Panama to French Polynesia – Just below the Equator – Day 21

Position: We are sailing South West just below the equator into the South Pacific. Our position is:

00 38.70S 100 47.65W

*Note: I am told you can copy and paste these coordinates into google earth and it will show you where we are.

Mileage:2459 – 2339 nm= 120nm

Number of miles to go: 2339nm to go of approx. 3850nm. We are about a third of the way to French Polynesia.

Fish count: The count has gone up to 4 Mahi Mahi, 2 Cero and 6 tuna. One Marlin that we were happy got away! After we crossed the equator and sent you all an email, we caught a big beautiful bull Mahi Mahi. Poseidon must have been very happy with his sparkling wine and sent us a big fat present! It always seems such a shame to kill such a beautiful iridescent fish, but then a remember how good Mahi Mahi is and I say….Ok.

LIGHT WINDS
After battling it out for a few weeks with strong winds on the nose, it is actually quit refreshing to have some light winds for a change. It is not going to get us any where fast, but with the decrease in winds usually comes a more settled sea state. The humans used the settled conditions to ‘desalt’ a bit. Sacrificing some precious fresh water to clean a little sea water off the floors and walls of the boat and change the bedding on the sea berth. It was calm enough to have the main hatch open for a while and air out the boat.

FISHING
We have some more lovely fish for dinner again tonight from the large bull male Mahi Mahi we caught yesterday. The freezer is truly stuffed again. We will have to eat a bit more out of it before we can fish again.
We are just using simple small, light squid plugs. These light plugs stay near the surface attracting fish to come up. We keep the lures small because we find that reeling in and cleaning smaller fish is quick and easier for us. Anything over 20 lbs we find hard to handle on our rolly boat. One hand is trying to cut the fish and the other is trying to hold 20 Lbs of slimmy fish from slipping away. Not always easy. It took a team effort of both the humans to hold and clean the last big bull Mahi Mahi.
You can get these squid plugs pre-made or make them yourself easily with bottle pop tops. Colour is important. Silver is always good, as small sardines are part of most fishes diet. You can combine this with red and black- Tuna attack. Or combine the silver with blue or green- Mahi Mahi catching machine.
A little known fact. Mahi Mahi mate for life. The male and female travel together with a large school. You feel guilty separating them until you find out that they also eat their own young. Bigger Mahi Mahi eat smaller Mahi Mahi. This is why the flash of blue and/or green attracts them. That is the same colour they flourece when excited. Mind you we caught the last Mahi Mahi on the black and red squid? And the last tuna on the silver and green?
You can go fancy with rods and reels, but many cruisers get along perfectly happily with just a good strong hand line. The hardest part for most people is learning how to clean fish. Most fishmongers are happy to help you. In the UK a good fishmonger sells the whole fish and you ask to have it scaled, filleted or staked. If you ask nicely, most will be happy to show you how to fillet one side of the fish and let you do the other side yourself with their help. The more times you go, the better you will get. They will help you learn what knives and tools work best for each different type of preparation and you may even make a friend. Even if you are already out traveling, fisherman all over the world are always happy to help a sailor learn how to clean fish. Just ask and they will be happy to teach you. The fish heads and bodies are used in many traditional dishes so the fisherman are often happy to take it back from you.

Hope this motivates a few of you out there to get out fishing.

END