May 27th Position 37:21.13N 64:10.19W
Symatchmaker
Wed 27 May 2009 19:38
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At Sea - Day 10 " Life On The Ocean
Wave"
Guest post today by (totaly unbiased) Fisherman
Mick
After our disappointments with not managing to land the 5 foot marlin with
Peters boyhood fishing rod (designed for river minows and sticklebacks!) we
persisted with it throughout yesterday afternoon, (together with the
purpose-built sea rod), with a much smaller lure. Once again, out of the two
rods deployed, a big fish chose to strike at Peter's boyhood item. Jon grabbed
the rod and wound on as much clutch pressure on the reel as was possible, but
the line continued reeling out in short screaming bursts. We never did see
the fish, but its pull was unrelenting until it finally pulled all the line off
the reel and, after another final struggle, snapped the final loop. It was 50lb
line so it must have been a monster.
Unfortunately, our best small lure (Pinky) disappeared with the monster and
this left mainly much larger lures with correspondingly larger hooks. These had
proven unsuccessful in earlier attempts.
Chris was on mother watch and made no secret of his
disappointment at having no fish to cook for our evening meal (though he did
prepare a delicious chilli pasta instead), and the rest of the crew were getting
restless for fresh fish - the pressure was on.
After a cloudy night and showery rain, dawn reluctantly broke and only the
sea rod was deployed. This time I put on a small cheap plastic lure - black and
green with a bright red nose (thus called Rudolph).
Within 10 minutes the line rattled out and I
managed to land a very nice little 1.5kg mahi mahi with enough meat for a small
meal for all five of us. Fortunately, it was small enough to land without
slowing the boat and Mel was on watch with me for the
proud photographes. Not wanting to wake the others, ( for sake of an
embrassment) I gutted it and put it in the fridge. I re-deployed the line with
Rudolph attached. About an hour later, the line screamed out again but, despite
my best efforts, after a short battle, the fish (a slightly larger mahi
mahi) jumped the hook and was gone. I feared that my bad luck (or lack
of skill) were dogging me again. I deployed Rudolph to his flirtatious task once
again. Then at about 10:30, while we were in the middle of re-setting the sails,
and I was holding the spinnaker pole in one hand and hanging onto the pulpit at
the bows of the boat with the other hand, the line screamed out again. Peter,
who was nearest, took the rod and expertly played the fish in and out for about
20 minutes before bringing it up to the stern where Chris could gaff
it. It was a huge bull mahi mahi weighing in at a full 10kg! Only
after the necessary photographs did we get back to changing the sails. Thanks to
Chris's fishmongery skills, the prize mahi mahi is now reduced to 24 large
steaks and fillets to add to the 2 from the earlier fish! I noticed Jon -
who is on mother watch today - looking at fish recipes, so hopefully
supper will have a piscene flavour tonight! And don't worry, Rudolph
emerged safe and sound from the cavernous mouth and is once again doing what he
does best - trailing behind the boat, flirting with the fishes!
Now you might be wondering whether we did any sailing at all during these
pre-occupations. Well yes we did. 140 nautical miles, though yesterday afternoon
we were forced to deploy the "iron sail" for some time in extremely light
airs. Fortunately, a breeze picked up nicely in the evening to propell
us through the night. A slight wind shift this morning caused us to goose-wing
the rig to enable us to sail more directly down-wind. (Our prize fish struck in
the middle of this sail change). A further wind shift has since caused us to
reverse the goose-wing to get a better heading for Newport.
And what else did we do? Well several sessions of the Risk game, ( now
aptly named Nasty man game! ) brought out the strong competitive nature of
each of the crew, and kept the off-watch awake when they should be asleep.
Eating and drinking (non-alcohol only) are much treasured occupations, and sleep
is a popular pastime - if you can get it!
Hope all is well with you all at home
Mick G - SY Matcmaker
PS A short burial-at-sea service was held for Pinky ( No flowers,
please - donations to Home for Old Lures )
Please send emails to - "The Rudolph Fan Club" at this address - he'd
love to hear from you!
S/Y Matchmaker.
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