Course 250 (ish - we and the wind are all over the place this afternoon)

 

 

 

I've had all the white sail up since late evening yesterday, winds got to 10 kts and then went a bit light and flukey.  Should have put the engine on but I'm out here to sail so persisted overnight and this morning as the wind shifted and various fronts (with rain which was a pain  as I'm getting used to living in sunshine) went through.  I'd planned to mgo north when the westerleys came and tried it a couple of times but the boat didnt like the wave pattern on that tack and so I moved south of the rhumb line - but it's all progress.  Now had on a NW and going well.  Will reef tonight, even if the wind hasnt got up as it should be going to a 20 kt northerly and I dont want the hassle of dealing with that in the dark if I can avoid it.

 

I crossed paths with a cable laying ship last night, the only folk I've seen since leaving the TSS Monday night.  They were calling to demand a 5 mile exclusion zone whilst they crawled south at 1mph.  I think towards Madeira but they didn't want to talk about it.  They kept me up when I should have been catching 40 winks as the winds were variable and I had to be sure that I didnt get too close.  Notiing and no-one seen since.

 

Right, fish.

I have to say that Noel Edmonds might be on to something with this cosmic ordering business.  Picture the scene.  It's pm and I have lit the stove and set up the pressure cooker to cook a gammon joint that will get me through the next few days.  Just as I'm about to cut the packaging, I hear the reel running away and know that we might not be eating gammon after all. 
Mad scramble into cockpit with lifejacket to clip on and it's off with engine, free sails and away we go.

I'm no Robson Green but we had the usual trials and tribulations of the fight, including that very satisfying part where you get the fish close and then he dives away with the real streaming out more line.  But long story, short is that I pulled in a fine tuna on the gaff and then got the hell out of the cockpit as he went banzai in the enclosed space.  He was firmly caught by both hooks so I think this was only going to end in my favour.  After he settled a bit I opened a bottle of navy rum and splashed a slug into his gills. 

No idea on weight but 23 inches long, 7 inches deep and has yellow fins.  So until the brains trust inspect the pictures when I get to wifi then I'm going with yellow fin tuna.

Butchered in the cockpit with 4 excellent loins and I need tuna meal suggestions because I have a load in the fridge.  I started with fried tuna on a bed of rice with onion, red pepper and lemon juice (good call on the lemons, Tim)  

Oh - and the gammon was going out of date so have cooked that in the pressure cooker this afternoon so have a ton of that to get through too.

 

Texts.

 

Mum - glad you have the veggies for my fish ! Dorado are 18 inches up.  Good eating but Tuna is better.

Dave S - Yep 100m did the job.  Tell Alf that I'm 1 up on him this week

Em - Bet that week off cant come soon enough.  Glad all's well and look forward to talking in a few days.

 

I'm getting quite a few texts through that come up as "incompatible message format".  Iridium doesnt like links or anything other than plain text so if i havent responded to your message that is probably the reason why.  Anyone who takes the trouble to text me gets a namecheck.  And thanks to those that do.