We're fishing...
Viridian
Mon 15 Apr 2024 21:58
SOG: 7.1 kn
COG: 330T
Wind Speed: 5.9 kn
Wind Direction: 276T
Distance to go: 831nm
At the moment we are crossing the Wanganella Bank which is at the end of the West Norfolk Ridge. There are several sea mounts here, one of which comes up to within 100m of the surface, so it is a veritable undersea mountain range when the depths around here in the Norfolk Basin are generally between 2000-4000m.
The current is still running at 1.5 knots (against us, sadly) so it will be hitting these obstructions and my understanding is that this should bring nearer to the surface some of the krill and other food that normally hides in the lower depths…and their predators will likely follow them to this area. I have bought a new pink squid after my last one (the lucky one!) was taken by something bigger than I would have wanted to catch and the sharpness of the hook on my orange squid was criticised by both of my fishing friends, Peter and Dale. They are both experts, Peter was a professional fisherman, so i heeded their advice and spent more on a lure than 2kg of tuna would have cost. Fingers crossed that it can live up to its predecessor's performance.
I would really like to catch a wahoo, a mahi-mahi, or a tuna of some sort. All are good eating fish and manageable. I definitely do not want a marlin - they were catching some absolute monsters in Tauranga whilst we were there and even a small one can be dangerous - as we discovered on our Atlantic crossing. Our transom still carries the scars from its beak.
Regarding the passage, there is a massive area of high pressure in the Tasman Sea and we are to the south of it, so we are still motoring north west in light westerly winds. I expect to reach its core tonight when I will be able to turn to the west. According to the forecast, if i continue motoring west tomorrow I should get into some stronger more favourable winds by the evening. It’s a lot of motoring, glad we filled up before we left.