S 07° 28.735
E 170° 23.165

Using his super lure, he trolled since today’s morning. Then he got a bite. The alarm of the reel was sounding loud and while running towards the rod, he yelled, “A fish!”, to wake me up from my afternoon nap.

I rushed to the steering wheel and steered MaRe downwind to reduce her speed. Just when I had her sufficiently downwind I heard Tobi saying, “Oh, no!” He still thought the fish took the hook. Then we saw a part of a drift net passing by. And then he got really angry because he lost his lure most likely in the drift net.

I can understand that he is passed off. But such nets are unfortunately the reality because we want always cheaper fish. And the fishing industry uses such fishing techniques.

Shit happens!

BTW, the wind takes a rest; we have only 2 Bft TWS. When will it come back.

S 07° 39.468
E 170° 29.501

Finally we got the wind I wanted get on the first day out of Luganville.

We had to fight our way through the doldrums until last night.

Then the wind came during the night. Walking steadily to MaRe from S then SSE, SE, ESE, to reach E.

In her night gown MaRe increased slowly her speed to 6 KN. Then, after Tobi got up, we increased the main sail to reef 1. This brought a increase of 2 KN. Thus, with an wind increase to 14 KN she runs now above 7 KN on a closed haul course with an AWA of 45 deg.

Would the wind change back to SE, I could sail her on a close reach our beam reach course. This would increase her speed to 10 KN or a bit more.

But, there’s always a “but”, the wind change is forecasted to go to NE, which would force us to sail roughly a course of 340 deg. Not nice but the course still has a component in direction of our route.

Breakfast finished a while ago. Still sitting at the cockpit table, I’m writing this natation and look over PRT stern onto the blue ocean with it’s million shades of blue and the white horses with their beautiful contrasts to the blue of the ocean. Gosh, am I lucky, to be able to experience this all.

This morning, we had fish for breakfast. Marinated, thinly sliced mahi-mahi on bread. What a delicacy!

And guess what, Tobi is trolling again. He wants to catch a fast fish today. A fish which bites at 7 and more knots. Curious what it will be.

S 08° 46.578
E 170° 22.879

Today, we started rather early sailing with gennaker, the ideal sail for wind conditions we had. However, around 1400 we had some dark clouds approaching from PRT side.

Will they hit us or not?.

I carefully watched them and decide to change sails. I don’t want to be caught by a dark, low hanging nimbus cloud with a 124 m2 sail up. We put MaRe’s night gown up to be on the safe side.

One cloud brought a little bit wind but without a real wind increase and rain.

We kept the sail for the rest of the day as there were more dark clouds around.

Now at shortly after 1800, there is a real dark one approaching us. I already feel the cooler air. And the first rain drops are coming.

Will we get some fast sailing and a shower?

Let’s wait and see.

Nothing! Nada! Nichts! The first, the very first cloud brought no rain to take a shower or wash a T-shirt. Only a bit of wind.

However, the following ones delivered wind. Soon direction changed so much that we needed to gybe. As result we sailed pretty much on course with almost 7 KN. It was a nice run.

During my sleeping time, Tobi maintained direction and speed to it’s best.

From 0000 until now (2225) we made 72 NM. Great for the wind conditions we had, but poor from MaRe’s plentiful potential of 180+ NM for a day distance.

She suffers with us.

BTW – Fish, fish, fish until it comes our of my ears. We had 2 very delicious fish dishes today.

The first one was a specially marinated sliced fish and freshly baked bread. (Tobi forgive me to not use the right terms of a chef.)

For dinner he made – again bit off of the terms of a chef – a Thai fish soup and rice.

S 09° 32.470
E 170° 05.382

It’s 0635. The sun rises above the grey appearing sea in the east with a dazzling “sun river” on it. It’s already pretty warm, but with the STB cockpit enclosures down as shades and just a tiny little breeze, it’s kind of pleasant in the cockpit.

Looking at sea in stern direction, the sea looks blue with a highly reflecting surface, being dynamically structured with little wavelets, maybe 10 cm high. MaRe swings in the swell, which runs onto her from SW.

I started making dough for bread in my first watch. Now I continue and will bake around 0800. In between 2 “dough sessions”, I did my fitness training after which I always feel go.

Last night, we had a good run for a while, but during Tobi’s second watch the wind died. We took sails down but when i started my second watch.

As I needed to charge batteries again, I used the PRT engine for while to charge and drive MaRe towards the next WPT, which is still more than 600 NM ahead of us.

Right now MaRe has the genoa out and pulled open with the barber hauler. It’s not fast but we are moving.

When Tobi is up, I want to use the gennaker to gain a bit more speed. Having said above, I hope the wind conditions will be the same or even better.

Need to go back to my dough to have freshly baked bread for breakfast.

S 09° 53.87
E 169° 50.482

Starting at 0400 this morning MaRe was adrift with all sails down.

We were busy with plenty of small tasks. Tobi even tried jigging, a special way of fishing.

We watched a pod of smaller wales, looking like big dolphins, hunting and becoming curious enough about MaRe to swim around her.

At 1700, after 13 h, the wind appeared to be stable enough, both in direction and speed, to start sailing. First we sailed on the STB tack, but the wind started changing to W. We tacked. Wind got weaker and weaker. After dinner we furled the genoa, started the PRT engine to charge batteries and push MaRe a bit forward. After doing this for an hour the wind increased and stabilized from NW. We started sailing again.

At about 2145 I got up because I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Only minutes later the wind increased. 7, 8 , 9, 10 KN. Sometimes up to 14 KN. We got a dark cloud above us. When I looked at the night sky, I saw a string of 4 – 5 of these dark clouds. I hope we get all of them.

Since quite a while the SuperWind turbine started charging the batteries.

I’m sitting in the cockpit and feel the wind blowing on me and being the right propulsion for MaRe. She finally can run again and is happy about it.

And me ŧoo!

Not for breakfast so far, but all the other meals are fish, fish, fish. Fishes are coming out of me ears soon. The worst is, Tobi can’t stop fishing. Even now, with MaRe not moving at all, he works on the preparation to do jigging. He, unfortunately saw that I have a lure for jigging. With another, big fish – whatever one it is – he threaded to throw vegetables out of the fridge for his fish, fish, fish.

And now comes the point. I like to eat fish, fish, fish meals he makes. So far, from the currently several kilograms of the last mahi-mahi on board, not one dish was the same, but all were very delicious. I am looking forward the next fish, fish, fish dish he creates and hope he catches enough to still have some while in Tarawa at anchor.

S 10° 06.285
E 169° 43.512

At 0400 I gave up hand steering MaRe through the extremely low wind area wachting the wind turning E and further N. The entry in the log book for 0400 contains the term “circle” for TWD (true wind direction). At 0520 the same, And I expect that the 1200 entry will get the same term “circle”.

It got hot already. The sea has the code “zero”, standing for glassy sea. Not even ripples are to be seen. So a cooling weak stream of air is missing.

I’m sipping on my morning pot of tea, writing emails and this and maybe another narration for my blog.

As bad as this being adrift in the calm is, it also had a good thing; I could jump into the water and check the PRT propeller. Two days ago, we started in the evening the PRT engine, but did not get a thrust. I really was concerned. The only good thing was, that the engine without engaging the sail drive ran completely normal. I checked all manuals and spare parts list for a part which could cause such a phenomena, but found nothing. I wrote an email to a German Volvo dealer (Yachttechnik auf Fehmarn GmbH & Co KG). Since I left Europe, I am in touch with one of the managing directors. He helped me with advises and shipping spare parts when there was need. In this case he even replied on his Sunday and I got his mail very early my Monday morning while still being on my watch. He pointed directly to something, which should be sticking on the propeller and did not even mention anything about something in the power drive from the engine to the propeller. Just reading this made me feeling already much better.

Being well secured I jumped into the absolutely crystal clear water and saw already out of the distance that there is nothing sticking at the propeller. I could rotate easily just with one finger the propeller in forward and backward direction. “Now I need to runt he engine again” was the thought, which went through my mind.

Engine check showed a normal behavior with normal thrust!

There must have been something sticking at the prop 2 days ago. The problem was the last two days I could not dive into the water, and look at the prop. The weak wind was still too strong and the small waves too high.

After the last line I took a nap and woke up because my right foot was grilled by the sun.

Tobi, just jumped into the water for a short swim to cool down a bit, but came out of the water quickly again and shout at me “A shark”. I asked him to “Please only take only the small ones, the bigger ones are a bit tough to chew”. Then a saw the shark myself swimming around MaRe…

Don’t worry, Tobi is sound and save on board.

Around us is the big blue ocean from MaRe up to the horizon, the end of the disk on which we are floating. What is behind the edge of this giant incredible blue disk?

Final note: My brain still works despite the heat of the day.

There is more in the daily board routine then struggling with the wind.

In the afternoon hours, when the sun goes down towards the horizon, sunlight comes into the cockpit. As the sunlight is still strong, it gets hot inside the cockpit, especially when the wind is weak. Sun protection is needed. For the other hours we have the STB side enclosure tied up to the railing. This let’s air pass freely and provides shade.

My normal fitness training at the bow is not possible because MaRe moves too much for this. So I selected exercises, which can be done in a partially modified way in the cockpit. First tests were pretty good and it keeps me physically in a better shape during longer sails.

S 11° 20.965
E 169° 03.080

Today I don’t know really where to start writing nor do I have a title as before I start writing.

Since yesterday we really have some wind and are heading good up to our destination WPT. MaRe is not sailing fast but in the low wind areas she makes nautical miles good. One after the other.

At the beginning of my second night watch, while we still were up together for the short transition time, we saw already a huge low hanging black one in front of us. Radar showed the size and it was enormous! MaRe was well prepared for the onslaught. I prepared additionally some laundry detergent because I wanted to shower and wash my clothes in the rain this huge black one carries inside itself.

Then we were close enough and MaRe started feeling the wind. She accelerated wonderfully. As the sea was rather flat and not bumpy from old winds she smoothly plugged through the nightly sea. Squalls so far we’re very gently. Never winds above 20 KN. During last night it was the same. Maximum wind was only 19 KN.

When I stood at the railing and looked down at the fast flowing water, I had to recognize that I lost the feeling for MaRe’s speed potential. Last night she “only” ran with 8 KN maximum, and it felt incredible fast. Then I remembered the number of 12.6 KN after leaving NZ, and could not imagine the speed of the flowing water at her maximum speed.

Although MaRe sailed very fast through the squall, I was disappointed. Disappointed because the squall did not dump a drop of water on me wanting to shower. “Ok” I tought and was looking forward to the next squall just behind the first one. Frustration times two. Again no rain. To make it prefect I got also frustration number three. Three dry squalls.

At least MaRe made miles good. She told me, “I love these winds and want to have more of it.” “Well get some more. Please be patient!”, was my reply.

For the rest of the night she kept running with 2 – 4+ KN. A good speed considering the weak winds and her night dress.

She actually never complains about her night gown. She knows that I do for her safety.

Although I wanted to increase the main sail size shortly after 0500 when I was already daylight, I waited two hours more to give Tobi a bit more non-stop sleep. Then we changed the main to reef 1 to gain a bit more speed.

Tobi put the lure into the water hoping for a nice bit at trolling speeds of around only 3 KN. I was pottering around the boat tidying things up and looking for sail trim etc.

While I was still backing bread, Tobi started in the kitchen making banana pancakes for breakfast. All was calm and and nicely slow. But then he raced out of the galley to the fishing rod and started fighting. There was something on the hook. I took the fighting belt, gaff, and the pliers for the fish hook out, and got my harness ready. Next I tied the fighting belt around him so he could fight better with the fish at the far away end of the fishing line. Watch Tobi, I understood he has something bigger at the hook. Suddenly, Tobi asked me, “Switch off the gas”. I did and told him, “Done! “.

We were curious as to what he caught. The fish was jumping, but not a much as yesterday’s most likely marlin. We thought about a mahi-mahi. When Tobi hauled it in closer, we saw the golden green color of a bigger mahi-mahi.

I hooked in my harness and went down the transom to gaff it. Just in this moment the alarm to take my bread out of the oven, went off. On top of this, I had a bit of problems to get the gaff into is gills today. Finally it was secured and we pulled it up.

I could run for my bread.

The final killing was done using a very strong liquor I got years ago from a Slovenian couple in Croatia. As a dieing mahi-mahi changes is color it can be seen it dies quickly.

Sabine, a medical doctor, who sailed with me last year convinced me that alcohol is a good way to kill a fish immediately. I consider now to get a 100 cm3 syringe for the quick killing and hope to ethanol, the drinking alcohol, in a pharmacy in Tarawa.

Once it was killed, we tied it up at the transom to let the blood go out it’s body. It is much easier to clean the blood from the teak deck of the transom than from the gelcoat of the deck.

As for the size, it was big, about the same size as the last one, and measured 110 cm.

Before starting our breakfast, we put the fish at the entrance step of where it’s the place to evicerate fishes.

While Tobi was doing this job which he loves to do, I did a final check of the indûment instruments and sail trim and then took my day time nap to not get a sleep deficit. Tobi did this later.

Now is early afternoon, the b wind is not much but enough to move is nicely forward.

No squalls, and only a few smaller cumulus clouds at the sky.

What will the night bring us?

At around 1600 – 1700 the alarm of the fishing reel went off with an incredible sound of a very fast pulling fish. We both dashed to the fishing rod.

As Tobi was there the same time is let him act. He took the rod and immediately pulled 3 times to ensure the hook holds. Then the fighting started.

We have developed our routine. I get the fighting belt and tie it around Tobi who really fought hard. The fish took 300 – 400 m from the reel indicating it’s a fast one. After each pull, Tobi could just reel in about 30 – 50 cm of the line. Roughly estimated 100 pulls are needed.

After quite a while fighting getting the fish closer, Tobi said he feels tired already. Watching him I could understand it. We discussed briefly how we could transfere the rod and the fighting belt from him to me and found a way to do it safely.

Then suddenly we saw a fish jumping about 200 m behind the MaRe. The way the fish jumped indicated a marlin is on the hook, but we could yet recognize the fish as such.

Suddenly, Tobi could reel in without much effort. The fish was gone.

Fortunately the lure was still attached. A detailed inspection of the lure, showed that a hook was bent and the little but strong keyring, with which the hook is attached to the lure, was bent open. It must have been a pretty big fish, most likely a marlin.

Tobi mentioned that it was better this way because we would not have been able to get it on board.

I remembered what fishermen in Cuba told us about their struggle to get a big marlin on board of their fishing boat. I too was glad that it ended this way.