I do the 2 to 5 am watch, motoring all the time in flat calm seas and with nothing to report.
I wake up feeling completely rested and as it is light and Mike is not beside me, I wait for a while for my cup of tea to arrive. When it is not immediately forthcoming, I yell out for it which encourages Heidi to chance her luck and shout out from her cabin too. Watch out, Casey!
When Mike does arrive with my cuppa he tells me it was only late because he had been catching me a fish. I drink my tea and get up to have a look. He has a Spanish mackerel, the first one of these we have caught, and it is lying in the grill of death waiting to be dealt with. I glare at it – it has nasty teeth - and disappear back to bed with my breakfast.
I lie there as long as I can then get up to deal with Mr Fish, now lying waiting for me minus his head, tail and innards. I kick off my slippers, put on my pinny and get to work. Although smaller than the mahi mahi we have caught, it seems to yield more meat.
No sooner has Mike disappeared below, and I have washed up the cutting board and knife and packaged up the fillets, than the line screams out again. I put the clutch on the rod, Casey slows the boat down and starts to reel it in while I put the gear on. He then hands the rod to me. There seems little resistance and for I while I think I have lost it but then it comes, another Spanish mackerel and bigger than the last one. I get it right to the back step but as I pull it out of the water, it thrashes wildly, sending the line over the side, whereupon he smacks himself on the side of the boat and gets off the hook. Bugger. At least he leaves the lure intact.
Within fifteen minutes, we have another bite and this time I get him all the way back to the boat and Mike has hold of the line when he manages to escape. We conclude that the barbs on the hooks just are not big enough on this lure. Must buy some nastier ones if we are going to keep our fish although we don’t like doing this just in case we need to let them go for whatever reason. Ah well, one out of three is better than none out of three and at least I don’t have to spend the whole morning with my hands covered in smelly fish. I disappear for my shower.
I cook some of the fish for Casey, Mike and myself for lunch and it is a really good, firm, white fish. Heidi doesn’t eat any as she has a level of fish allergy and doesn’t want to risk it.
There are whale and dolphin sightings again in the afternoon, but once again, they are too far off to capture on camera. We manage to sail for most of the day although the wind drops in the early evening and we resort to motor sailing. Now that we are completely in the protected waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the sea is calm and smooth. I so wish it had been like this for Johanne, Steve and Isabella.
Heidi is discovering the delights of Absolutely Fabulous and is gradually working her way through them. We have another fabulous sunset that begs to be photographed, so I oblige.
After dinner Casey turns into the domestic god he knew he always could be and does the washing up. I take the first watch.
Our position is: 19 deg 07 min S, 147 deg 14 min E
Distance so far: 10781 nautical miles
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