Category Archives: fishing

Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 26, Land Ho!

Jens and I saw land just after sunrise at 6:00AM. Guadalupe we’re here!

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 24,

Monday, February 21, 2022, 7:00AM

16’09.92N 61’02.21W 3510km made good.

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SOG 7.2 kts

Jens was holding out. He saved some of the best for the last Cocktail Hour, Smoked Sockeye Salmon (I have no idea where he stashed that), olives stuffed with anchovies, crab salad, coppa and crackers. We finished Jens’ supply of Irish Whiskey, also stashed somewhere, a generous pour for each of us. 

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I cooked, yup, you guessed it, Mahi Mahi for dinner. Seared with Basmati Rice and Coconut-Lime Sauce. I do love Mahi Mahi, however I think I will be laying off it for the foreseeable future.

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Jens and I had the double watch shifts last night. We had a visitor in the form of a black bird who hung with us for about 6 hours spending most of the time on the solar panel, where of course it pooped several times on the solar panel as well as on the whisker pole’s after guy line (another one of the impressive amount of ropes that we need to not only know the the name of, but also what they do). 

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Dennis noted seeing lights off to our starboard bow at 3:30AM. Our first sight of anything land based in 22 days, we later determined that these lights were on wind turbines on an island adjacent to Guadeloupe.  Jens and I saw land just after sunrise at 6:00AM. Guadalupe we’re here!

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We were still about 20 miles from our waypoint at the entrance to the harbor and we needed to prep the boat for our no engine arrival. We put the dock lines and fenders in place. John ran through the plan with us, we were ready.

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Since we didn’t have the option of motoring into the harbor, John thought we should enter the outer harbor under reefed mainsail; which we did. We also raised the staysail for a few minutes in an effort to gain enough speed for the needed sharp right turn into the marina, and then directly into the wind, so that we would have the speed needed to carry us through the wind and back to a sailable course.

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John called the marina on the VHF radio, which, not surprisingly, there were problems- the 2 handheld units had battery issues, the redundant wired extension in the cockpit had no sound. After a few attempts and some broken communications, John had me go below to the primary VHF at the Nav Station and talk to them, which I did. I was able to confirm that the marina knew we were coming, what our situation was and that they were sending a boat out to help us. 

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We ended up being seconds away from dropping the anchor; our plan to have enough speed to power around the sharp corner into the entrance of the marina didn’t pan out. Jean-Marc, an employee of the marina in a small skiff with his expert boat handling, got to us and towed us with little effort, perfectly stern first onto the dock. 

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Avocet, after 24 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the dock in Guadeloupe.

We all made phone calls letting our loved ones know that we made it, no life insurance benefits for them.

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We did a quick initial clean up of the boat, folded and stowed the staysail, flaked and covered the mainsail, looked for and eventually found the pump to pump up the dingy.

An approximate representation of our trip using Windy, an excellent app for us laymen to get up-to-date weather information.

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The dock we were at was a 1 minute dingy ride or a 30 minute walk to the marina office and their customs computers. We opted for the dingy ride. We all went to the office, filled out our obligatory customs forms and went in search of food and beer. Close by we found some burgers and beers that fit the bill. 

A chipper crew after 24 days at sea. Jens, me, Dennis and Captain John.

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On to finding a hotel, after some deliberation, it was decided, upon Jens’ suggestion, that we would ask a taxi driver about the best, most convenient, inexpensive places to stay. Antionette, the first local cabby we ran into, we thought was going to come through for us. She drove us about 3 miles from the marina to a hotel, near the Casino. 

We went through the pain-in-the-ass process of checking in. Which included using an ATM type machine for check in. This should have been a dead give away that we were not where we should be, we soldiered on. The ATM thing wasn’t giving us what we needed, so Antionette chased down an employee to help us out. With his help, we thought we were all set. 2 rooms, 2 beds each room, great. 

We dragged our oversized bags up the 3 flights of stairs to our rooms only to discover that there was only one bed in each room. Not gonna work, I love my brother, but I gave up sharing a bed with him about 45 years ago. Back down the 3 flights of stairs to try talking to the employee, who speaks no English. He, the employee, somehow had Antoinette’s number and called her back to the scene. 

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While they were trying to figure out our options, which I believe was 1 room with 3 beds and the other with 1; we just spent 24 days in a confined space with each other and we wanted our own space. I asked John for his phone, his was the only phone amongst us with any juice left in it. I looked online and found a place, Hotel Fleur D’épée, it was on the beach and closer to the marina. I called them and confirmed that they had rooms available and what they would cost. 

So, we begged off, hopefully I don’t have to put a hold on the payment for the tenement.

Antionette drove us to the other hotel, which was fine, a tourist hotel, not special. 4 rooms and the potential to sleep for more than 3 hours without having to get up to man the wheel, I’m in.

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The arrival at Guadalupe waypoint, our predetermined official end of the crossing, was made at  11:30AM local time, John won the “time of arrival” bet, the rest of us would be buying his dinner and drinks. 

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 25, Spinnaker Troubles and Arrival Preparations.

With only about 250 miles to Guadeloupe, we are preparing Avocet for arrival.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 23,

Sunday, February 20, 2022, 10:10AM

16’17.63N 59’20.36W 3342km made good.

SOG 5.3

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Sailing wing on wing, light winds, light seas equals a slow boat, 5ish knots.

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I made Mahi Mahi Chowder for lunch today: butter, flour, garlic, chicken bouillon cubes (yup, I used them), water, potatoes, canned corn, canned mushrooms, dry thyme, black pepper, salt, canned evaporated milk and a lot of diced up Mahi Mahi. It came out really good, surprisingly John had three bowls, he is usually a light weight. Jens and Dennis each had 2 and I had 1.

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Yesterday at dusk we were flying the spinnaker, it was the beginning of our Cocktail Hour, when the wind picked up to be a bit too much for the spinny. We decided to take it down. Well, that was not an easy task. The spinnaker is an asymmetrical spinnaker which means that it is shaped in a way that it doesn’t need a pole to hold the sails clew, aft most triangle, in place. It basically flies free, attached to the boat at the top with a halyard to lift and lower the sail. A line at the tack, the forward most triangle at the bow of the boat and a line at the clew. We adjust these lines based on wind speed, wind direction and boat direction. An asymmetrical spinnaker will often come with a “sock”, when you pull up the sail it is conveniently covered in this sock, the sock’s opening is at the bottom of the sail with just the clew and tack sticking out of the sock, attached to their respective lines and ultimately the boat. There is a continuous line going the full length of the sock that when you pull it one way it pulls the sock up exposing the sail to the full force of the wind. Conversely when you pull it the other way it lowers the sock pulling the sail into the lowering sock, making it no longer open to the wind, forming a long thin sausage looking thing. Well, this didn’t work. The spinnaker was stuck open, with the wind continuing to pick up, this was not good. We needed to get the spinnaker down before it tore or worse, fouled something in the standing rigging or went under the boat. The sock was not an option so we needed to lower the sail onto the deck, this is not easy when the wind is strong, as you lower the sail the wind just pushes it away from the boat. Heading up into the wind will alleviate this, but, if you go too far into the wind it can be disastrous, almost definitely tearing the sail. John, as usual, steered the boat into the perfect position for us to get the sail onto the deck with no damage. Once on the deck Dennis and I manually stuffed the spinnaker into the sock, hoping that tomorrow will bring lighter wind conditions for us to raise the sail again and figure out what went wrong with the sock.

A properly working spinnaker sock.

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When the spinnaker was bagged and tied to the deck. We reefed the mainsail and raised the staysail. We were once again sailing with the right sail plan, so we got back to enjoying Cocktail Hour. We purposely went light on today’s fixings for Cocktail Hour- pistachios. John and I had some white wine, Jens and Dennis had a bit of Irish Whiskey for their daily libations, I did spill Jens’ drink while we were reefing the main. It was dark and he did leave it wrapped amongst the reef lines, which when he put it there we didn’t know that we were going to reef the main. I felt bad, especially because of the dwindling supply of grog, but I got over it quickly.

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During the day we got the boat ready for our arrival, clearing the deck of all extraneous crap, organizing the trash and recycling, retrieving the anchor from the “pit” and reattaching it to its’ chain and securing it to the bowsprit. We placed the anchor in the “pit” before departure for several reasons: too much weight on the bow, it could become dislodged from its cradle in rough weather, which could cause huge problems. The anchor chain comes out of a hole at the top of the chain locker that we wanted to stuff and duct tape it, blocking any water coming over the bow from swamping the chain locker, adding even more weight to the bow and possibly seeping into the boat. As well as when you’re in thousands of feet of water there is really no need for an anchor with 200 ft of chain, it won’t do you much good.

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I went to grab John a Coke from one of the coolers on deck and was surprised to find most of the cans in the cooler had split from so much jostling around, making quite a sticky syrupy mess. Dennis and I cleaned it out, throwing away about three-quarters of the cans in the cooler.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 24, A Memorable Catch and Slacking On My Watch

Last night’s first watch was far and away my most difficult yet.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 22

Saturday February 19, 2022, 12:50PM

16’12.13N 57’21.39W 3188km made good.

SOG 6.0kts 

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The wind and seas are pretty calm, we have been flying the spinnaker with a reefed mainsail. Our speed has been ok.

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Dinner last night was pasta with a tuna tomato sauce that Jens made, it was quite good.

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Just after dinner last night we realized that the fishing line was still out. Dennis reeled it in, noticing as he was pulling the last of the line that there was a fish on the line. It was about 3 ft long with an eel like dark body, a regular fish tail, not an eel tail, huge eyes, and a set of pointy sharp teeth that would make any yippy rat-dog owner proud. None of us knew what it was, so we didn’t want to eat it. Since it was already dead we just left it at the toe-rail until this morning, at which point I took some photos and set it back into the sea from which it came.

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Cocktail hour was a single glass of red wine for me, we are seriously down on alcohol.  Only a bottle of Jameson and a bottle of red wine left. 

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Last night’s first watch was far and away my most difficult yet, only because of how tired I was. I was totally spent. Weird sleep schedules, V-berth barely habitable and constant movement have made for an exhausted me. Just after dinner, I was already on deck anticipating my upcoming watch, Dennis was on the wheel. My 8PM watch start time, came and went, I slept through it. Dennis passed the watch off to Jens, who was my watch partner. I woke up 30 minutes later just in time to take my (Jens’) turn at the helm. 

I stood behind the pedestal, glaze eyed, with my head no further than a foot from the compass, staring at it with drool running down my chin, literally drool running down my chin onto the compass. I was snapping my head up and down, nodding off for seconds at a time. I barely made it through my ½ hour at the helm before Jens, thankfully, took over for me. I then proceeded to sleep in the cockpit through my next shift on the helm, waking with about 5 minutes left in it. At first I thought “cool I woke up just in time” then I realized I screwed up, I slept through most of my watch. Jens said that he tried to wake me a couple of times, but I didn’t budge. I Will try to make up the time to him as we proceed through our last couple of days.

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Once relieved from our shift I brushed my teeth and went straight into the moist nest and crashed. Dennis had to shake me awake, which should never happen, I was so spent. I felt a lot better during our second watch, it was pleasant, sunrise, tea, biscotti followed by some coffee and more biscotti.

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We caught a mother of a Mahi Mahi, the thing was huge, easily 30 lbs.

We were sitting around debating whether we should have the last of the beer then or save it for later, when the fishing reel screamed WzzzzzzzzzzWzzzzWzzzz and the rod bent signifying we either caught another round of seaweed or we got us a fish. Our predetermined positions were taken, Dennis grabbed the rod, John on the helm, Jens with gaff and me helping wherever needed. We rolled in the jib, John steered a slower course, Dennis reeled whenever the fish would allow, it was a back and forth battle that we were going to win. Yesterday, after losing 2 lures to fish that got away I switched the line from an unknown test to a 60lb test. Dennis kept reeling and we were able to get a glimpse of the fish, determining that it was indeed a Mahi Mahi and a big one at that. Dennis got the fish to the stern of the boat, Jens gaffed it through its gut and with my help we lifted it over the lifelines and right into the cockpit, behind the wheel right at John’s feet. John jumped up onto the seat, while the giant Mahi thrashed about, somehow getting through and in front of the wheel where I had the unenviable task of stabbing the fish through the eye with my handy dandy sailing knife. We won this battle.

When the Mahi Mahi was in the water and while it was quickly dying, the fish was an incredible blue color, which faded as the fish died. It was really something to see and something to think about…Food for thought.

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Time to have the last round of beers, warm but celebratory.

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After several buckets of saltwater to give the cockpit a quick rinse of all the blood we took some photos and put the fish up onto the gunwale for me to butcher, which I made quick work of. At least 15lbs fillets, and incredible catch. Too bad we didn’t catch the fish earlier in the adventure, when we had refrigeration and more time to eat it.

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Once the Mahi Mahi was filleted and put away, within an hour of landing the behemoth, I made blackened Mahi Mahi sandwiches with coleslaw on my homemade focaccia.

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For dinner Jens made, you guessed it Mahi Mahi, he served it with Basmati rice.

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We set the spinnaker, which is easy once it’s up and flying however it can be a beast to set up.

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We are all stuffed with Mahi Mahi and a bit worn after a long day.

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I finished reading Beasts of a Little Land, by Juhea Kim, quite good.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 23, Less Than 400 miles to go.

As this adventure winds down and the seas have for the most part calmed down, I am getting the chance to reflect on the trip, the opportunity it has been for me, as well as its experiences……

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 21

Friday, February 18, 2022, 9:15AM

15’46.22N 54’42.89W 3003km made good.

SOG 7.2kts

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Sailing wing to wing again, triple reefed main and a bit of the jib.

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Dennis and John sailed through a squall this morning, 30 knots winds and heavy rain, I slept through it, there has been nothing but blue skies since.

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Shane, my son, finally got back to me about the Super Bowl, claiming he won our bet, we’ll see about that.

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We just had a visit from a pod of about 8 dolphins, they are always cool to see. With the rough seas it’s been about a week since we last saw them.

It’s comforting to be seeing dolphins again.

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Dinner last night was a collaborative mediocre effort. Soy marinated Seared Pork Medallions. When I made some sauce for them, using the marinade, I used too much of it. I could have used ¼ the amount and double the amount of butter which I used to finish the sauce, it would have been a lot better. Roasted potatoes, very good.  Needed a vegetable, considering we have about 20 cans of corn on board we should have used that.

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Cocktail hour was Parmigiano-Reggiano and spicy Lomo with more of Jens’ homemade crackers. It was another single beer Cocktail hour.

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We are seeing a lot of flying fish, occasionally picking them up off the deck, out of the cockpit and we even had one land on top of the dodger.

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I have the dreaded double watch tonight, hopefully the second to last double watch. 

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We haven’t seen another boat/ship in at least 10 days, probably more like 14.

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Bruises on my bruises, we are all getting banged around on the boat, both below deck and on deck. We have all ended up with many, many little bruises up and down our legs and arms.

Avocet’s galley, the culprit to many of my bruises.

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I’m looking forward to talking to Colleen and kids, taking a long hot shower and sleeping for more than three hours at one stretch.

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V-berth is hot, humid and dank, it’s where Dennis and I have been trading off the bunk, there is no ventilation there because we have Avocet’s dingy and a bunch of gear strapped to the deck right on top of the V-berth hatch. It was so hot in there last night that I ended up sleeping for 2 hours on the salon sole (floor).

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I made coleslaw with the rest of the cabbage, raisins and apples today.

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The only fresh food left at this point is 2 bulbs of garlic, 15 potatoes and 10 limes.

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Charging system for the batteries is not working properly- no more refrigerator.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 16, Reaching the Halfway Point.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 13

Thursday, February 10, 2022, 11:05AM

14’01.797N 35’35.259W 1772nm made good.

SOG 6.0knts 

We have wind!  We are sailing wing on wing, the mainsail has a single reef in it and is out to port, the staysail is poled out, with the Jockey pole to starboard.

There was discussion yesterday whether it was “wing to wing”, “wing on wing” or ”wing and wing”. I have heard wing to wing, and wing on wing, I have never heard wing and wing. When I have internet access and on the off chance I remember this topic, I will look it up to see what the actual term is supposed to be. I digress, as I said we are sailing, heading west, close to our exact halfway point. Historically the first half, which we have completed, is the slow half, lighter, flukier winds with the boat heading south even though your destination is west. If all goes well we should be in Guadalupe in 11ish days.

Officially, according to several websites, it’s “wing-on-wing”.

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Winds and seas are still predicted to increase over the next couple of days, followed by favorable wind speeds for the rest of the journey.

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We are out of gin! 

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Up to now the weather has been quite benign, as wind and waves pick up, I’m sure our Cocktail Hour will either lessen or we will lose the cocktail part of the hour. 

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No fish hooked since the big one that got away, we have caught some plastic and a lot of seaweed. So much seaweed that we have reeled in the line until we get out of the seaweed patches.

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Dennis made wraps for lunch, chicken and coleslaw. 

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I did dinner last night, seared rib-eye steaks with pepper-onion-tangerine-Worcestershire sauce, carrots and roasted potatoes. The potatoes were the star of the show, potatoes, garlic, EVOO, smoked paprika and salt; roasted on high, great. The steaks themselves, not so good, typical Spanish steak, very little intramuscular fat, a bit tough, not a lot of flavor. 

Too lean (equals dry) Spanish beef rib-eye steak.

Cocktail Hour, as previously mentioned we finished off the gin. Jens served up some cured smoked tuna- Tuna Jerky; weird texture, it will definitely not be a future go-to item. Spanish White Anchovies, love’em. Iberico Ham, so good, Jens exclaimed how the it tasted “nutty” and I explained how pigs used to make real Iberico Ham are fed a diet of almost exclusively chestnuts and black acorns giving the ham the nutty flavor that Jens pointed out, as well as a dark, almost purple color to the meat. It was wonderful.

Iberico Ham

I just opened and read my kids letters. Cate’s was very sweet, written in different colors with a girly flourish.  Shane’s on the other hand was much longer, not nearly as sweet, lots of profound language, starts off his letter by referring to me as a “Fuckhead”, rants a bunch in the middle about football, skiing and about how much he expects that I will be looking forward to a beer when we arrive in Guadeloupe. In closing he signs off as Tommy Chong, does he think I won’t get the reference or is he trying to bust my balls? I’ll go with the latter. Both kids have always shown their love in different ways, their letters epitomize this. I love them both the same.

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No dolphins in a couple of days.

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I made another loaf of Focaccia yesterday, I flavored it with green olives, freeze-dried basil and sunflower seeds. 

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John swabbed out the bilge, checked and added some oil to the engine as well as checked the engine coolant level.

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We have used more than half of the fuel on board, hopefully we won’t need to use the engine often during the remainder of our voyage. As a precaution, to conserve diesel we are going to run the gas generator on deck to recharge the batteries, instead of using the boat’s engine to do it.

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Doing the Atlantic, Chapter 15, Weather Prediction, Still Fishing, Doing Some Math.

To start reading about my transatlantic adventure from the beginning (highly recommended) follow this link.

Day 12

Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 12:45PM

14’19.546N 32”34.801W 1631nm made good.

SOG 6.0knts 

Winds are still quite light, we are and have been since dusk last night motor sailing, which is exactly as it sounds: running the motor while sailing.

Chris Parker, our weather guru, has insisted that we continue to head south-west until we hit the 14 parallel of latitude before changing our course to due west. The goal is to try to avoid some nasty weather to the north of us. The predicted weather the next few days will be a stark contrast to what we have dealt with since Sunday.  Winds are expected to pick up tomorrow and Thursday, to the low to mid twenties, while continuing to pick up through Saturday.  Thursday and Friday, expected winds are in the mid-twenties with gusts to the high-twenties. The worst of it is expected on Saturday, sustained winds in the high-twenties, with gusts into the mid-thirties. Leveling off a bit on Sunday in the low 20’s and Monday, becoming just right, about perfect, in the high-teens. The winds are predicted to be coming out of the north-east most of the time which means we will be on a starboard tack, taking the wind on our aft-beam which is preferable. None of the predicted seas are to be over 10 feet, which is high, but not scary. Bigger than the kiddie coaster, not the loop-de-loop coaster.

Heading west into the sunset and an ominous forecast.

Well, the head is still jocked. I did what any experienced boater should never do; I overloaded it, not with poop, rather with toilet paper. I know better! I’m embarrassed, not because I did it, but because I shouldn’t have done it. Wipe, flush way more than you think you should, repeat. I didn’t pump enough between wipes, dumb ass. Good thing there is a second head on board, you can guarantee that if the other head gets clogged it won’t be my fault.

Jabsco manual pump toilet, like the one on Avocet.

We got another hit on the fishing line. Our reaction was perfect, we all got into our predetermined places, ready to go. This fish was obviously quite large, the rod was bent to a promising angle, the fish was running, Dennis was reeling at the right time. We never did see this fish before the line snapped. This time it was not an operator error, it was the fish was bigger than the line test called for. We strung a new lure and leader and set it back out again vying that if the line breaks again we will change it out for a higher test. We’ll see…

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We broke into our Villa Azul food stash again last night, Chicken-Coconut Soup with Basmati Rice. It was delicious, not the depth of flavor I get at home with ingredients that were not available on Lanzarote, but like I said, still delicious. We have 3 more meals of soup remaining, not a bad deal.

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Cocktail Hour was Guacamole, Spanish White Anchovies, Manchego Cheese and Crackers. For beverages we tried/drank some Strawberry Gin and Tonic, and yup, it sucked. Round 2 was Bombay, much better.

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This morning we discussed amongst many other things, how much booze we have already consumed, considering we are getting low on gin, we were curious if it was over consumption or under provisioning. Since we drank a total of 6, 750ml bottles of booze (25oz, 150 ounces total) in 11 nights, equals less than 14 ounces per night, which is less than 3.5 ounces each. Obviously, we under provisioned.

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Dennis and I cleaned out the cooler that was full of the Villa Azul food. It was fairly nasty, with the expected upcoming rough weather we wanted to clean it out now before it got even nastier. While we had the cleaning supplies out we also cleaned the cockpit which was dirty mostly from general use and a little bit from fish blood.  We’re becoming domesticated, our wives would be proud.

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I am once again clean, showered with clean under garments.

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Amazingly, we are still on our first roll of paper towels, granted they are the industrial, heavy duty Spanish type, but one roll for 11 days is impressive. 

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Our plan is to fire up the watermaker again this afternoon, the main tank is just about empty.

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As of this morning we still had 1,700 miles to the harbor entrance in Guadeloupe, which is still more than half the distance. The encouraging thing is now that we have turned west all of the distance we travel will be “made good”, meaning that we are now making a beeline to our destination, no longer heading south so that we can eventually turn west. We have made that turn. 1,700mi/135mi per day = 12.59 days, which is very conservative especially considering the weather forecast. Alternatively 1,700mi/150mi per day = 11.33 days, still a bit conservative, yet doable.

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I will open the letters from the kids tomorrow. I am looking forward to it.

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Doing The Atlantic, Chapter 14, Fish Tales and I Clogged the Toilet.

Day 11

Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 10:15AM

15’49.817N 30.42.742W 1462nm made good.

SOG 5.2kts

We just deployed the spinnaker again, it looks like another day of light winds. Yesterday we were able to fly the spinny for about 6 hours before the wind diminished too low to keep it up. We ended up motoring throughout the night. We are hoping for more wind, not too much, just more. Seas are flat, it’s amazing that everything is so calm even though we are hundreds of miles to the closest landfall.

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The big one got away! At twilight last night we hooked another fish. This time when Dennis called “fish” we all came running. This baby was much larger than the one we caught 2 nights ago. Dennis reeled it in close to the boat, but the rod was still tied to the rod holder. We do this to keep it in place in rough weather or if a fish was to pull the rod out of the holder. I reached in between Dennis and the aft-lifeline to which the rod holder was attached and untied the line. Dennis handed off the rod to me so he could position himself a little bit forward where there is more space to maneuver. All the while this large iridescent bright blue Mahi Mahi was splashing away at the surface in a desperate attempt to escape our stomachs. John freed his newly purchased gaff, a big ass hook on a long handle used to bring fish from the water’s surface onto the boat. 

Dennis reeling in the big one!

Dennis grabbed the gaff and gaffed our potential dinner at the gills, just where you are supposed to, right below the gills. As he was lifting PD from the surface to the deck, the big fucker thrashed it’s way of the gaff, fuck.

All hope for another Mahi Mahi meal was not lost yet, the hook was still in its mouth. I still held the rod keeping the fish at the surface, ready for another attempt with the gaff. Which Dennis made it look like a Brady to Gronk pass late in the fourth quarter to sure up another win. This time Dennis got our 12lbs of blue food porn on the deck, the fucker was on the deck!! However, it gave one last mighty thrash jettisoning itself free of the gaff and the hook, sending the lure flying. The lure quickly found its way into Dennis’ sock. We all thought it was his leg, stopping us all dead in our tracks. No one wanted to move the wrong way, possibly helping embed one or more of the lure’s nasty hooks further into Dennis’ leg. While we all stood there looking at Dennis’ leg, which was fine, but we were motionless, the big one flopped over the side and took off like a bullet. Another day, another fish tale.

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During our nightly ritual, cocktail hour, we came up with a procedure of what needs to be done next time- Make sure the rod is secured with a one pull release knot- Fish on line, yell fish. Start reeling it in. Put the engine (if running) in idle. Lower the solar panels. Move the rod forward, so there are less obstructions while boarding the fish. Since we don’t have a net we will have a large handled grocery bag available to use as a net if necessary. With this thought out procedure, hopefully the next one doesn’t get away.

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Speaking of fish, well mammals; most days we have had visits from dolphins. They typically swim alongside or in our bow wake, once, so far, they did a few jumps out of the water right on our starboard side. They do look really cool, like they are having fun. I hope they stay away from our fishing lure.

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There is concern that the “house batteries’’ may have been compromised. Most boats have house batteries, used for just about everything except starting the engine. The engine has its own dedicated starting battery that is wired separately to insure that you will always have the juice to start your engine. Unbeknownst to me, if you run your batteries too low, to 55% or lower, they will no longer hold a charge as well as they did before the low discharge. A few days ago the batteries got down to just under that 55% number, so we are keeping a closer eye on them making sure we don’t let that happen again, as well as seeing if the batteries were truly compromised.

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I just took a break from writing to use the head, and…I clogged the toilet! Fuck! We are figuring out the best way to resolve this situation. Currently, I have salt water on to boil to see if a bit of hot water will soften things up. 

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Late yesterday afternoon, we decided, in an effort to keep the spinnaker full of air, to drop the mainsail. The thinking was that with the wind behind us, the main was blocking air more than it was capturing it. When we dropped the main we noticed that one of the battens, a semi-rigid membrane used to help a sail keep its shape, was missing the set screw used to hold the batten in place at the luff (front) of the sail. The battens typically go into a cloth sleeve stitched laterally into the sail, though I have also seen vertical battens as well, they just aren’t as common. John was able to find a replacement screw and the fix was in, done in about 10 minutes.

The batten on Avocet’s mainsail is circled.

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Before leaving home, in Arlington, my kids, Shane and Cate slipped notes into my duffle bag for me to read during my trip. On the outside of Shane’s he instructed me to open it “after we were aboard for a while”, “when I was homesick” or “just feeling lonely”. I decided that I would open them at the approximate half way point of our trip, we are not quite there yet; with this light wind it may still be a while. I am very much looking forward to opening those letters and thinking about my kids. I love’em.

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How I was feeling at the time.

Back to the toilet- I made a shitty situation even worse. I tried forcing the pump handle to push the clog through. For a moment I thought I was successful, the handle moved freely, but it wasn’t moving any water; I blew a gasket, on the toilet, not me personally. John has a spare pump on board which is great, however, useless until the clog is cleared. I shut the through-hull fitting, which allows water into and waste out of the toilet before I tried unsuccessfully, to unhook the waste hose to clean it out; nope not happening. Shitty getting even shittier. I also started to remove the old pump, when I took the pump off the base it looked as though the flapper mechanism which separates the water and waste was installed upside down and was stuck at an awkward angle. This may have caused the handle to move freely without discharging water. So, I flipped the flapper and put the pump back on its base. When we clear the clog we will find out if the flapper was part of the problem or if we have to replace the pump itself. It was just mentioned that we have a snake on board. After lunch I may take a crack (intended) at the clog using the snake.

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In the early hours of this morning we saw, on AIS, our first boat in 4 days.

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Last night’s dinner was Bolognese with Penne, Parmigiano-Reggiano, EVOO and more of my boat made Focaccia. The Bolognese is part of the bulk food that Dennis and I cooked and froze at Villa Azul in Puerto Calero. It was quite good and got rave reviews from Jens and John. This morning we ate the last of the Tortilla Espanol and Chorizo. Jens is in the galley putting together some chicken salad wraps for lunch.

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Overall our food supplies are good, we have put a huge dent in them, but the fridge is still full and we still have John’s canned goods from his $200 checked bag to fall back on, if we need to.

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Gin on the other hand is getting low. What will we do? We still have some beer, vodka and rum, we’ll have to see where each cocktail hour takes us.

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The winds are currently very light, we are flying the spinnaker, with winds so light we are only moving about 4 knots. Winds are supposed to remain light through tomorrow night, then should pick up for our tack westward.

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