Days 16 -20 by Crewman Couch
Who needs gas anyway?
Our last week at sea has seen some highs and lows...
The weather has been fantastic for lounging but not so good for sailing. We've had brilliant sunshine with clear skies everyday but only a measly 10-12 knots of wind which has really slowed our progress. The ARC weather forecast comes in everyday with the promise of trade winds at 15-20 knots but everyday we are left wanting. It seems the wind speed only builds as we haul out the spinnaker and try to fly it (We can only fly the spinnaker at low wind speeds as it's too tricky to control at high wind speeds)!
We are however making slow but sure progress with less than 170 miles to go as I write this post.
It seems that after Holland released his fish (our first catch) Karma has come good as we now can't stop catching them! I've had 2 Mahi Mahi and a couple of small catches and everyone else (except the skipper) has landed at least one Mahi Mahi. Natcho's catch was the first to make it to the dinner table after it was expertly mongered by Holland and Natcho with some select cuttings being kept aside for some Mid-Atlantic Sushimi complete with soy, ginger and wasabi. The rest of the fish was filleted and grilled by Skipper Pete and served with some Canarian potatoes.
The following day, Damo pulled out another prize catch and after dispatching the fish, Holland once again gutted, skinned and and prepared the fish for Dinner - this time it was being cut into steaks and thrown in to a curry! Agreeing that we had enough fish for eating we continued to fish but just for the sport... Cofone reeled in the next fish - another Mahi Mahi and after some struggle and dramatic thrashing (from Cofone) the fish was on board and the obligatory photos were being taken. Sadly, the fish had swallowed the hook so deeply that no matter how hard we tried we couldn't free it. Cofone made the decision that we should cut the line and set the fish free with the hook in its throat, he then spent the rest of the day tortured by the image of the poor fish struggling to survive and even had a nightmare about the beast coming back to attack him!
Not more than an hour later I hooked another and it proved to be the toughest fish we'd caught! It put up quite some fight and once on board thrashed about and caused itself some damage - the cockpit was covered in blood and we felt the most humane thing to do was to kill the fish and make use of it. I buried the knife in it's head and then set about mongering it under the watchful eye of Holland. We now had enough fish curry to feed the entire ARC fleet! The day after the fish feast Pete awoke and attempted to make a pot of coffee only to find that we had been stitched up in Las Palmas and had run out of Gas! We'd been sold a duff bottle! We had at least 4days left to go and no means of cooking or even heating food!! The usual British reaction followed - Jokes were made and the Dad's Army theme tune was played. We'd survive - we have tins of beans and hotdogs as well as a bottle of gin and a few more bottles of wine! We really are starting to think we're being tested by a supreme being... maybe the locusts are on the way??
Today has been spent thinking about our pre arrival and post arrival to-do lists. Once in our berth we need to clean the boat, head to the laundry and then jump in a well deserved "proper" shower before getting to the nearest boozer as quickly as possible. Our next post should be written from a bar whilst sipping on some Rum...
Speak to you all soon
Crewman Couch x
