Sunday 10^th May - As of midnight day-17 we were at position 8:12.76S 123:13.16W

 It was about 4PM when the reel went, it really took off as the spool started loosing line so quickly that I hardly had enough time to furl the front sail, pull in the tow generator and snap the drag lever down onto full before the line had run out to almost nothing.

To give you an idea of this fishes power as the drag on the reel is set to full I can just pull out the line but I need something to push off so I new what I had must be a Tuna as not a lot of other fish take off like they do. Patiently I waited for it to tire which felt like a whole eternity watching the line smaller and smaller until it stopped which was my queue to wind. At first it was not so bad however the moment I got the fish near the surface it took off again, it just did not want to come up and can you blame it. We had not had a decent feed of fish for a couple of weeks and I was not going to loose this meal ticket.

As I continued to fight I began to tire myself, it was either the fish or me I though so I never gave up struggling  to wind it in onboard, I clicked the reel down into low gear which is the first time I have ever had to do so to keep winding. My fishing reel has sort of a gear system inside it like the front gears on a mountain bike I guess and I was very happy to have it. As the silvery flash made its way to the surface the huge Tuna gave up and patiently weighted for me to stick the gaff hook through its guts and haul it up onboard.

This little monster was a good 35 pounds and I really struggled to lift him onboard. I guess the most important thing a gift from below at such an hour meant that it was a fresh fillet of Tuna for dinner, as much as you can eat.

Day 290

Destination – Marquesas Passage Day 17

Traveling Direction – West

Average Speed – 5.3

Total distance – 125 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 24h