Cynthia the sqid strikes mahi...
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Fri 12 Aug 2011 11:17
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44:21.48N
021:13.74W
Summer Song has notched up a rare point in the
ongoing competition with fish kind. Cynthia the squid lure had been on duty for
only a few hours yesterday when she struck: a good sized mahi mahi fell prey to
her charms, and we hauled the beast in around tea time. It seems that the squid
has but to ruffle its tentacles to attract fish. Imagine what we could have
caught by now if we'd only deployed her sooner?! We feasted for supper on the
culinary embodiment of the entente cordiale: French style mahi, pan-fried in
garlic and butter, accompanied by peas and roast potatoes.
We're continuing to make good progress homewards in
medium strength winds, having reeled off about 130 miles in 24 hours. It has
taken us more than a year to try it, but Summer Song is now scudding along
merrily under twin headsails. Following the tradewind route for a year, we've
done plenty of running before the wind. We've used the spinakoo often; poled out
the gib to keep it flying and even goosewinged when the seas were calm. But
until today, we' never tried rigging a second genoa alongside the first. This is
a shame, as it seems to be working beautifully.
We spinakooed until happy hour yesterday - about 32
hours of non-stop hand steering. Then, as the wind rose and veered into the
west, we dropped the main and ran on under the genoa alone. But the rolling of
the waves and the unbalanced sail plan meant that Alex had to fight the tiller
to stay on course. So with an air of what's-to-lose, I rigged genoa #3 and poled
it out on the opposite side to the the main genoa. It's a rather elegantly cut
sail and makes an exceedingly pleasing picture of Summer Song as she races
northeast.
Unfortunately, the boat rolls a fair amount on a
dead run, so not everyone slept well. And in what I take to be the first sign of
nearing home, cloud has piled in to obscure the sun and an intermittent drizzle
has struck up. On the plus side, it gives me ample opportunity to battle on with
'Gone With the Wind'. I'm 660 pages down with 400 to go...
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