Saturday, May 11, 2013

Day 5 to FP: Time to Fish

:lat=-4.78:lon=-97.66:
Time: 2300UTC, COG 240T, SOG 7.0kts, Distance Remaining: 2440nm

With our most important issue squared away - the availability of wind (gone
are the days of merely 75 miles of progress in 24 hours) - we can focus on
other things now, like food on the table. We trail two hand-lines off our
stern, a short one on starboard and a longer one on the port side. The idea
is that they don't get tangled, being different lengths. But, we better
remember to pull one of them in when we make abrupt boat movements. Now, who
plans funky movements of the boat ahead of time? Avoiding objects in the
water, changing or dropping sails, bigger than usual waves or a jerky
autopilot happen without warning. What if a fish actually gets on the line
and whizzes back and forth, left and right? A tangled mess will follow.

Since we left, we have been pulling the fishing lines, laying slack behind
the boat. Now that we are actually sailing at a decent speed, the hopes for
some fresh tuna or mahi mahi are high. Our precooked dinners are devoured
and we have space in the fridge. We are anticipating a catch, but the fish
aren't biting. We've tried colorful lures (successful in the Caribbean),
suicidal squid found on deck and stranded flying fish. To no avail. The
Pacific fish are either stubborn, smart or avoiding Irie's radius. Or, more
likely, we don't know what we are doing or we haven't gotten lucky yet.
While we keep our fingers crossed for some protein rich sea life, today's
catch is a vegetarian dish involving spinach. We'll make sure to spice it up
with some fish sauce! :-)

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