12.00 Marquesas time (21.20 UTC)
Position / Posicao: 12.44.72 S (sul), 142.39.97 W (oeste) – yesterday was 140 W, not 144! Course / Rumo (COG): 230 degrees magnetic (230 graus magneticos) Speed / Velocidade (SOG, GPS): 6 knots (nos)
Wind: ESE (110 degrees on the compass), 15-17 knots
Swell: 2.0, mostly regular, with the odd side swipe from time to time… Sunny Skies – temps in low 80’s (29 C)
Sailing under Genoa and Main Sail in third reef
======
Noon to Noon distance covered: 152 nm
Distance to first waypoint, off Ahe Atoll: 237 nm
======
this is a Blog post and cc email for cruiser friends without blog access ======
Hope you all are having a grand Friday. We can’t complain too much. Sailing-wise, things have been pretty much brilliant. Though we are babying the mast and rigging a tad (I have a shroud fitting on the leeward side that needs replacing), and therefore sailing conservatively, we are still making pretty good time and again, you could almost forget that we have a ‘crippled’ boat without a working motor… it’s just a great passage, and not difficult so far.
Fishing
Yesterday I rigged up two homemade lures, one on a large single hook, one on a treble. Imagine an expertly tied fly for fly-fishing, only one helluva lot simpler and uglier. For streamers and color, I used bits of plastic cut into thin long strips – I got this idea from Espumer, as Niklas had good luck with a rig like this sailing from Galapagos to Marquesas. I had the first lure in the water on the hand line, no more than 10 minutes, and was still working on second lure when we had a fish on! A great dourado (mahi mahi). We fought each other for a while, but he won – he spit the hook and swam away happy. That was in the morning. Yesterday evening, it happened again, this time on the reel and on lure number two. The reel screamed and the fight began. I wasn’t going to lose this one! We fought for quite a while but on a deep run he got away too… I soon found out why. He was well hooked in the side of his mouth and only escaped by sacrificing a good part of his lower jaw, which came back to me with the lure. Felt sorry for that guy, worse than I felt for myself having lost it. Two minutes later, we caught a small skipjack tuna as a consolation prize and ate him this afternoon with a teriaki and sesame concoction that was delicious!
Buddy Boat
Our friends on Espumeru continue to sail close by, nearly always within line of sight. At the moment, they are about 2 nm to our port beam, and you can just see the white triangle of their sails on the horizon. Not only is it great security and moral support to have them close, they are also a great deal of fun! Niklas and I chat regularly on the VHF and last night they surprised us with a real moonlight serenade by radio…. singing a great rendition of that ‘Sail’ song, by Rod Stewart I believe. What a fun bunch of people. Later, Niklas told me riddles and laughed when I didn’t get the one about the elephant and the refrigerator!
Banana Pancakes
This morning I did pancakes as I had promised Lara (she did a killer omelet/frittata yesterday) and decided to make them Banana Pancakes! YUMMY! Imagine: real Canadian Maple syrup (thanks Sebs!!!), real French butter, fresh mountain filtered water from Polynesia and of course Polynesia-grown bananas… Jack Johnson never had it so good in Hawaii and I think it’s the tastiest pancakes I’ve ever had! It’s a good thing too – we have like 75 little bananas on a huge bunch, and they are starting to ripen now… send your monkeys please!
Books
Finished a Jack Higgins novel I got from South African friend Bryan in Ecuador. Good read, entertaining and satifsyfing. Now reading “The Last Voyage of Captain Cook” – the collected writing of adventurer John Ledyard. I thought that apropros, all things considered. I’m on a section describing Tahiti at the moment…
Have a great Friday guys. More tomorrow.
MM
S/Y Walk On 