A Full Night of Adventure
October 11, 2017
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Dec 11, midnight, Day 2 Location: 14.06’.2S/176.06’.0E 54736 nm
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Tonight I’m on the midnight to 2 am night watch. By the end of crossing the crew voted this the worst time slot. The sky is a mix of clouds, so it seems the starts and moon are playing hide and seek with the clouds. There is a steady wind from the east which has us sailing at SOG 6.8.
I can almost hear you asking, “What does one do during night watch?” While everyone else gets a bit of rest someone has to man the helm and keep us safe. The Capitan leaves detail instructions called Standing Orders, which outline what to do in different scenarios based on weather predictions and our course. Most importantly he will tell us under which circumstances to wake him up. The person on watch prior to yours leaves notes in the Log Book and verbally goes over what happened while they were on watch. Duties are keeping your head on a swivel, as they say, always watching the horizon, no reading, no computer. We also make an hourly log of our location, wind speed, sky conditions and anything usual. Most importantly, stay awake.
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It’s around 7 am, it’s cloudy and windy with rough seas. The first order of morning business is to set the fishing lines out. I’ve never fished in my life and am looking forward to preparing and eating just caught fish. Well, today is our day! Around 11:30 a.m., both rods unspool and we all yell, “FISH!” Emma and Wayne jump on the rods and being reeling in our lunch. Tom takes over the helm, loosening the sails to slow us down. Emma comes up first with a gorgeous mahimahi. The colors are vivid and brilliant, turquoise, yellows and green, glistening in the sunlight. This guy is just a baby so we let it go.
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Wayne is in a fight on the other rod. What on earth has he caught? From the effort put out we expect a large yellowfin tuna. Tom spots a shark fin. Is this what Wayne is trying to land? After a lengthy struggle the line snaps up yielding… a head. That darn shark ate what appears to have been a very large yellowfin. Glad we could help you out Mr. Shark. Oh well. I decide to save the head to see how much meat I can get out of the head. The lines are reset, and we change course to pass west of Pinguin Bank.
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About three hours into my afternoon watch, I am at the port helm enjoying the view of the Genoa sail, Tom and Emma are up top having a snuggle, Wayne on the laptop – when will he put it away? I begin to wonder if we will get another tug on the line today. Just then the fishing line hisses out. I holler, “FISH!!!!” Tom jumps up from his daydreams, Emma flies down to the turn the GPS to manual and goes for the rod, and Wayne lets out the sails. I, in my newness have no idea how to stop the rod from unspooling and feel a bit useless. So I grab my camera. Emma’s face is set with determination, smiling with excitement as she works the rod. An enormous amount of line went out and the fish is diving deep and fast, fighting. With every 2-4 turns in and it’s 3 turns out. Wayne jumps down to help Emma pull the rod back, they are both using all their might, searching for leverage on a wet, slippery transom. After a good 10 minutes Emma hands the rod over to Wayne, while Tom sets up the GoPro. Emma is back at the starboard helm, keeping us on course and managing speed. We need to tire this beast out!
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I notice the time, so I turn my attention to dinner preparations. Short ribs with mashed yams tonight. Clearly we will need fresh, hot bread. Thank goodness for Chef John Downey, my mentor, teaching me how to make Irish Soda bread.
I poke my head out of the galley to see a 50 kilo, yellowfin tuna on deck. The guys are breaking down the tuna. It’s a bloody, slippery, heavy job.
The winds picks up, a big squall is approaching.
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