That fishing fleet owned the ocean and no one else should be out here.

This one boat was on his course and wasn’t going go change.. Our paths were to cross within 15 meters of each other.. No radio communication just standing his course we had the sails up, starboard at that. I luffed (slowed down) to give this guy room. And by room .15 nm or 150 meters. Then he tossed a FAD into the water, almost directly in front of us.

There were 6 more boats joining the fleet that coming straight at us, they all passed with reasonable separation. I think they were anxious to get fishing at the freshly set FAD. These boats follow the migrating schools of tuna, load the fish from the smaller (30 meter) boats into the larger ship, that takes the fish to a facility for processing and then on the Philippines for processing. I didn’t see a ‘starkiss’ logo, but could have been there.. Sorry Charlie.

Once past the ocean thieves, it’s off to the races and break out the mathematics again. Ugh, more numbers. Can we make the final push to make the pass, into a new location in the day light with the hours that are left. It seems to always come down to timing, short trips, long journeys, the final bits are the details that matter. The pass is charted, the chart shows marker, local knowledge says not all the markers are there. Then there is finding an anchor spot in the dark in a new location. All added up to we either needed to average 8 knots so arrive the pass around 3pm on Tuesday so there would still be sunlight by the time we reached the town on the inside of the lagoon. Oh, the winds in the forecast were 6-7 knots.. So not gonna happen.

Nice day, nice sailing after the dance party waves sorted themselves out.

The wind shift came late, and when it did the wind died.. Making the pass on Tuesday, is not gonna happen. Another night out, so we watch the penultimate sunset of the passage with a nice Chicken Curry, dreaming of an Ice cold “Anchor Down” beer. But the beer will have to stay cold for an extra day.

Less than 100 to go, Slow rolling, no reason to get there only to have to wait at the pass for daybreak.