(December 23, 2017) Waves are still undefined making for uncomfortable sailing. I took extreme care when boiling water to make coffee not to get hot water spilled on me. This is the first time we have used the stove during this trip. At least the wind speed has been more or less steady keeping sails from crashing. We have been using a spinnaker pole (with Jib Sail) for wing-and-wing sailing after our jib-pole got folded in half yesterday.
We don’t normally drink alcoholic beverages when sailing. Because of high waves constantly beating the boat, I have hardly slept for the last two nights. When it was my turn to go to bed (John’s watch duty), John suggested I drink a glass of wine. It worked. I was almost asleep; suddenly, I heard the fishing reel acting crazy. Based on the sound, I knew it is a big one and it needs two people to bring the fish up on the boat. I got up and helped John to bring a 4.5 feet (=1.4 meters) Wahoo Fish. This is the third catch for today. The first one (Baby Mahi Mahi), we released it back to the ocean. The second fish (Mahi Mahi again) skillfully escaped. This third one (about 50 pounds = 23 kilograms), we worked hard to bring it up on the boat, filleted the fish, vacuum-packed, stored them on the freeze, and finally clean the fish tracks and guts with fresh water everywhere on the boat. By this time, I was wide awake. The second glass of wine took me to my dream land in a second. Wahooooooooooooooo!
Kay Chung @0500 UTC on Sunday, December 24, 2017
GPS Position @N16.09/W29.28