N 06° 29.753
E 168° 03.600

Just before or got dark, I decided to change the round sail for the genoa because the TWD changed to NE, forcing steering too much S of our needed course. We reach the limit of the round sail. So I decided to change the round sail for the genoa.

Tobi was cooking already so ib had to ask him to pause this.

When we were both at the bow and I just wanted to release the bow line, Tobi said, “The fishing rod”, I tought, “Good that he remembered that we were still trolling.” But o
in the next moment I heard the alarm of the reel. A fish was on the hook! Prefect we got one but why just right now?

The fish needed attention!

As discussed before I steered MaRe the way she slows down.
Tobi had a bonito on the hook. Got it in easily. I was necessary to kill the fish immediately so we could attend the sail. I poured a very strong liquor on its gills and it died instantly. Tobi cut it so the blood could flow back out of the body.

Back to the bow. Tobi took the retrieve line and I eased the bow line that the sail collapsed. Even with the collapsed sail, it was not possible to retrieve it by 4 hands. I put the retrieve line onto the mast winch and we could get it down on deck easily. We packed and stored it away.

Next genoa needed to be unfurled and trimmed with the barber hauler. An easy task.

Tobi went back into the kitchen to continue with the dinner. We had a good dinner with Japanese “udon” (thick, white Japanese noodles). Excellent. It was already about 2000 and I could finally start my last rest before my first watch.

Tobi continued with cleaning up the kitchen and fileted the bonito. I slept like a dead man until the alarm got me up.

Tobi was just completing his work. For him it was a watch without the slightest moment of boredom.

Now I’m sitting at the steering wheel, listening to sail, watching the instruments, changing the wind vane angle, trimming the genoa, and writing these lines. One hour of my first watch is gone, two more to go.

At the northern horizon the light of a working fishing boat and above me the starry sky with Orion in the center. Looking at the Milky Way with its many stars and thinking that our Milky Way is only one of millions of galaxies I wonder about life out there.