Blog for today day 55 Thursday 15:36.23N 36:51.20W
Voyage of Wanderingstar
Ben Bonnick
Thu 30 Nov 2017 07:21
Sleeping is much more comfortable and the days of kipping out in the cockpit, head rested against the spray hood are gone on account of better and more predictable weather conditions and absence of other shipping. I sleep in the cabin and set the alarm for every 2 hours. When the alarm goes off I have a quick check outside, confirm course and speed and within 5 mins I’m usually back in bed. Some nights like tonight I stay up and watch the night sky, as it’s so peaceful the stars and moon are out tonight and the air is warm, Wandering Star gently swaying from side to side at a constant 4.5 knots with the windvane in control, continuing her journey mile after mile with never a complaint.
This is the story of how I acquired the fish…..
It was Tuesday afternoon about 5pm when I looked to my stern and noticed another sailing boat behind me. As I watched over the next couple of hours I noticed it was getting closer. There was no id on my plotter so I wasn’t able to confirm size or speed and there was a slight anxiety that here I was in the middle of the Atlantic and they could be anybody. By this stage it was starting to get dark so I switched on my navigation lights and decided to contact them on the radio. I had a long conversation with the other skipper and found out that they were French he was and travelling with is wife and I think daughter to the Caribbean island of Martinique on a delivery.
He then carried on chatting asking about my plans and then asked if I wanted some fish as he had had a good days fishing. I said yes and to my amazement he said ok he will sail up close and then for me to manoeuvre up to him and he would pass the fish across. It was dark and quite a swell and as he came close I could see that this was a 47 foot catamaran looking very slick and had to be at worth at least £400k - £500k. In fact I learned it was brand new. I was close enough to shout out and said I was concerned about damaging his boat and he just said it will be fine and I manoeuvred as close as I dare. After the third attempt I was no more than 5 foot away he and his wife were on the deck he had his flood lights on and he said he would throw the fish it across to me which he did and it landed perfectly in my sail bag and there was a great cheer from both sides. We both veered off and then congratulated each other on the radio before departing our separate ways……it was about an hour later when I thought to myself what a strange thing to have happened…