Ferocious fish

After a full 24 hours with the Parasailor flying, it feels like the perfect sail for these conditions. The wind, almost dead astern, is blowing 12-18 knots and the spinnaker flies steadily without flapping or collapsing. The seas are pretty smooth which helps. An increase in wind is forecast for late tomorrow, so I shall risk flying it another night I think. However with only one person on night watch it can be a problem if it needs to come down, so another crew member has to be woken.

I have been very engaged with the book that Emma brought me. It is the GCHQ Puzzle Book and although at first defeating me I have, eventually, begun, with help from Justin, to decipher it. My great triumph on night watch was to crack the GCHQ Christmas Puzzle, for which no answers are given the book. If one submits the result to GCHQ it takes you on to another level.

There have been many more birds in evidence today with lovely White Tailed Tropic Birds, and flocks of 20 Sooty Terns circling shoals of fish nearby. Our fishing lines were out hoping to catch a large fish preying on the smaller shoals, and this afternoon that is what happened. Toby was holding the rod as we passed within yards of a swirl of Sooty Terns, and suddenly there was a big strike, and he was fighting to reel in a big fish. Suddenly the carbon fibre rod snapped (sorry Kyle) and Justin leapt to help haul the fish in wearing gloves, of course. He and Toby fought the monster for a while, and then the line went dead. As they hauled in the slack it suddenly struck with great force again and the line snapped. Possibly a much larger fish helping itself to the hooked one!

Having said that everything was working smoothly, of course things didn't. Our masthead navigation lights have failed, and then our steaming light. Luckily we still have deck level nav lights. Our six month old batteries, bought in Panama, are also a problem. We installed 450Ah, expecting to get half of that between charges. In fact we only ever got a quarter when new, and this has drifted down to only 50Ah before the voltage is too low to operate equipment. So we have to run the generator every 5 hours at night, although the solar power keeps us going all day. I think a Watt and Sea water generator sounds like the answer as, according to various boats we have talked to, it can produce enough power whilst sailing to run everything.

Thinking of you all - do drop us a line on paul@myiridium.net