Tuesday  22  June, 2015

North Atlantic Ocean 45.55.4N 22 46.5W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: BST; UTC +1)

Still trying to keep ahead of the cold front approaching from our stern we are now on a rolly beam reach in a Force 5-6  southerly.

We are going quite quickly, for us, 200+ miles in the last 24 hours, but once the front passes through (or, possibly, dissipates before it gets to us)  the wind will be light and variable for 36-48 hours before the next east bound depression makes contact with us.  (in these lattitudes, depressions have something in common with No19 buses - - there’s always another one behind!)

All is well on board. There’s not much to see – the occasional tanker or freighter, the odd Cory Shearwater but no yachts and still  no whales!  

And It is getting cooler: the water temperatures is now 14-15^oC – and the air temperature not much better unless the sun is shining.  SOMEBODY was wearing his long trounsers last night and somebody else,  his whole thermal romper suit! And the cold front has not yet reached us …………….

Fishing

We havent celbrated our success in the fishing department for some time;  so here is an update.

By way of background, we have probably landed (well, ‘boated’)  less than 20 fish during our circumnavigation – that is perhaps  2,300 miles sailed per fish caught!  (So,  it’s a good job that we don’t rely on our catch in lieu of provisions in the freezer! - - Ed)

We have had many, many  more bites, but either the fish has got off the hook or the gear has failed in some way.  In New Caledonia and the Indian Ocean in particular, we hooked a number of what felt like big fish but failed to boat them as a result of a series of gear failures: fixings/knots/toggles that didn’t work or the fishing line that broke (more likely from UV damage than the size of the fish).   So in Cape Town, we took expert advice from a tackle shop.  Not  suprisingly, were sold new tackle – including an absurdly expensive, but assuredly very necessary, new reel.   We were also shown how to tie knots that are both easy and effective  …. and he also reommended 100lb breaking strain line!

In the circa 12,500 miles since we left Cape Town, we have trailed a lure behind us whenever practicable tie onto an absurdly expensive reel with easy and effective knots in our 100lb line. We have however continued to lose tackle – mainly lures – and we have had a couple of hooks straightened - but we have been “spooled” only once in that period -  now that we have learned to tie the line in such a way that even if all the line goes out it remains attached to the rod.  We also now tie the rod to the boat – just in case we have to ‘let go’ in the course of fighting the fish.  

Out tally since Cape Tow n? In that period, we have ‘boated’ a staggering total of just three fish: a White Jack and  a deicious Blue Fin Tuna in the South Atlantic and a Barracuda on passage to Bermuda.  We ate the first two (you may recall the Blue Fin  was delicious) and chucked the Barracuda overboard for fear of ciguatuera - a rather nasty poison/disease which baracuda are prone to carry and which, trust me, you don’t want to get – so over the side it went. 

It’s not usually worth fishing on a short passage nor  if you know you are going to be travelling at >8kts; (In our experience you are more likely to spear an hapless fish through its dorsal fin than it have the speed to catch up and take your lure, however compelling or attractive that lure may be!).  But if we have trailed a lure ….. and then the  boat speeds  ….. we generally leave it out … just in case.   On the present passage, we had been trailing a lure since we motored gently out of Flores last Friday; on Sunday  we got a couple of bites but the fish got off before we could get to the rod, let alone reel it in.  We speculated that this may have been because the lure had only one hook on it. So yesterday morning, I changed the lure for something a little bigger but which had a significantly larger and stronger double hook on it.

Just before lunch we got a bite.   Now, we were travelling at >8kts.  The line went fizzing out - it was clear that whatever was attached to the end was BIG!  By the time I reached the rod (which by then  was bent prety much through 90 degrees) the fish had already taken all of the fishing line – and we had reached “the end of the line“  - but the line was securely looped and knotted (that knot) around the middle of the spool so it wasn’t going anywhere – eerrr ….. not on its own anyway.   Just as I reached for the rod,  the the stand in which the rod sits (which is bolted to the push-pit metalwork)  failed.

The rod was launched over the stern; the safety – the safety line parted and the whole lot - rod, reel,  line hook and sinker - disappeared from view over the stern – attached to what must,  clearly,  have been a HUGE fish (well, huge for us, anyway)!  As an aside,  the rod is suppoed to float and we briefly countenanced the idea of turnimg back to try to find it …. One look at the condiftions led us quickly to ‘discountenance’ it. 

So there is now a faily sizable fish in the North Atlantic which, having bitten off more than it could chew, is destined to swim around buoyed up by a fishing rod on the end of about 500 metres of 100lb line.  ………..   I bet it rather wishes we had ‘boated’ it.  Ho hum!

Still that at least eliminates one area of future disappointment.  We cannot lament  fish we cannot catch  …..  if we do not fish for!