Day Seven
Noon, Wednesday, February 29 to Noon Thursday, March 1, 2012
Noon Position: N 01.53.28 / W 085.38.20
Distance covered in 24 hours: 118 nautical miles
Distance Covered from Panama City: 628.6 nautical miles
Fish Caught Today: 1 A GIANT BILLFISH
Fish Caught on Trip: 2 (not kept)
Motoring: 0 hours
Sailing: 24 hours
Drifting: 0 hours
It's been a good and exciting 24 hours. We covered more than 100 miles in a day. We sailed all day. We are at 1 degree latitude – getting closer to the equator. Michael got the whisker pole fixed. AND, we hooked a GIANT BILLFISH. Here's that fish tale:
At 1520 at latitude N 03.05 and longitude W 84.27 we were sailing with a headsail and reefed main doing around 6 knots on a course of 209 degrees magnetic. The fish line off the fishing pole mounted on the back arch started to smoke off the reel. And we mean smokin'. The reel would be empty quickly. Even after putting the drag to maximum – we couldn't stop the line from spooling off as if no drag was there at all. Michael finally got the pole in hand and started to reel in the monster. It finally broke the line and we watched a 4.5 to 5 foot marlin surface and dance on its tail multiple times. It was quite a sight. We lost a blue feathered lure – but in a way it was worth the adrenaline rush. Glad it broke free as it would have been exciting trying to get that monster to the boat in the big seas. So under sail – we hooked a billfish. Cool.
The seas are quite big in these "crazy water" current upwelling areas and we've now been in one well over 24 hours. The seas are very confused with big waves and swells coming from many different directions. It's hard to move around in the boat or open any cabinets without cans and stuff flying out. Cooking is definitely challenging.
Today is Michael's birthday and Barbara had planned to bake him a cherry pie – but not in these seas.
We're getting close to crossing the line...and excited.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment