We left Jolly Harbour on Thursday 7 mid morning and edged our way carefully out of the channel in 3,2m of water, through the Caribbean Blue anchorage and out to sea. After several weeks of anchoring and short hops we had to get the boat fully ready for the ocean passage back into the North Atlantic, leaving the Topics through the Sargasso Sea (a sea with no shores like the Sea of Tranquillity on the moon) into a sub tropical climate and wearing clothes again.

 

The first 24 hours were quite boisterous in 20kts of wind, but we ate up the miles and were able to make our rhum line north through the trade winds. As we were still in shallow water, at 40m, I put out the fishing lines and within 30 mins had a fish as dusk was setting, not wanting to repeat the last episode of catching 2 monsters we pulled in the other line before landing this one.

 

We were unsure of how safe the fish was, as we were only 8M off Barbuda and were concerned about the poisonous disease Ciguatera. The tests are, a cat wonât eat it (we have no shipâs cat) ants wonât walk on it (fortunately we have no ants stowed away) and the third is to touch the raw liver on your tongue to see if it tingles, which means the fish is not safe to eat.

 

Although he fought well, we brought the fish on deck and into the bomb bay easily, Suzanne is now the Gaffer (official). She then filleted it, but as I removed the hook, we both agreed he didnât smell right, so not being able to identify some dangly bit of liver to taste we threw him back in the ogin, a shame as we always eat what we catch.

 

Should be in around 13 April depending if there is any wind in the Horse Latitudes and then on what gets kicked off the Eastern Seaboard