Engine on.

 

Good sailing for the latter part of yesterday as the seas settled but the wind went with forecast so we were increasing our sail area through the night to the point where at about 5am we couldnt maintain 4 kts so the engine went on.  It looks set to stay on till early Friday if the forecast we had on Monday night holds true and we will get an updated grib file to check this when we send and receive messages this evening. 

 

We have also taken the anchor off the bow as we hope not to be needing this for about another 1000 miles.

 

We are back in the cockpit but its not warm and we are wearing jumpers which is disappointing given how far south we are now.

 

As we are outdoors and the sea is calmer then there is more on the nature front.  The day started with us seeing a waterspout in the distance along a line of clouds to the north.  We thought this odd and were keeping watch as god knows what happens to a boat if a waterspout goes over it and then saw 2 more closer to the boat.  At this point the penny dropped.  Not weather events in the far distance but whales blowing near the boat.  Never saw the whales, saw them spouting several times.

 

And to round off.  An epic fishermans' tale.  The rod is / was out once we were under motor and we have a bloody great squid lure with huge hooks training 150m behind the boat.  A big tuna took the bait mid morning and Tim was fighting him in for 10 minutes.  We know he was a big tuna because we got it up to the side of the boat and within touching distance (I've got some great video for you Dave Smart) but he got off the hook before we could gaff him.   It was a good 1m long and Tim reckons it was a good 35lbs on the basis of previous catches.  Never mind ! It was probably too much fish for us to eat as the fridge is pretty small on Fettler.  We are ready for the next one !

 

Jez and Tim