Cathy Manuel

At my new writing post, the he, trying to ignore the sheet lighting around me as it isn’t showing up on the radar, and I can’t outrun or maneuver around something I cannot see. I am sure there is a life lesson tucked into that last sentence but I’m too tired to peel it apart.
Yesterday, Brian was taking a bucket shower off the transom and the crew was asleep when I heard the fishing reel go off. It was the lighter one, that is squished under the wind generator (and always scary removing it). I tightened the drag, but the feisty bit was dancing atop the sea and I was doing my best to not loss tension and slowly reel it in. As it flew out of the water, it was apparent it was a Mahi. I reel it all the way in, Brian had the gaff ready on the transom, but it was a fighter. I had the fishing line wrapped around my hand trying to keep tension while Brian tried to find and opening through the gills but ended up puncturing its side. We pulled it up to the deck, & poured rum in its gills to kill it.
We noticed that Brian had the swelling of two golf balls on his small calf. The fish must have hit him hard are it gave its final fight before being poked. We iced his leg and I set about skinning and filleting the big guy (46 inches and 15-20lbs). It took along time, and was painful for Brian to watch… but I managed to do a good job and get lots of meat. We trimmed and bagged it before again working on the sender for the port fuel tank.
Having been up since 2:30am and now, after making a big egg, spinach and salmon breakfast, catching a fish, & doing boat chores I was exhausted. I went to the aft cabin to try and get some sleep but it eluded me.
We had fish, quinoa and salad for supper. I made the salad, and heated the quinoa and our sea sick crew volunteered to try and cook the fish. He was below for 3/4 of the cooking before coming up. It was delicious!
I went directly to bed, taking an Aleve and melatonin (a combo that seems to work) and got some sleep before my midnight to 3am shift.
Today the morning was started with the engine off and tried sailing… but with barely any wind or forward momentum it was havoc for the sails and rigging. It wasn’t long before the roar of the iron sails pushed Lorena forward….. unfortunately she coughed and sputtered black smoke before finding her rhythm. The long continuous wear on the engine has taken its toll on the batteries and the freezers. The lithium isn’t changing well and the voltage in dropping below 13v. The freezers are not freezing. It was one of the many things keeping me awake when I tried to nap the previous day. I wished I had taken action then… half the Costco meat was thawed as well as the fish. We removed everything from Freezer 1 that wasn’t essential and moved it to freezer 2…. Putting all our meat in the coldest. Sadly it is still reading pretty high, although I haven’t checked it yet.
The big event of the day was bathing. It is finally warm enough for bikini, so I tied myself and my bucket to the transom of the boat, and sat there with handfuls of conditioner trying to de tangle my hair. Eventually, when my fingers could run smoothly through the wet curls, I applied some shampoo. Yes the opposite of how you usually do it…. But conserves water and doesn’t create more knots. The rest of the day I read, we removed the icing glass, tried again to figure out the port tank sender and finally switched over to said tank. We are tracking in the log book, as well as a bread crumb trail of waypoints on the Garmin, each time we fill the day tank. First tank (about 7 gallons) we got 40nm.
Filet Mingon was on the menu tonight, with baby potatoes and salad. The sea state had calmed down and although there was a lot of cloud cover and occasional showers, it was easy to grill the meat and be in the galley. Once done, I did the dish and went to bed before my shift. We are still on EST and it is dark by 4:30pm. In another few hours, we will be at Day 11 and less than 400nm to Antigua.
We have already travelled 1300 miles…. And would love to arrive in Antigua for a party on Sunday night, but it will likely be Monday before we arrive.En savoir plus