password] Tsar12
[position]14 85.29S 159 86.72W
[weather]wind E 18-20 knots seas 2-3 M
[status] after sailing on Tuesday with gennaker in trade wind conditions we got a wrap around the forestay when it collapsed - it subsequently wrapped at the top as well and the situation didn?t look great especially when my attempt to go up in the bosuns chair was too dangerous in the seas . Last straw - we tried the electric jib Furler which succeeded much to our relief :)
As we weren?t going to make it to Suwarrow by thurs afternoon we then decided to throttle back and sail just under main especially as the seas were building.
The seas are similar to what we had on the trip up - what a difference going the right way makes both in comfort and stress on the boat !
When we had the gennaker up I was looking out the hatch and noticed a small raft less than 30 metres pff our course - we went by at 9 knots and the raft appeared to be some sort of FAD ( fish attracting device) but was drifting - I could see several mahi-mahi under it but it was too late to throw out a lure but it made me realise how dangerous these things are- when they anchor them I guess no maintenance is ever done and eventually they break loose - if we had hit that it would have caused considerable damage and were only 30 m away !
Yesterday ( Wednesday) I decided
To re spool one of my fishing reels as I lost a lot of line when I had a strike a few days? ago so after doing that I set a lure ( already one out) and hey bingo another strike :) I knew it was a reasonable fish although I suspect the lure I lost was a bigger one and got the trace to the boat when it set off again with another 100 m burst - at this stage we still hadn?t seen it as it was under the boat before the last run but eventually we got it traced and gaffed and we had a 80+ kg stripped marlin - high fives all round.
Greg - this one was for you - we tried so hard and were so desperately unlucky not to land something like this when you were aboard .
Now our freezers are to the brim with marlin and I can see fresh fish on the menu for some time :)
Hopefully now the bogey has been broken our success rate will increase however the need to put a lure out at the moment has obviously greatly diminished!
Fresh sushimi for dinner was appreciated .
Tonight we are still under deep reefed main which we will maintain until the morning as we didn?t want to arrive to Suwarrow early and in the dark but with the forecast winds due to lighten tomorrow and a gibe needed to get us on the right line for our final approach we will probably be able to go back to full sail tomorrow.

'

[END]