However the wind picked up strongly again and we had 44 knots and a top speed of 11.7 knots recorded despite being reefed down hard. The waves combine a big swell from the Roaring Forties, thousands of miles south, and the growing SE swell which this Trade Wind is driving. It's impressive when two combine to provide a clear green crest with light shining through it.
We caught our biggest fish of the voyage, a 1.33 meters long wahoo which weighed 13-14kg on my rusty old fishing scales. Stuart's long hooked gaff was used for the first time to secure the monster and lift it aboard. The fish was amazingly greasy as though covered with thick lanolin, making it hard to secure whilst filleting it on a rolling aft deck. Our freezer is now stuffed with very fine white fish, and it's been on the menu at most meals.
For example, I produced supper last night with wahoo in a hot Malaysian Asin sauce (sachet from Cocos Island) with aubergine and tomatoes served with rice, followed by a pineapple (sadly a bit past it). Then for lunch I used the leftover rice mixed with wahoo chunks and parsley bound together with a couple of eggs to make a kind of tortilla, which I served with a salad of thinly sliced red/green cabbage and apple mixed with nuts and raisins in an olive oil and lime juice dressing.
All our meals are served at the cockpit table, which folds away as the floor when not in use. We use a blue non-slip material to try to keep things in place while the boat bucks and rolls. Occasionally we remember to remark on how extraordinary it is to be sitting at a laid table, while the wind roars and the ocean surges and breaks around us!
I have been reading solidly through two books; first "Sapiens", recommended by Justin, which explores what it is that makes Homo sapiens so dominant a life form, and then its sequel, "Homo Deus" which takes an interesting look at how changing beliefs and technological advances could affect human society in the future. The conclusion is that human decision making and self-determination could be overtaken by intelligent machines, which know us better than we know ourselves or our environment.This is already evident for anyone who has started to trust technology e.g. the Waze app to guide one through traffic more quickly, or Amazon to suggest books to read, based on past reading choices.
On board Tin Tin I haven't quite got to that stage with the PredictWind weather routing programme, as it produces four options based on four weather forecasts, and the suggested routes tend to vary widely, and from day to day.
Our batteries are causing concern again. Since Darwin the length of time between charges (dictated by the voltage dropping to 12v) has steadily declined from 7 hours to 3 hours. During the day the solar panel does a great job and we can go from dawn to dusk without running the generator, but at night we need to recharge very much more frequently. I think a Watt'nSea hydro generator sounds the ideal tool for these long ocean trips as it generates power continuously under way. Most boats that I've spoken to have said it meets all their needs whilst sailing at above 6 knots. The wind generator contributes well as long as the wind is gale force!
However that doesn't answer the question of why the batteries are declining. I think it is because they are not "long life, deep discharge leisure batteries", and this is because I have not been able to find any of that type that fit into the battery box under the floorboards. They are all a bit too tall, so maybe we have to raise the floor........ I hope that I can find something suitable in South Africa.
Settling in to this long leg, with eight more days to go, I really need to do something other than read, cook, write my blog and play Sudoku (tending to become obsessive against the clock). I must try to learn the Ukelele that the girls gave me......I saw Matthieu strumming his at Cocos and his fingers seemed as big as mine, so it must be possible!
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