Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Flying fish have run out of enthusiasm. Only three found this morning.

On the subject of fish. Deciding our recent problems with losing lures was due to inattention I rigged up a couple of ‘alarms’ using nuts on pieces of line set up in such a way that if a fish strikes, the nuts drop to the deck creating a noise that can draw the attention of the watch. Needless to say we caught nothing. We did learn that Leu Cat have caught 17lbs of yellow fin tuna using a hand line we made up and gave to them.

Sailing wing on wing yesterday proved to be more of a success than I expected. Tying preventers to both main and head sail we were able to sail 162 degrees to the apparent wind as opposed to the 125 we’ve been doing on a broad reach. These headings straddle our desired heading so we’re able to zig zag our way to Fatu Hiva. The ride was more comfortable and less windy. The motion was more regular as we were riding the swell more or less in line giving less side to side movement of the boat. I’m not comfortable sailing this way at night so for the next 2-3 days we’ll sail wing on wing during the day and revert to the broad reach for the night. Despite the lack of current, the zig zag course and our daily regeneration we’re still making over 160nm per day. We may just arrive on May 1st, just six days away, as long as the wind holds out.

In a way, this change in sailing represents the initial maneuvering aimed at landfall. For me this has raised my excitement levels a little. The Marquesas, in mind mind, are the first real South Pacific landfall which form the core of the round the world sailing dream that has driven me for the last eight or nine years. I’m looking forward to this immensely. Overnight we’ve passed the 1,000nm to go mark and our now into triple digits remaining. I think I can speak for all that we’re all looking forward to landfall. A decent, regular nights sleep. A stable boat. Land. A beer.

Not much happening, we’re still off course by about 20 degrees and winds not playing nice.

The fishing lines were not out and I suggested that we put only two lines out and put them up on the line hook things, as we would then have a visual indication when we get a bite, as they would pop off them. Steve went one further and put a mental nut on each so we would also have an audible warning.

After a few false alarms and the massive lure out about 20-25 feet, still no fish, but we have all the lures back on board safely.

We went “wing on wing” today for a few hours, just to see how the boat handles. Very smooth as we are going nearly totally down wind and with the swells. No longer in a mechanical bull rating scale for ride, it is now like a very lame little children’s fairground ride or the ones you get outside supermarkets, you know like the Postman Pat ones.

We are now back to the normal setup for the evening, but will go back to “wing on wing” in the morning.

No milestones.
No incidents.
No visitors.
No fish
No change!
Am I repeating an old blog or are the days repeating themselves?

We did have one moment of excitement. We sighted a large boat about 2 miles away. John took a photo and zoomed in to see what sort of boat it was. It looked like an old rusty fishing boat. Within an hour we lost sight of it.

The wind has been the same for days so the waves are the same height, same choppiness, same direction, same amount of white crests, same color but still ever changing. If you look closer you’ll see smaller waves on top of the waves and then tiny waves on top of the smaller waves and teeny weeny waves on top of the tiny waves and so on. Like a fractile. I sometimes stare at the sky and clouds too. Finding shapes in the clouds. A boot, a witch, a wobbly wedding cake. Its amazing how many different faces you can see in the clouds. Sometimes all sorts of strange thoughts and ideas enters my mind as I stare out, mesmerized by the sea and sky. At other times my mind goes vacant, and an hour goes by without notice.

There’s a song we hear often on our player by the artist Seal. One line in the chorus really relates to me.

“You’ll never gonna survive unless you’re a little crazy”

Steve found loads of flying fish in the morning 20 of them.

We saw a big boat of some sort. After taking some pictures and zooming in on them it looks like a rusty fishing boat.

We have been going slightly off course to go with the wind. I would prefer it if th wind came around a little bit so we are on course.

When we bright in the lines we have lost another lure and on the other line the hook was missing. We are catching things, but we think that because we aren’t noticing in time, something bigger is taking our fish.

The flying fish have collectively recognized the futility of their daytime suicide runs and have switched to en masse night sortes. At dawn I collected 20 of the buggers, big ones, from around the boat. Overnight we had a few rough broadsides and after each I could hear the rascals flapping around above our cabin. Grrrrr.

The one departure from normal was sighting a nearby fishing vessel. In it’s vicinity we came quite close to what looked like a floating radio beacon. I was concerned it may be one of many and we were about to run into a net but fortunately we had none of that. For a while the fishing boat turned and came straight at us but that ended up being part of some broader maneuvering.

We’ve been in email contact with Bristol Rose who are a few days behind us. Their current plans are to make landfall in Hiva Oa which could be around the time we’ll be there. We didn’t hook up in the Galapagos so perhaps we’ll rendezvous soon. We’ve also been hearing from Steve & Trish on Curious who are a few weeks ahead of us and have got quite excited by what they have reported.

The winds continue to come out of the East. With the motion over the swell (up to 10-12 feet at times) we can usually go no further than 125 degrees apparent (about 140 true) down wind before the main sail starts covering the headsail part of the time. We’re now off course by about 17 degrees which is not desirable. I’m going to try wing on wing for a while (headsail and mainsail out on opposite sides of the boat) today. We’ll need to be cautious about this and rig preventers to prevent an accidental jibe. I would rather have a favourable wind shift though.

Some of the boats in the group behind us have opted to stay north of 5S for a while which, in hindsight, would have been a lot better for us. We’d have kept the 1 to 1.5 knot current for a few extra days and had a better desired heading through these easterlies. Based on our recent average boat speed our ETA is May 1 but I’m sticking to May 2 as we’ll have to add distance to cover for our bad heading.

We’ve been inattentive with our fishing recently. Over the last few days we’ve lost about 3 lures and one hook. They don’t just fall off. I reckon we’ve either hooked big beasties that managed to snap the 200lb line above the leader or were regular fish that were eaten in turn by sharks. Who knows but if we’re going to fish we’ll have to do it when we’re prepared to watch.