Friday, February 22, 2008

Leg 2 Day 6 BIG, BIG fish!


The day dawned again with an overcast grey sky. The wind was very light – about 6 knots “on the nose” so we continued motoring. Even the sea was uninviting as we were motoring through large patches of dark brown water. We put a sample white bucket over the side and had a large quantity of brown and white particulate in the water. For interest we will leave the bucket to settle overnight. As we are 125 miles from the coast this cannot be river sand but possibly tanker tank washing effluent. We came across several such large patches of very brown water. Tomorrow it should be interesting as, although we cannot do a “group 6” analysis, we should be able to deduce the source.

The “big” news for today is that we caught, AND LANDED, a huge mahi-mahi (or non – porpoise type “dolphin” fish). It had superb colouration of very bright green and yellow but this very soon fades. It took a real effort to lift it over the side and put it in the cockpit. We have a large cockpit but it was still too small to lay the fish out across it!

We have now fully filleted the fish and have probably 7 kilo (18lbs) of filleted fish in the deep freezer. We also made a great raw fish sushi using soy sauce and lemon juice and freshly boiled rice – what a treat!

The winds are continuing very light and most yachts in the fleet are reporting been low in fuel after many days of continuous motoring. We have a large 900 litre fuel tank so we have no such worries – fortunately.

We are now working out what sumptuous fish meal we can concoct for his evening – we already have a bottle of great white wine in the fridge. Life on board does not get much better from an eating point of view!

I again hope to attach a photo of the fish but please view the photo very briefly before I drop the fish!

We are now only just above 4 Deg. North, and heading due south so we will be crossing the equator in about 2 days time. We will be celebrating this with individual “gifts” over the side to Neptune – a long established custom where all sailors, on crossing the equator toss one of their favourite items for good luck. For me that will be a Mars Bar! By now there must be quite a ridge of goodies encircling the globe on the equator sea floor!

Capt. Peter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hunky Captain Peter with his impressive prize
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