37:01.441N 76:20.484W

October 31 Wednesday 21:00

The sun finally made its appearance and we sorely needed that after losing it last Thursday. It was a bright sunny morning with blue skies but with still a chill in the air. The wind was calm. We continued tying the loose ends related to the “Safety Inspection” we had yesterday; minor stuff that we took care of before going to the “seminar on fishing” in the Gulf Stream; it was quite an entertaining presentation made by a veteran of this rally residing in St. Thomas. Apparently fish are aplenty out there and anxious to be caught without much effort on the sailors’ part except trailing a hook that could be disguised as bait by most anything, even attached strips of plastic garbage bags! Main problem seems to be to come up with a coherent plan of how to deal with the fish once you wrestle it on to the deck. The time honored recommendation of bludgeoning apparently is not very effective in immobilizing these large denizens of the Gulf Stream (one couple caught a five foot yellow fin Tuna) . He said that the quickest way of putting an end to the wrestling match between the catcher and the caught is spurting a healthy amount of a swig of the catchers favorite liquor into each gill of the caught. This, he said, is about the only job on the boat the crew fights over! He also taught us how to fillet the fish and cook it and warned us all about “ciguatera” poisoning (caused by a bunch of neurotoxins that originate in coral algae and eventually end up in the larger fish like grouper and snappers up the food chain in and around the reefs) that could lead to long term ill effects. But this should not be an issue in fish caught in deep waters of the Gulf Stream. We left the Seminar all fired up about fishing and went straight to a large “Bass Pro”, hunting store, to equip ourselves with the necessary gear (People in Virginia are serious about their hunting gear!). The Skipper and I were like kids in a candy store. This could be my favorite hangout after Home Depot and REI. Even the Skipper was in a spending mood and we splurged on all sorts of gear, lines, hooks, lures swivels etc. The Skipper said that “this is money well spent”. I think there will be no fish left in the Gulf Stream once we get through…