For those of you that
are tired of hearing about how hard the sailing is over
here on the other side
of the Atlantic...this one's for you.
As we rounded Lanzarote
the wind eased as predicted and the sun brought the
temps up into the
70's. The kids spent all day running
around the deck which is a welcome change for them.
Kim and I are in
recovery mode. I ate 4 fried eggs with
cheese on top and 3
pieces of bacon with
juice and coffee for lunch and Kim slept much of the
afternoon.
In the early afternoon
the wind died almost completely and it is forecast to
remain virtually flat
calm for days so on went the engine.
Finn and Mom took a nap while Anna and Dad fussed around in the
cockpit. We were visited by a pod of
Spotted Dolphins.
Earlier in the day Finn
had declared that it was time to put the big fishing rods back into
action. As the day wore on I thought
"Boy, Finn is right,it's looking real fishy around here." I selected a nice new cedar plug and tied it
on to my heavy jigging rod rigged with lots of braided line. It was probably two hours before dark when I
finally got it set. I jigged it back and
forth for a few minutes hoping for a hit and then set it in the holder. We had dinner and I was down in the galley
doing dishes and Kim was in the cockpit drying when all of a sudden she started
hollering "Fish-on!" It was
nearly dark when I made the dash for the rod.
I had set the drag on the light side and when I moved the rod around to
the stern and tightened the drag I knew I was into a good one. Fortunately with no wind Kim could put the
boat into neutral and we slowed right down to a crawl. The first run was a screamer. I don't know how many yards of line are on
that spool but I ended up cranking the drag down as much as I could stand and
he never slowed down then just when I thought I better holler for a knife he
stopped. We fought up and down for almost two miles as recorded on the
GPS. The water
here is 10,000 feet
deep. He came up a few times but we
never saw him. The
line parted at the
swivel at the two hour mark. I was
almost glad. My arms are not going to
work tomorrow. He was by far the
heaviest fish I have ever
battled. We are guessing giant tuna and I think he
will be a little sore
tomorrow as well.
It was a surreal environment
with the flat sea, lights of Lanzarote in the
distance and stars and
moon.
Incidentally, when I
pulled the line in it was covered in jelly fish guts which stung my hands and
chest.
Anna drew a picture of
me battling the fish with sweat raining down all around me.
Thinking Anna's next
book shall be "The Old Man and the Sea".
Finn has selected a
giant double hooked Sluggo as tomorrows bait of choice.
We still have 80 miles
of motoring to reach Las Palmas on Gran Canaria so we
will definitely have
some fishing time in the morning.
Have a good night,
Bob, Kim, Anna and Finn
No comments:
Post a Comment