POS: 6 56.3S 109 54.7W
After a relatively relaxed night with waves decreasing we were treated to a spectacular display from a large pod of dolphins just cruising on past, leaping at time metres from the front of the breaking waves and crashing gently into the back of the ones in front. The nightly delivery of dead (well dead by the morning) flying fish and squid continued with a mix of about 10 around the boat.
The lures went out mid morning (plastic ones), and shortly after lunch a Mahi was spinning line of the reel. Unfortunately a bit of clumsy handling timed perfectly with a big lurch over a wave, released him back to the ocean, but no such luck for his bigger sister a few hours later who is now filleted, partly eaten and the remaining 10 portions in the freezer! Lesley is a happy girl…
With a freezer now full of fish, the rods are away for a while since unless we think it will be eaten we don’t tend to haul them in just for the sake of it.
The rest of the day was spent doing some washing, cleaning salt off the boat and getting some rest which is getting easier since the boat is more stable and its easier to sleep. Boats ahead are reporting very rolly conditions so its important to catch up on sleep while we can.
Despite the wind easing, the daily run was still good, noon to noon was 205nm and 18:00 to 18:00 a little less at 203nm (maybe something to with stopping the boat twice in the afternoon to land fish!)
Wind increased for the evening a little but not enough to make the sea uncomfortable. The moon is getting bigger and setting later so coupled with much clearer skies the nights are much brighter.
This is being written a little later than normal and we have now been at sea for 7 days. We expect to be halfway on Monday night or more likely Tuesday morning, so we probably have another 10 or 11 days to go. The wind dropped further overnight so one of the reefs has come out of the mainsail and we have a full genoa. If it continues to drop we will be back to full sail later today. One of the spinnakers might have to come out to play soon, so even more reason to get some good rest now.
All is well on board.