day 165: rainbow or rain bro?
Jamie here, this morning I woke up and came outside to be greeted by a cheerful Matt hand steering and a beautiful sunny morning. The temperature is so nice here, reminding me of my temperate home. Less lying in bed sweating, much more amicable temp for my body. I set out the handline and climbed back downstairs to make a cuppa and transfer the bread dough into the tins, a vital step before they go in the oven. I came back up after this process and sat next to Matt and looked back at the handline. There was something dragging behind it. Some blue rubbish? I said hey look something on the handline. Looks like rubbish. Matt said yeah caught some rubbish looks like. I bought it closer and realised it looked like a fish. Matt resolutely still thought it was rubbish. Got it up to the boat, a beautiful mahi mahi! Just the perfect eating size. So stoked. I spent a bit of time filleting it. Preparing now crumbed mahi with cassava fries. The best meal we had from nz to gambier all those months ago was home made fish and chips with mahi mahi. Here we are heading back home with the same meal! Finally some fishing luck. WOD today from our old ship mate Megan since she’s been nagging us to use her, to be frank, sub-par WOD. Perhaps you’ve lost your touch since being back in civilisation? But Megan, we still sees ya! WOD: tangent. Tangent - an off shoot, differentiated from a main subject U.I.a.s : in the tropics you can really pick the British visitors. They’re the pale gents in amongst all the tangents.
Naomi here I think it’s freezing here despite what Jamie says. But today we finally shook out the reeves eased the sails and eased the backstay as the wind swung round to have more northerly in it and also become a bit warmer in the day at least. Wendy the wind vane HATES going downwind with the full main so We have reefed the main again now it’s night time, in the hopes that she will manage to do the steering for us during the cold dark night. So far things are looking pretty dismal on that front, it could be a long night for bluebird. Today we were still seeing flying fish, even got a wee cutie on the boat, as well as petrels of some type I’m sure, and we also saw one mahi mahi. We are very much enjoying the drier conditions, the floor covering has even dried out today!
Miriam here, feeling unreasonably good after a whole 7 hours of sleep last night. I woke to the exciting sound of the mahi mahi slapping the cockpit in its’ last flailings, a handsome fish all vibrant yellow and silver with blue speckles and a lovely long dorsal fin. Jamie aka Papa seemed thrilled to finally be bringing in some sustenance for his Bluebird family after so many near misses and futile efforts. I’m glad he persevered. This morning was lovely, warm and sunny enough to bask a while (and I do love a good basking) though the chill has returned and now, just before sunset, clouds fill the sky and the temperature is quite brisk. It’ll be a cold one tonight and Wendy is swerving all over the place so we’ll see if companionway hunkering is possible or if we will be out gripping the helm shivering and dreaming of the tropics. The mahi mahi was delicious, best fish and chips ever with Windsong plum sauce to top off the feast. We are making great headway in eating all the produce and even did some cleaning today now that the floor is dry enough to sweep and the tea towels can actually be hung out to air and dry without getting more drenched. I’m hoping for another solid night of sleep in the quiet gentle rocking of downwind sailing in light (12 ish knot) wind; it may require more hand steering efforts on watch but it sure is comfortable. Having such a wild beginning of drenchings and lurchings and altogether uncomfortable circumstances has really made me appreciate the smooth sailing we are now enjoying as we get ever closer to NZ.