Badly Balanced Boobies

Last night I had a lovely satellite phone call to St. Mawes, finding that Anne and all our four daughters, their partners and our six grandchildren were there for the week. The weather sounded absolutely glorious, and it was easy to close my eyes and imagine the scene hanging over the wall above Tavern Beach to watch the Toppers, Oppy, canoe and other boats being happily paddled, sailed and capsized all over the bay.

I woke to another lovely Trade Wind Sunday, with a steady wind and fluffy clouds rolled by. I celebrated with toast and marmalade for breakfast - I've still got one cherished pot of my Trotton marmalade hidden in a locker somewhere. Later that day we clocked up 20,000 nautical miles in Tin Tin - the Earth's circumference is 21,600 nautical miles so we have nearly sailed a full circuit even if we are not home yet.

Justin saw a whale arching through the water today, heading in the opposite direction. Having not got engaged in fishing much on the trip, I found myself gripped by the Cruisers' Handbook of Fishing, which hitherto had seemed too technical, with most of the first section taken up with detailed equipment specifications. The chap on the cover also seemed rather scary!

But today I'd started in the back looking for recipes, and then found it very readable on the tricky subject of how to catch fish reliably. We set about applying some of this knowledge and, just as Justin was about to reel in the Watamu Yoyo at supper, I said " Hang on a moment- this is feeding time". At that instant the line jerked in his hand and he had hooked a nice big dorado, about 4feet long weighing in at 5kg. Toby, who was in the middle of preparing supper quickly incorporated Mahi Mahi fillets into the menu.

I altered course slightly northwards towards Tugalu Island in the Louisades, hoping to arrive there at midday tomorrow, and explore briefly before sailing on to Port Moresby. If we had carried straight on we might have arrived at midnight, so the diversion should avoid that and also give us sight of these interesting islands.

We are crossing a route between Japan and Australia so there have been a couple of ships passing ahead of us today. I called one to reassure myself that they can see us on AIS - they can.

As night fell boobies began to circle us looking for a perch for the night. We ended up with one on the masthead and one on each of the cross trees, but without much grip and a wildly swaying mast they soon slid off with a squawk! Meanwhile terns circle the boat being very vocal - rather like a rubber toy that squeaks badly when squeezed by Monty dog!