[password] radioactiv
[position] 24 36.368S 179 34.166W
[weather] no wind, less than 0.5 mtr swell, 40% cloud cover, 1021 baro
[speed] 6knts
[heading] 001M
[status] We are now in a westly longitude, oh the warmth and sun is glorious! Another great night motor sailing, Drew started and Sasha got up at 10pm to take over. Sasha had a decent sail for about an hour, with mainsail and headsail up. She used the constellation Lyra for most of the night to keep MOONFISH on course. Lyra is a compact constellation, marked by the 5th brightest star in the sky, Vega. Vega is the star Sasha used for most of last night. Mythologically Lyre was the lyre (the worlds first turtle shell seven string guitar) of the great musician Orphenus, whose venture into the Underworld is one of the most famous of Greek stories. It was the first lyre ever made, having been invented by Hermes, who used cow gut tied across it to create it’s seven strings. Sounds like this rockSTAR guitar got Hermes out of quite a few tricky situations during his rockSTAR youth, when he stole some of Apollo’s cattle, as he managed to calm Apollo with his soothing music and swapped the lyre for the cattle he had stole. Bit of a bargain Sasha reckons, here take my turtle guitar with cow gut strings, and I will take your cows.
Anyway we digress. After a decent sail with no motor hitting 8 and 9knots at time, the wind disappeared so Sasha started up the motor. Mike (who couldn’t sleep anymore) got up at 2:30am and took over from Sasha, he furled the headsail away, and motored through to the morning, when Drew took over around 5:30am. A peaceful uneventful night sail, with quite a bit of 6 and 7 knot travelling, we believe we have hit some unfavourable current.
In other news SASHA CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH OF THE PASSAGE! Yes we have a rather large Tuna on board now, Mike was on Helm, Sasha grabbed the rod, and Drew gaffed it once Sasha finally reeled it in. Sasha did try several times to relinquish the ‘honour’ of the rod job, but Mike kept saying, no it’s your fish, and Sasha was pretty glad when the silvery Tuna arrived at the surface. We think it’s a Pacific Blue Tuna, it kinda looks like a massive Skipjack to Sasha, but Drew spent some time on a Tuna boat and is pretty sure it is a Blue Tuna. We’ve taken photos so we will work out exactly what is is when we get some internet. What ever it is, we are eating Tuna Sashimi for lunch today, and no doubt we’ll have some Tuna steaks on the BBQ at South Minerva for dinner tonight.
All well on board.
[END]