Atlantic Crossing Day 10

At 1800 UTC our position was 19.08.49N, 33.43.47W.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!!! It only took 10 days and a sacrifice of 4 lures to the sea gods. But boy was it worth the wait! A beautiful 13kg yellow fin tuna was hauled on board this morning after some effort. The freezer is full again. And most important of all we are having SUSHI tonight for dinner!!! We have all the fixings ready to go and many hands will hopefully make it a quicker process. Since we don't have any more room in the freezer, the lures (what is left of them) will stay in the tackle box for a few days rest.

And on the plus side perhaps we will sail a little faster without three lines trailing behind us. The spinnaker had to come down yesterday evening as we were hitting up to 20 knots of apparent wind. So it was a slow, rocky night with only the headsail up. But at first light today the spinnaker is up again and doing her thing beautifully.

The hoisting and lowering of the spinnaker has often caused us problems and last night was no exception. But what a difference it makes to have four sets of hands helping get her down. Jeff and Darryl discovered a problem with one of the blocks at the top of the sail so worked well into dark to get her all fixed up for this morning's sail. We will see how it works out when we have to lower her again. Always an adventure!

The air temperature is getting warmer, although without a thermometer on board, I can't tell you how warm. Still not warm enough yet for Sandra to shed her foul weather pants on her night watches. The water is even feeling invitingly warm. Too bad it is not calm conditions to stop the boat and take a dip.


The Maple Crew

PS: WHALES!!!! Before I am able to send off this email, we are currently being visited by whales (two of them, we think!)! It is now close to two hours that we have spotted them circling around us. It has been the most amazing two hours spent searching the waters to see where we could spot them next. One appears to be about 6 meters and the other 8 meters. They even like to turn on their backs to show us their white bellies just below the surface of the water. Who knows how long they are going to stick around!? What an incredible experience for all of us here on Maple!