Fishing for us has always been a team effort. We both put the lines out and both pull in the lines or Wade might gaff the fish when Sara gets the fish near the back of the boat, but this time Sara caught, filleted, and cooked her very first fish. During watch Sara spotted something that looked like another boat about 1/4 mile off our port side. As she looked harder the white shape on the water was not a boat, but appeared to be birds! About 25 big white birds were diving in the water. She didn’t want to wake Wade, but knew he would be happy to catch a fish so she threw the hand-lines in the water. As we sailed passed the diving birds we did not catch anything. She sat back listening to her audio book and about a mile passed the birds she heard our new bell chime attached to the hand-line alerting her there was a fish on the line. She quickly got the 50 foot hand-line onboard(still have not caught a fish on this line this trip), moved a spare diesel jug out from under the center step, lowered the center step making it easier to reach the swim step, and started pulling the line in. The line was hard to pull but she consistently pulled the same distance each time so there could be no slack in the line. As the fish got to the back of the boat she realized it was a tuna and worried about loosing it off the cedar plug lure because she was grabbing only the monofilament attached to the lure and didn’t have a gaff. One mighty yank and the 15-20 lbs Albacore tuna shot onboard into the cockpit. She was sure Wade was going to pop his sleepy head up because it was 7:30 AM. She lifted the center step, so the fish could not flop out and let him slide behind the port wheel. Excited and so happy she waited for a moment thinking Wade would hear the noise but nope he was still sleeping. To ease the fish and speed the process she took a knife to cut the gills as she has watched Wade do so many times. She held the fish in his passing moments saying, “Thank you fish for you energy, we promise to use the energy we receive from you only for good”.
Sara waited near another two hours before Wade woke up. She excitedly told him the story and asked if he would teach her how to clean and filet the fish. The first time cleaning a fish is a little nerve racking because you don’t want to leave behind any good meat or waste anything. This being a gift of meat and you don’t want to ruin the meat. The little hunks that we had to cut into pieces because Sara didn’t stay exactly close to the ribs and fins could be used in our Possion Cru dish, but all and all not a bad first time. Sara decided that Wade’s fish cleaning skill makes it look too easy. Along with the Possion Cru we froze a couple of fillets for later and this afternoon we had super yummy sushi rolls. This is our first Albacore tuna and we both agree we love the taste.
Over the last 24 hours we made 157 miles good towards Dutch Harbor.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
**Due to possibly weak SSB transmission, game details are limited to vessel position. Math Be Hard For Sailors – Alaska
Ves. Pos. 42°15.373’N, 166°09.923’W
