Valentine's Day, Crossing the Equator and the Fish that Got Away
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 14 Feb 2008 18:35
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00:00.001N 81:21.716W
It's Valentine's Day and there will be no sappy
cards, no red roses and worst of all, no giant two pound heart-shaped box of
chocolates. Instead, we are hoping for a fish. My, how priorities
change when on a boat one hundred miles from shore on the Pacific
Ocean.
Specifically, we are hoping for a nice mahi-mahi
fish. Between yesterday and today, Don has caught no less than four very
nice mahi-mahi fish. One in particular was huge. What we saw of it
anyway, before it performed a triple back flip, double twist somersault
move that resulted in freedom and a narrow escape from our Valentine's Day
dinner table. All the mahi-mahi in this area must know each other and keep
in close contact because each of the four that Don has caught have performed
this same triple back flip, double twist somersault freedom move just when Don
is getting ready to haul them aboard. The most recent mahi-mahi Don caught
was this morning at 10:20, just before we crossed the equator. Don reeled
the fish in such that it was only a few feet away and we could see it just below
the surface of the water (like blue fin tuna, mahi-mahi is also a beautiful
translucent blue color). Just as Don was making the final move with the
fishing pole to get the fish out of the water, the triple back flip, double
twist somersault freedom move happened again and the mahi-mahi swam merrily
away. We decided this particular mahi-mahi was a northern hemisphere fish
and desperately did not want to cross over the equator into the southern
hemisphere, therefore it made a mighty effort and succeeded with the freedom
move employed by its friends earlier today and yesterday. Maybe the
southern hemisphere mahi-mahi haven't heard about the triple back flip, double
twist somersault freedom move and there is still hope for a Valentine's Day /
Equator Crossing Day celebration dinner complete with fresh mahi-mahi and the
champagne we have waiting in the refrigerator.
The bad thing about all of this fish catching (or
not catching as the case may be) stuff is that it is really hard work to
reel these mega fish in. Don estimates that the big mahi-mahi was about 35
pounds and the other three were between 15 and 25 pounds. The fishing line
he uses is 100 pound test and the fishing pole and reel are of the heavy duty
ocean fishing variety. When a fish is on the line, we slow the boat down
to about three knots and Don slowly reels in the fish, the line straining and
the pole bending enough that it looks like it could snap at any moment.
All of this requires a mighty effort since these fish are very stubborn
(and talented as described above). Each 'reeling in' episode takes about
20-30 minutes, which wouldn't be so bad if there was still a fish on the hook
when the end of the line reached the deck. Those of you that know Don will
not be surprised to learn that he is very perplexed by this stubborn fish
syndrome, and has repeatedly gone back to the ocean fishing books we have on
board in search of information on the recommended counter move to the
triple back flip, double twist somersault freedom move that continues to thwart
his best efforts to supply us a fish for Valentine's Day. Hopefully this
story will end happily for us and unhappily for the next mahi-mahi that ventures
our way.
Our equator crossing went smoothly. It
happened at precisely 10:47 this morning and we didn't even stumble on the big,
bold red line that marks the equator as we motored over it. I did get a
picture of our GPS display as we were crossing into the southern hemisphere and
plan to post it along with some other pictures from this sailing leg (or
motoring leg as the case may be) when we arrive in Ecuador. Speaking
of which, we are currently about 120 miles from our destination in Ecuador, and
plan to arrive there sometime early tomorrow morning (preferably after the sun
makes an appearance - we've heard that other rally boats have found themselves
caught in a fishing net when approaching the shore of Ecuador - we plan to avoid
all fishing nets...we don't think our boat is capable of performing the triple
back flip, double twist somersault freedom move that the fish seem to have
mastered).
We left the Doldrums behind yesterday and were able
to sail for almost the whole day and night. Unfortunately, the wind was
not cooperating fully, so we didn't make much headway. Just before the
equator crossing this morning, the wind decided to die again and we are motoring
along almost directly south. The next blog entry should be from sunny
Ecuador tomorrow (Friday).
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!
Anne and Don
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