Day - Dorado

We are slowly nearing land! On the GPS it reads: 156 nm left to Salvador! Yesterday the wind started picking up nicely between 10-15 knots on a starboard beam and with the main and screecher out we did the best so far: a whole 139,6 nm for the day. For the first time since we start with this passage, we experienced true sailing. The night was still uncomfortable with the swells on the beam, and the boat was rolling. We saw a cargo ship’s lights in the distance, the first in two weeks. Great, there were still other people alive on this planet.
I was on watch before sunrise, and I set out the lures, so that as soon as the sun came out we can catch that big fish. Johan even fried the last packet of Dorado, to make sure that the gods of the seas can’t be mistaken with our needs. Marco saw it first. The beer can attached to the line was missing and he shouted: “Fish!” Joe immediately grabbed the line and he could feel the weight of the fish. This was going to be a big one. With great excitement the 13,5kg Dorado came aboard. After all of us took a turn having our photos taken with this amazing animal, Johan could slice lovely fillets for us for the next three months. That afternoon after drying the fillets in the wind, he vacuum packed all for the freezer. We felt like rich people, being blessed with this beautiful creature. Thank you…
Ps. Johan moved back our watches another hour, so we are on Brazil’s time now.

The moon is almost full! That must be the reason. I woke up feeling as if I haven’t slept in ages at 03h00 this morning for my watch until 06h00. The boat was rolling and everything was in danger of falling of the tables, which I haven’t secured yet. We can’t open any port holes in the heat for fresh air, so it was so stuffy in the cabin. Yesterday a wave washed over our starboard and the seawater ran into the heads, luckily not a cabin. After the others woke up I went down to catch up on some sleep after three tough nights. I was just about to get use to the waves smashing on starboard, when Marco’s voice excitedly got me to the deck to see the Dorado landing on our deck. After all the excitement and pictures I dragged my body down for a rinse, because you can’t call it a shower, and to do the washing in my water. When I was done and the washing was in the sun, I knew where I want to go! I could almost feel myself slipping under the sheet, and kneading my pillow into position and for the sleep to come!
But Joe was rinsing the bloody Dorado deck with buckets of sea water… Not checking that all the port holes are close before you wash down the boat, a mass of salty sea water came down both our port holes, behind our bed, and our feather pillows and sheets and mattresses were soaking wet! Not funny when the bed you were fantasizing about was full of salty water… It is not that you have a lot of space and you can put out your mattresses to dry, and you just chuck the wet bedding in a washing machine!!! I wish our cabin was bigger, because I needed to throw something. The next best thing was to burst into Johan’s shower and to let him know, that this is it! Enough! But where do I go? Which door can I slam? Where can I go spend some money on his credit card? Where can I eat a whole tub of ice cream with caramel sauce? So I politely took myself outside and sat around the corner with my nose in my book…and I promised myself, on the first plane from Brazil to Cape Town, I will be. I sulked for a while, until I got a hug here and a smile there and a look of understanding in my Skippers eyes…and then I knew it must be the moon…