April 14, 2014

Sailing along

Sailing along, sailing along, sailing along.   Sails up, sails down, different sails up.  Sails reefed, sails un-reefed.  Strong winds, no wind, engine on, engine off.   Big swells, smaller swells sometimes.   Sunshine, clouds. The days all run together, everyone different and we sail steadily south.   Alan calls me on deck at midnight to see an eclipse.  It is beautiful.  There are just a few clouds and we have a perfect view.  Easy to see why Captain Cook came out here to study the eclipse.

Dolphins, flying fish,  A  beautiful blue fish that follows along for hours. Its colors are amazing, 3 or 4 shades of  iridescent blue with a little yellow.  It seems to be attracted to the bright green line that we are dragging to clean the barnacles off of the hull. We have flying fish on the deck every morning ranging from tiny ones the size of a guppy to larger ones as long as my hand.  The first several mornings I threw them all back.  Then I realized that they would make good bait.  I have long since lost all of my lures and have been using a bare hook with a bit of salami on it.  The flying fish work like a charm.  They are snapped up within a few minutes of hitting the water.  Unfortunately the fish just eat them off the line and don’t get caught.  I finally catch one only to lose it as I try to pull it up over the back.  Obviously I need to work on my technique.  For most of the trip I don’t bother to throw the line out.  The last thing I want right now is to have to clean and cook a fish.

There are still a lot of birds flying around.  We are hundreds of miles from land.  Where do they go to rest?  Where do they build their nests?  A booby bird has landed on the wind vane.  He makes himself at home and goes to sleep.  He stays there all night.  In the morning, he and I do some stretches together and then he takes off.