Fish are jumping

At 8:00 a.m. yesterday Susan spotted fish jumping behind the boat. Steve’s fishing rig had caught a Mahi-Mahi. We hauled it in, Steve killed it, filleted it while I kept the deck washed off and we had it for lunch. It was most delicious. You can’t beat that for fresh fish.

Also yesterday we got our wind. It came on good and from the right direction. We were sailing at above 6 knots for most the day and night. We got back on course for Niue. Today finds us again a bit off course because of the winds. We weave our way there jibing as needed. (O.K. stupid sailing term rant: why do we need two names for the same thing depending on which way the wind is blowing? Jibing and tacking are the same thing!) We’re not sure when we’ll arrive. This passage has been harder for me as my seasickness has abated and then returned. Susan also was a bit sick last night, so we’re wondering if it was a food thing. Steve feels fine though and we’ve all eaten about the same thing. This morning’s excitement is meeting other vessels. A container ship appeared on the horizon. We turned on the VHF radio and started calling. Then confusion ensued. We heard back from two vessels. Here we are out in thousands of miles of ocean, having not seen anything in days and we’ve got two ships on the radio. Come to find out, the small container ship, which is plenty big, was called the Foriegn Pacific. The second was a sailboat called Summer Breeze. All three of us were converging in this little part of the ocean at the same time. After we sorted it all out and got everyone avoiding each other Susan had a chat with the crew of the Summer Breeze. It’s a 38 foot Down Easter being delivered to Brisbane, Australia by a hired crew. They had been terribly becalmed and had a day where they only made 5 miles. They’re low on diesel and can’t motor. Poor them. We’ve still got fuel and they guy asked if we could spare a jerry can full. Susan said, “sure we’ll drop one in the ocean and send it your way.”