Who noticed? Who noticed there was no Day #08? Am I afraid of the number 8? Some superstition like no floor 13 in buildings? After lucky 7 there is no need for more numbers? Or have I just lost my mind and all days run together….

Delirious is what I’m going to stick with. Typing in the dark on a bouncing boat is a bit mental anyway. So today is the Real #9

Another lovely day on the water. Setting the spinnaker at daybreak and ticking off the miles is always fun. Ran for about 4 hours before the wind picked up, a threatening cloud was preparing to blow in our direction. So took it down for 20 minutes and re-hoisted it. Was so wanting to set the biggest spinnaker as the winds were light to be able say we flew everything we had at the Fiji passage, glad I skipped the big one when the winds picked up.

We have a saying… On Sugar Shack, its not called “fishing” … its called “catching”. Today was no exception. This morning I spotted some flying fish for the first time in a while so dropped the 3 trolling lines in the water. Nothing all day. Noticed one line tangled with another, pulled in the cedar plug and untangled the lines. Put the plug away, decided we were going to fast and I did not want to stop to pull in a fish. So put the one other line away. So only one line remained, I’ll get to it at some point. Still watching the horizon I spot birds. Birds mean fish, well what the heck. Drop one of the stored lines back in the water and watched the birds off our port side move far away.. Oh well, I’m not going to chase them down while under spinnaker.

Spot something floating in the water over where the birds were. Went inside to get the binoculars to see i could see what it was that was floating. Coming back with the binoculars .. the zing of the fishing reel goes. Fish on.. Struggle with the binoculars still want to see if it is a FAD (fish attracting device) used by fishing fleets that end up washed a short on the islands as trash. I believe that is what was attracting the birds and the fish now on the line. I go over to set the drag a little more, and zing goes the other line. The new lure works after all, the first hit was a tried and true squid based lure, the second lure to hit was gift when we were in the states. “Blue water candy” jig-a-hoo – Thank you Big Matt it works!

I screamed with excitement when the elusive (to me) fish jumped and I recognized it.. I had been wanting to catch more Mahi-mahi and thats what jumped out of the water. Tuna are great but having a variety is super nice. The boat is going 8 knots so pulling in a fish is a challenge, always is since we can’t really slow down and back down on a fish like true fishing boat. And add that today the seas are 2-3 meters, 10 foot seas. And if it would have been a tuna, it would have been a struggle since tuna dive down deep when hooked. Luckily it was mahi that a flat and stay near the surface so you can ‘surf’ them back to the boat on their sides with a lot less struggle.

Is a challenge to stay on the boat and clean the fish while it’s bouncing about and you have a very sharp knife in your hand. All good, guess what is for dinner!

All good on board

529 miles to go

We should cross into Tonga tomorrow night. Would like to go past the outer banks in the daylight .. will depend on the wind.

[tag Live,Passage,underway]