Good Fishing

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. It had been overcast for several days, but yesterday the sun came out. Anyway, Steve had put out two fishing lines in the morning, and about 10 o'clock one line hit. Steve jumped up to pull in the fish when the second line popped. We had gone through a school of Dorado. I took that line, but I soon realized that it was a very big fish. I looked back in our wake, and I could see this fish jumping and thrashing around. I knew that I could not pull it in, so I helped Steve land his fish. He got it on board--it took two tries--and slit the fish behind the gills to bleed it. He then tied a line around the tail and threw it overboard. He does this to avoid a tremendous clean up. The fish flops around so much that blood ends up everywhere. Well, we then turned our attention to the second fish. When Steve pulled on the line, he said that it looked as though the fish was gone. When he got to his lure, only the head was left. The fish had broken the 100-pound test mono filament line. Yup, it was a BIG fish. Well, we weren't too disappointed since we still had the one lovely Dorado to fix for lunch, or so we thought. When Steve went to pull that fish in, it was gone. We have no idea what happened, but we were bummed.

We ended up having pork stir fry, which was delicious. Our fruits and vegetables have held up pretty well; however, it is definitely warming up, which means everything will ripen faster.

Now the really strange thing. When Steve was cleaning the first fish on the side deck, he noticed a cargo net with a few items in it floating by the boat. Next came a boot. Now Steve swears that he saw some of the lower leg bone sticking out of the boot. I glanced at the boot but didn't watch it go by.

Today is more overcast again. We are making good time and have been in the trade winds for several days now, so we have been lucky in picking our route so far. We are 990 miles out of Cabo and have been sailing with just the poled-out jib or wing-on-wing. Everything has settled down, and we are getting used to working with the motion of the boat. I have bruises on bruises in some places. Some things such as cooking are still a challenge. We are also sleeping a little better and trying to rest during the day as well.

Keep your fingers crossed for another Dorado!

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