Fishing day

Passage Panama to French Polynesia, day 8, Monday 27-March: A jolly good fishing day!

We are sailing out of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno by 7am, with crew well rested, fuel tanks full to the brim, deck tidy and clean bottom (Cloudy’s, that is 😁). Ready for the next 18 days and 3000nm to Gambier in French Polynesia. At least, that is where we want to go to, on a sailing boat you never really know where you’re going until you actually get there!
Most yachts head for, and make their first stop, in the Marquesas, Nuka Hiva, but we like to be different! The navigational challenge is the Gambier archipelago lies quite far south which places it south of the SE trade winds, and therefore often subject to the low-pressure systems that roll up from the southern Pacific. That could mean high winds or head winds, or both. Neither of which us bluewater softie-sailor types are fond of! So the tactic is to head to the southern edge of the SE trade wind zone, and as the weather forecast up ahead becomes clearer, we sail to Gambier but also prepare to divert up to Marquesas if need be. Today’s forecast only goes out 10 days but it will be 15-20 days for us to reach Gambier. So we’ll have to play it by ear, as they say.

As usual we soon have the sails out and engine off. And we are ghosting along in 6-8kts of SE breeze on our port beam. Our initial trajectory is through the islands, north of Isla Santa Maria and south of Santa Cruz and Isabela.

One thing that I’ve been surprised about is the size of the Galapagos archipelago that is generally just a speck on any map. The island group is 150nm E-W and 100nm N-S (300x200km). The biggest island, Isla, Isabella, is 75nm long and 45nm wide (150x90km). If you are into trekking, there is a lot of pristine area to choose from. If they even allow trekking, that is.
With this size, it takes us all day to sail from Cristobal to officially exiting the islands. And what did we do all day? We fished! [Shhh! Maybe we are not actually allowed to fish here!].

We’ve had 2 new lures out trailing behind for many days now and only 1 bite that got off-the-hook in just a few minutes. I had the notion I’d be pulling yellow fin tuna out the water one after another and feeding Oana with her favorite food – sushi. Today, in these island waters full of live, it is different. After a couple of hours, we had a very good bite, but it got off the hook too – taking with it the lure, leader and swivels. I always feel pretty bad for the fish when that happens. It’s one thing to catch-kill-eat a fish, but quite another to catch-lose-injure a fish. Especially that it will probably die a slow death.

With a new colourful lure attached to the line, meant to attract mahi-mahi, we do catch just that. A nice little mahi-mahi. Or quite a fighter for its size. Once landed on the deck we do our usual, making it die “happy” by squirting medical alcohol into its gills.

Then, while preparing to dissect our prized dinner, Oana notices we are being escorted by probably almost 100 of what looks like tuna. I’ve never heard of fish that follow a moving boat like this. Seems very odd. Maybe they are all male, and have spotted Oana on the deck? If so, they can’t be aware she loves to eat fresh male tuna!
The sight of their silvery bodies flashing at us sends us into a frenzy. We must catch one!
First, I dip the rod with a tuna lure over the side and almost immediately get a bite – then it gets off. And because I had so little line out, the reel gets a huge birds-nest tangle. Bugger! What bad timing for that to happen.
By the time we’ve sorted it out, it seems the word is out among the tuna – “stay at least 5m from that boat, or you’ll be dinner”. They are now all teasingly just out of reach. Impossible to get our lure out there. And dragging the line behind the boat gets nothing. They are all along-side, not behind. We can’t but help to think they know what’s good for them!

Pondering for a while, not to be defeated, I make a “cunning plan” (as Black-Adder would say). We deploy the spinnaker pole out over the water with the fishing line through its end. This gets the lure just into the edge of the tuna pack. And bingo! Instantly 3 or 4 of them fight to get the lure first and we catch the winner almost immediately! A nice little, but very chubby, bluefin tuna.
Now the downside of catching fish is the need to gut and dress them. It’s something I don’t think I can ever get to enjoy doing. Bad enough killing a creature of beauty, without taking a knife to it.
Nonetheless I do it. Post gutting, I cut fillets of the mahi-mahi and large juicy red steaks of the tuna. Then Oana further cleans and prepares them in the galley while I wash the abattoir-aft-deck of blood!

We had some tuna steaks for dinner, and they were divine! Oana very lightly cooked them like you would a rare steak and the red meat just melted in your mouth. Yummy. Tomorrow will be mahi-mahi, then repeat. We guesstimate more fishing will be required in 3-4 days.

By sunset we are away from the islands again, being loosely followed by our boat buddies on Salty Ginger. As the evening progressed the wind built to a nice 12-14kts on the beam, powering Cloudy’s over-sized rig at 7-8kts, plus a knot of favorable current, giving us a very healthy SOG to start our route. But although wind is abeam, the apparent wind angle is 060degrees which gives the boat a motion that always gets Oana sick 🤢. So much so that we hove-too for an hour while she cooked and we ate dinner. It always amazes me how peaceful the boat becomes when we do this, totally dead in the water and just drifting with the current at 0.8kts.

At midnight we are firmly sailing off into the huge Pacific with NOTHING in front of us for a full 3000nm. And then that is only 1/2 way across the ocean! And for the first time since crossing the Atlantic, we have no fixed waypoints to aim for. Our only goal for the coming days is steer generally at 245deg, until we meet the trade winds, then turn slightly right. There is no perfect route to be made here. In this early stage of a long passage, sailing in the generally required direction is second to sailing comfortably.