Steve: Day 18

383nm to go. Just over 100nm closer in one day. Better than the day before but still in the zone where we would have been doing better with the big sail. For a while I contemplated getting it out again but my memory reminded me of the scale of the job so I didn’t go too far with that idea.

Day 18 was a mixed day for me. I spent a lot of time sleeping. Maybe I’m a little down. It seems we’ve been about 4 or 5 days off landfall for 4 or 5 days. While the miles to go have been decreasing the time we need to get there seems to remain the same. May the 2nd landfall remains an outside possibility if the winds return to their previous form which seems unlikely. May 3rd is looking more and more like the day.

We had some uplifting moments. During the morning we landed a skipjack tuna although not using the lines. Either through chasing food or avoiding being food the tuna must have been airborne as it slammed into our deck above our cabin smasing it’s face right in then bouncing over the seating area to land dead on the aft walkway. The impact was so bad that blood was spattered everywhere. We cleaned the boat and fish and bagged the latter placing it into the freezer. In the late afternoon we spotted some dolphin. They’re supposed to bring luck and soon after it seemed the wind did pick up a little. Also, just after dusk, when pulling in the lines, I discovered one had tripped the nut alarm without us hearing it – perhaps during dinner. On the end of the line was another skipjack tuna – this one being a little larger than the earlier ‘gift’.

Apart from that the only other ‘event’ was that I finished the last of my Sherlock Holmes stories, “Valley of Fear”. Time to move on to other topics and authors.