Decimalised fish!

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 8 Oct 2011 10:22
Saturday 8th October 0933 UTC 1033 BST   
 
12:19.97N 020:32.76W
 
Wind: NNW 6.8 Knots, COG 043 Deg True, SOG 3.8 Knots
 
Have you ever been to Dakar? I am currently pointing there and atthis rate I will get there in two and a half days.....
 
Oh well. Yestderday the sea became oily smooth. I got the fishing gear out. Then I caught just what I was hoping for a beautiful fresh effervescent Mahi Mahi!
I took it down to the galley and layed it out. These things are spectacular and as the life fades out of them so to does the incredible colours of green, yellow and blue.
It was bigger than i thought and you are after his story goingto think it was bigger than it was. I layed it out on the galley counter top and measured it it was 32". What a perfect fish! Now 32" is more or less 3 foot isn't it? Three foot is a yard and for those of you who think metric we can call that a Metre. Those of you who remember decimalisation from the early 70's or who have fishermen as friends know this phenomenon very well.
 
So there you have it, with my "decimalised" 1 Metre Mahi Mahi I got to work. Now at this job I can tell you that some of the best surgeons in the world, if they could see my work, would sign up for lessons. The head, tail and guts still attached to a "1 metre" transluscent frame, were depatched over the side and back into the food chain. Then 14 lovely fillets were removed with a precision the butcher who took my appendix out when I was 14 can only imagine. 
 
Six fillets were frozen - 30 minutes after waltzing with my hook. Four went into the fridge and the four tail fillets and two trimmings were cut up and eaten raw! Raw with some lemon juice and a wee bit of lime as that was lying around quietly begging to be immersed in a gin and tonic, sesame oil, soy sauce and the best of the lot a dollop of hot chilli oil from that old woman I met in the north of Fiji who made and gave me a bottle of her home brew. So at the hinder end of the day, as a very happy fisherman I sat up in the cockpit and with a few crackers ate the four sushied fillets and damn it yes, I had a fine glass of Sauvignon too!
 
As the sunset came I lay on the foredeck to put some distance between me and the engine who were beginning to tire of each other. I lay and read and thought I must be one of the most fortunate people alive. I considered sleeping there and it was very tempting as the gentle swish of our bow wave was intoxicating  - or was it the sauvignon. Whatever.
 
I decided against it though as I may not hear the radar alarm from out there. If dozing and a ship was bearing down on me it would be too late by the time its flared bow blanked out the moonfilled and starry night sky, which incidentally Orion as expected has been overseeing us.
 
At about 0500 this morning however there was a flutter of breeze with lifted my heavy eyelids. It flittered, flickered and steadied. At seven knots from the NW initially. I was immediate best friends with it and introduced it to my big genoa. That carried us along at about 6 knots but too far off course as it is really a downwind sail. The wind then picked up a knot or two and I got the Jib out and came 5 degrees or so onto the course though a little slower. It is quite incredible how a big boat like Rhiann Marie sails so well in light airs. Even with my sails, which anyway are only cruising sails and well past their best.
 
Oh! and that fuel problem or faulty guage? Not a bit of it. I switched over tanks after 66 hours of steaming and still have some left, and I checked back my log book to the Sri Lankan experience when we had 42 hours and ran out. Now I can say that about 10% of that reduction in consumption is due to me running at 1900 revs but that still leaves a 50% difference in consumption. I have my own theiories on this but will be interested to hear from anybody who has a credible explanation for this.  
 
And there we have it, we are now pointing at Dakar lopping along at about 3.9 knots just now. Dakar however is not where I want to go. I think however we are starting to see some gradient wind starting to fill in and this is a good wee practice for the next 7 days which I will spend beating into the wind. Refresh myself on how to tease every last morsel of forward momentum out of this beauty.    
 
There is now of course a lot more traffic around as expected and the Canary based Spanish fishing fleet are all around the area. Of course they have no AIS and I am not getting visuals on them - nor am I picking them up on the radar at the moment but I can hear them non stop talking to each other on the VHF.
 
I also will start to meet ships heading south round the Cape and their deranged night "officers" of the watch. One came on to an unidentified ship last night and started the "baiting" by playing excerpts from some wacky music over the VHF. Last night he had no takers but I know over the next week we are going to get to farmyard noises, possibly simulated sexula orgasms, and calls and taunts to monkey boy filipino - or has so much changed since I passed this way two years ago? I doubt it and will report to you over the next week.
 
The unfortunate thing about all of this however is that sleep and I are going to become distant cousins over the next week. Hey ho!
 
Now by way of justification for my fatigue induced inability to poof-read my e-mails before sending them, just have a raed of tihs:
 
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. Deu to the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by  istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? 
  
Quote of the day:- Go as far as you can see; when you get there you will be able to see farther. - Thomas Carlyle, Essayist & Historian