The one that didn't get away.

Nowcrew
Tue 22 Nov 2005 14:38
Day 2, the wind
dropped overnight - we found ourselves completely becalmed, no heroics here, on
came the iron-sail (the engine for the non-yachties). We had it running for 25
hours in the end while we turned west and took a direct course for St.Lucia.
Moving away from the African coast to search for wind and avoid
pirates!
During that time out
came the shorts as we all dried out from the previous evening under a cloudless
blue sky.
At mid-day there was
a may-day broadcast over the SSB radio one of our fleet a smaller boat named
Leonie 11 was sinking. Unfortunately we were too far away to help (about 60
miles), however another boat was able to make it to the casualty within 20
minutes and help them bail out and stem the leak. In turn Las Palmas SAR
centre sent out a helicopter and dropped a man with a pump. The problem was
temporarily solved and the boat returned to Palma to properly solve the
problem.
It was really
comforting to hear the way the fleet rallied together to help and the
professionalism of Yacht Northern Child in coordinating the
net.
In the afternoon the
fishing rod came out, within an hour we caught this beauty!

A 20lb
Dorada/Dolphinfish or Mahi Mahi. Bails reeled it in while Andy proceeded to kill
it with a claw hammer a macabre death but very quick. Charlie and Nicko did
a fantastic job filleting it, apparently Charlie worked in a fishmonger
when he was younger - a hidden talent!
The fish
is currently in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch.
We had a wonderful
spaghetti bolognaise cooked by Simon apparently his Mama's
recipe.
Then it was the
first showing of "24 episode one on the DVD" player and off for an easy
nights watch rota 2 hours on 6 -off 2 hours on 6 off
gorgeous!
We've found that
simple text only emails come through the system pretty quickly, so if anyone
fancies sending one then the address is: nowcrew {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com - we all get
pretty excited when we get mail!