The last Mahi Mahi

The last one ? Not yet, at least we hope so. Anyway, yesterday after one
strike and two bites with nothing to show for, we got a third bite and
this time a good one. Being a little further on the learning curve, we
slowed down, pulled the fish a little closer but not too much, waited
until it got tired, saw it flip on its side and brought it in surfing on
the water. Once alongside, Claude hooked it in the belly (Ouch ! it
hurts ) and dropped it in the cockpit for a last drink of cherry liquor.
And all that with almost no blood in the cockpit. This time, the catch
was 44 inches long.
After that, it takes almost two hours to clean the fish, filet it, clean
the boat, so much that we decided not to put the fishing line back in
action. Cocktail hour was closing in fast and we could not be distracted.
Last night was party night as we were celebrating crossing the
antimeridian. So Ricard and Kir with liver pate on toast, then dinner
with pan fried Mahi Mahi and red beans, washed down with a bottle of a
good bordeaux wine kept for the occasion. Then peaches in syrup,
improved with a good splash of Armagnac. Everybody slept well that night
(not all at the same time of course.)
During the night, the wind also decided to go to bed and the speed
dropped below 3 knots for almost 4 hours. But in the morning, things
went back to normal, even a little more as early afternoon we had to
roll 1/3 of the genoa and keep 3 reefs on the main.
For the day, we have covered 136 nautical miles over the ground (140
through the water as there is still some adverse current) and we got 131
miles closer to Port Moselle which is now at 591 miles. Arrival still
expected for 29th morning.