlantic standards (about 1 metre swell) and the forecast was for stronger winds and bigger waves. If they left it for a couple of days then the Caribbean would be less than 1,000 miles away.

Just as people were stirring from their various night watches and skipper was trying to get them in the water, the line started screaming off the fishing reel again. So much for swimming. It took about an hour to slow the boat down, reel in the fish  and gaff it aboard. But what a beauty – a 25 pound tuna – solid muscle and should feed the 6 of us at least 2 dinners and 2 lunches each. Nice one Benji.

It took another hour of production line people gutting, scaling, cleaning and getting portions into the fridge. Some was left raw, some fried for later and some turned into Sushi.

Finally about 1300 the jobs were done and skipper stopped the boat. We then had a glorious hour messing about in the water 1,000 miles from anywhere. It was very warm, very blue and very, very deep. Another ambition achieved.

Back on board and it was Sushi for lunch prepared by Tyara and Benji. They’re turning into really useful crew. Thanks guys.

Can’t wait for the evening meal – wonder what it’s going to be?