hgAn alternative Title to this Missive might be “The One that Didn’t Get Away!”

But first, a round up of day two. It was a good second 24 hour period with some 171nm covered. For part of which I have to confess we used our secret sail, AKA Perkins. The winds had died to nothing last night and we had put the second reef in the Main sail in anticipation of strong winds over night. These in fact did not materialise until around 10 45 this morning. The day itself was warm and sunny (most of the time) and we were blessed with a serious intervention by a Dolphin Patrol. To cries of “Dolphin alert,  Dolphin alert,”  we raced to the bows to watch the spectacle.

This picture was the best I managed after some 25 minutes and taking over 47 pictures of this pod. There were between 20 and 30 Dolphins and it was a bit like the Gerry Rafferty song, with the words…….. “Jokers to the left of us, jokers to the right, stuck in the middle with you”.  It was a thoroughly up lifting experience, and just what we both needed as neither of us had slept the night before and were feeling a bit jaded.

WE were also entertained by a magnificent sunset, which we hoped would bode well for the next day (today).

    “Red Sky at Night……………”

But the high point of this last 24 hour period occurred a little after dawn this morning.  I had decide to try my hand at fishing, as one of the experts on this matter , I had talked to in Gibraltar, had said that dawn and dusk were the best times to catch Dorado. So time to put it to the test!!

At around 0830 I heard the reel on the fishing rod start screaming, as it let go the line under brake. This time I had the tension set to 15lbs, so I was hoping the fish would not snap the line. As we were motor sailing at the time, we cut the engine, and I then proceed to reel in the fish as Jennie prepared the instruments of dispatch. This being on  the assumption I might actually land this one. The instrument of dispatch being a bottle cap fill of Gin. This should be administered into the gills, for an instant kill, or so we had been told.

   Nice Rod, shame about the hair………..well I was just out of bed!

After about 15 to 20 minutes the fish gave up and as we got it to the stern of the boat it became clear we had caught a magnificent Dorado. Quite a beautiful creature.

I hauled it onto the aft deck, and did my best to hold it down as it thrashed around all over the place, whilst Jennie attempted to place a cap full of the best Gordon’s in its gills. Not an easy matter,  on a heaving deck I can tell you!!

It became clear quite quickly that who ever said one cap of Gin makes for an instant kill was talking complete bollocks. It took about a quarter of a bottle to quell this 6 kilo beauty. I was quite jealous…………Goodness know how much Gin it would have taken to kill the monster that got away from us last month………………

  This beauty weighed in at 6 kilos and was over 70cm in length.

The other myth that we dispelled is that the application of Gin ensures you do not mess up your pristine teak decks with the fishes blood and guts. The aft deck looked like a scene from the “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”,  by the time we had dispatched it, and cleaned it. 

Jennie did a fantastic job of filleting it.  She had learned how to do that from Kevin at Moby Nicks fish mongers, in Dartmouth. (Thanks mate). But the fact she could do it on a moving deck in the Atlantic was cause for much praise.

    “Fancy a tot of Gin , Luv………….?”     (Just to give you the scale of the beast (no pun intended)).

The next fun item on the agenda was to decide what we were going to have for Diner tonight. And tomorrow night and the night after…………………………

It is windy now, with a NE force 6, and 3 to 4 metre waves. So, not all that comfortable. As soon as the crew gets out of bed we will have a go at getting the Genoa pole out once more,  and see if we can make a dead run for Lanzarote……..a mere 250nm to go.

Got to go now, I have a fish to eat……………………………