We were discussing what we wanted for lunch and decided to snack on a pomplemouse on the back of the boat. Just as we were taking our first bite Sara saw a fish hit the lure. She grabbed the line and started to pull it in, we got a 40 lbs Wahoo and made some yummy Wahoo curry, coconut, and rice and froze the rest. We figured our fishing was done for awhile because there wasn’t much space left in the freezer.
As we got further from Nuku Hiva Wade spotted a flock of birds feeding. And it was such a huge flock of birds that seemed to go on endlessly ahead. And we saw the fish jumping out of the water as they were feeding, fish that looked nearly as big as dolphins. Finally it became too much to watch and we thought that surely there must be a way to fit a little more fish in the freezers, especially since we we figured we were apt to catch a tuna, which is the fish we really wanted. So a smaller tuna of about 25 to 40 pounds would be dandy, but still a lot of fish for our available freezer space. The first swarm of birds was far off to our port, but we were still on track to go directly through the second swarm of birds. Sara watched the line and lure as we approached the second swarm and saw the line suddenly go down, way deep, and also to starboard. She immediately grabbed the line and tried to pull it in to no avail. The bungy was stretched to its maximum so we changed coarse to slow down a couple knots and still Sara could not pull any line in. Finally after Wade stowed our main sail the boat slowed just enough and Sara had time to put on leather gloves and was able to start pulling in the line. Occasionally the line would slip through her hands but within 5 minutes the fish was at the back of the boat ready for Wade to gaff. Wade stuck the gaff in the yellow-fin tuna and we got so excited because it appeared the largest fish either of us have ever caught. The fish seemed to obviously be hung up on something on the swim platform of the boat because both of us could not pull it fully on board. Finally with some grunting and extra effort we managed to get it on deck for the next battle of trying to keep it from flopping all over the place and with a dangerous hook in its mouth. At last we reached a point of subdue and being able to take pictures and we measured it to be 62″ long and it felt around 200 lbs when trying to lift it. Our next difficulty was what to do with all this tuna, but much to our surprise our three freezers some how absorbed the huge tuna steaks, with only having to throw over aboard a frozen breadfruit, some old smelly cheese, and some ice. We are using the best pieces of tuna for sushi, possion cru, and poke. We’ll also use our four last empty canning jars. In the end, it just figures that when you only want to catch a small fish, you end up catching the biggest fish of your life.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Math Be Hard For Sailors – Hawaiian Islands
Destination: Hawaiian Islands (19°15.545’S, 154°31.747’W) Prize: Marqueses post card from us to you
Submissions are accepted until 4/17/16.
Please only submit the date and time only, no need for your crazy calculations via ComfortCruising.com Math Be Hard For Sailors Contact Form. Weather: Sunny and clear.
Ves. Pos. 08°50.494’S, 140°15.671’W
SOG: 5.4 kts
Course Over Ground (COG): 345°
Time: 12:00:37 PM 4/9/17
Nautical miles to destination as a bird flies(Crs Rng & Brg): 1886 nm
Compass degree required to reach destination as a bird flies (Crs Rng & Brg): 333° Apparent wind speed (AWS): 9.5 kts
Apparent wind angle: N/A because the wind was on the nose due to being in the lee of Nuku Hiva and motoring.
