Captains Log 05/05/07

Located in Rum Cay, Bahamas

Yes, we are still in Bahamas, but at least we are making some serious progress again. I am very upset that we lost 5, I mean FIVE big mahis on today's leg. All the boats traveling in our group caught one, but us. And we had 5 hits, none of which were brought in. Anyway, I am still proud to say that we are the only boat, purely sailing today. Everyone motorsailed because the wind was just too far forward of the beam, and on the nose.
We woke up in the morning flat calm water with just a light easterly winds. By the time I listened the 6:30 forecast, made coffee and omelet, the wind had picked up a tiny bit out of the NE. Just perfect for us to sail off the anchor without ever turning the engine on. It was one of those magical days on which you can just raise the mainsail and the anchor up by hand, and sail off in the morning calm. By the time we rounded the leeward reefs, the other boats were hailing us on the radio, wondering what's the rush. But I knew they would eventually catch up with us as we had to tack for some time, until we managed to round the dangerous reef-infected cape Santa Maria, the northern tip of Long Island. I was determined to not motor at 5$/Gal and 1 Gal per hour, which equates to Rhode Island's minimum wage in 1999 or so. For a while, we contemplated going to Conception island, a beautiful uninhabited and lonesome island just NE of us, but the wind just gave us a better tack to make more progress towards our eventual goal, the DR. So we tacked back to port tack and spend a majority of the day healed to starboard and making great progress just about on the rumb line to Rum Cay. Everyone else was motor sailing and falling off further and further off the wind. Love the C&C for its windward capability, and we'll definitely need every bit of it from here on to the virgins. But back to our miserable fishing day. I think if we had by any chance landed every single one of our hits, we would have had over 100lbs of Mahi onboard. That's a lot of fish. But luck was just not on our side. I think, after consulting with everyone else upon arriving at Rum Cay, I realized that I am setting my hook too close to the little wiggly, rubber, wig-looking green and yellow lure. Those stupid fish go for something so dumb looking…I just don't understand it. But from here on out, I will make sure that the hook is about 4-5 inches away from the lure. New England striper and bluefish fishing doesn't get you far around here. Everything's changed. The nylon is 80lbs test at least, and the lures are completely different.
So our luck just keep on turning sour. The fridge died, and we have to live out of the can which were extremely expensive in Georgetown, and selection was pathetic. The only fresh food we could hope for is some trolling catch. You can imagine the disappointment on my face after that 4-5 foot mahi fell off. It took about 20 minutes of fighting to reel it in close enough to the boat where I was about the hook it with the gaff hook. Crystal was filming the entire ordeal. My mouth was already watering. That fish had some amazing yellow, green and blue colors, along with some very mean facial expressions. And then all of a sudden its gone. The line breaks as I was about to gaff it. I was gonna turn around because the fish was so drained from the fight that I thought I would have a chance to gaff him from the surface of the water if I turned around immediately. But the seas were just too big to have a chance.
So after that, we did have few more hits but the fish came off after about 5 minutes of fighting. Besides the failures of catching the fish, we had no other problems getting in to Rum Cay anchorage. That evening I went to check out the other boat's catches. And it was amazing. Gigantic fish. But I think patience will pay off.

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