Day 11 - 12th June - Rocking and Rolling

SY Saphir -
Jeff & Doreen
Mon 13 Jun 2022 12:10
06:17S 118:36W

Noon to noon yesterday of 158.6 nm which is fairly consistent and around 6.5kts

As predicted the wind increased around 18.00 yesterday and has been a pretty consistent 15-16 knots from the ESE so the progress has been better but the seas have started to build up a bit and hence the title “Rocking and Rolling” It is a bit more Atlantic style now. However we are not complaining…

I know you will think that I spend a lot of the time talking about food in my blog, but dinner is one of the focal points of the day out here. So yesterday to celebrate being halfway apart from the breakfast which was only one part of it, we watched a DVD in the afternoon and I cooked the remaining fresh meat that we had saved which was two fillet steaks. We had it with roasted vegetables, sautéed potatoes and cabbage.

Now we definitely do need to catch some fish if we are not going to live off tins and therein does lie a problem!

It would seem there is no doubt that I am a better sailor than a fisherman - After dragging a lure all of yesterday and getting no bites I forgot about the line out the back and did not pull it in for the night. At about 05.15 this morning the line started to run out quickly and the ratchet clicking on the reel brought me to my senses. I managed to get the brake on the reel and took the rod out of the holder and started to reel it in. All went well for about 10 minutes until the line went slack and whatever it was obviously had released itself. I reeled it in and fortunately had not lost the lure so all was well. I put the line back out this morning and went about my jobs again to be alerted by the line running out VERY quickly this time. By the time I got the brake on there was not much of the new 50Lb line left on the reel that I have only just wound on there. This was one heavy fish and I suppose I should have stopped the boat because we were sailing at about 7 knots or so at the time. Anyway I struggled with it and instead of the fish coming to me the line was going to it until it got to the point where I had joined my new line to the existing line on the reel and the fish won!! He got 100m of 50lb line and a really nice lure and hook. Will re-rig tomorrow and start again but I suspect that tins might be the order of the day. I might just be able to rustle up a Vegetable curry with some fresh odds and end we have left!! To be continued…..

While we are on the subject of fish one of the hazards at night is the amount of flying fish that land on the boat and occasionally in the cockpit, however we do not normally get that many during the day. Well that changed today. I was woken from my afternoon nap to the sound of my wife advising me not so quietly that we had a flying fish in the cockpit. I guess getting rid of flying fish must be defined as a “blue” job because she seems to be quite happy just to watch it lose all of its scales over the newly cleaned cockpit cushions. This one was lucky fish asI managed to get him back over the side still alive. Most of them are in the advanced stages of rigger by the time we get to them in the morning some with wings open and some closed. I did try and eat one once in my early days but it took more energy to get the bones out of your mouth than you got from the fish….

Overall Another good day in the Pacific.

Until tomorrow

Cheers
Saphir.