Yesterday evening we caught a large tuna. It was
a struggle to get him aboard, not only because of his large size
but also because, as a result of heaving-to to stop the boat, the line was
caught under the hull. However, the beast was eventually overcome, gaffed aboard
and dispatched with a dose of gin poured into its gills. Sadly, any
terminal inebriation that may have resulted was scant compensation for
the suffering that went before but this is the most humane way of killing a
large fish and he died within seconds. It is tempting to make the observation
that in humans the end result of imbibing gin is potentially the
same but in most cases there there is at least more time to appreciate the
side effects. He (the tuna) was very handsome indeed - probably about
30 pounds. He has given us enough meat to keep us going for several days. As I
write Michael is preparing a tuna cervichi (raw flesh marinaded and
cured in the sun) and we will be having juicy tuna steaks for dinner
this evening.
I empathise greatly with Mr.
Mainsail. He is getting old and tired yet gamefully struggles on. We
lowered him onto the deck yesterday to repair the tear in the sail foot and
found other bits and bobs in need of attention also. There
were additional tears of varying importance on the luff and the leech and
two of the three batons were missing from torn pockets. We were able to replace
one of the batons and made a reasonable job of repairing the tears on the foot
and luff. The tear on the leech is contained and is unlikely to lead to a major
disaster before we reach the Azores but will have to watched. Repositioning
a main sail up the mast is normally not too much of a challenge in port. To
do the same thing on a heaving deck in the middle of the Atlantic
Ocean in 20 knots of wind is another matter! Anyway after much grunting and
groaning and more than the occasional expletive the job was done and
Mr Mainsail is again manfully stuck in to the task of
pulling Free Spirit towards the Azores - with 1400NM still to
go.
Log authored by
Peter.