Today we caught a fish. While that may be a common enough occurrence
in the ARC, this was no ordinary fish. It was the result of grim
determination and teamwork by the EH01 crew. After an equipment mishap on
the first day left us without any usable fishing line, only a bird’s nest of a
tangle that looked like the wigs we wore to the Night in Rio party in Las
Palmas. we set about the painstaking job of finding enough usable line to fish
with. Three days of crew effort, with everyone pitching in, resulted in
sufficient line to give fishing a go, only to see the first fish take all of the
carefully hoarded line in just a few seconds. Not to be deterred, the crew
continued the job, and ultimately we had barely enough line to try again,
with no room for error. Yesterday afternoon, we heard the sound of the
reel peeling off line as the fish swam one way, and we sailed at 9 knots in the
other. This led to 10 minutes of absolute chaos, as catching that fish
became more important than even the sailboat race. The fish was
landed! That beautiful Dorado a metaphor for the determination and
teamwork of the EH01 crew. It was also a very nice
dinner.