but a friend of mine who owns a huge fishing charter boat there told me
it is the best fish for sushimi.We were sailing fairly briskly when we
hooked the bonny, Steven on the handline and me on the helm placing us
into a quick hove to position. No fight at all as the bonny's gills were
ripped by the hook when the line stretched no more. Nick was on and off
and on on the other lure, the bonnies were all around us. Eduard took
some underwater videos where you can clearly sea these little predators
on a mission. We were just about ready to have supper when all this
happened, so after landing the bonny we made a few cuts in at the right
places to let it bleed properly, tied a string to it's tail and dragged
him backwards through the water tied to the boat. After supper Eduard
volunteered to fillet the fish and did an excellent job. Him and Nick
had a piece of the liver which Eduard could not stomach but Nick said it
wwas not that bad. The fillets were then placed in a Jiffy bag and
straight into the freezer.
We have been motoring and sailing whenever we had some wind trying to
get more south as our weather files showed good trade winds. Long
stretches of totally windless conditions but it was sjust a matter of
time before it would change. The ITCZ zone,or the doldrums, have a few
peculiar elements. Besides no wind mostly, you also have dark heavy
clouds and at night one can sit and marvel as the lightning lights up
these cloud formations all around you. And when it rains it rains
buckets, so much so that we take a length of plastic and rig it as a
raincatcher, funneling water into our watertanks. Not that we are short
of water but more water means more showers for us, so why not.
Yesterday we decided to try the bonny as sushimi and were very
pleasantly surprised at the texture,the taste and a dash of soya sauce,
a slice of pickled ginger with a drop of wasabi and we were having a
feast. For supper Eduard with a bit of advice from me and help from
Steven fried some lovely pieces of bonny.Dip the portion of fish in egg
and roll it in mixture of flour, fish spices, Aromat etc etc. Fry it in
a little bit of oil for a minute or so and served with some spiced rice
we were having a meal of note. Throughout the ITCZ zone itn takes a lot
ofr sail changes to make the most of what you get, then drop the sails
when the wind blows no more, and then up again when the wind is back.
Both Nick and Eduard has now learned how to do this by themselves as we
have a lot of time to practise these moves. Good for them, glad that
they will not only take good memories from this trip but also learned
how to sail a catamaran.
This morning we had our first taste of easterly winds, the winds we were
hoping to find. It did not sneak in softly, it came in with a blast,
about 35 kts+ and we had to drop the mainsail in a hurry and just
maintain with a small section of genoa. Turning the boat around with a
lot of sail is always nerve recking but we did it fast without any
hesitation. An hour later the wind settled and we could raise our twin
headsail again. The sea is not settled yet, the swell coming from a
different angle as the wind but soon the sea, the wind, the swell and
the boat will be in harmony, and we will be making good progress towards
Tahiti.
We are turning our clockanother hour back today which places us 9 hrs
behind SA, or UTC - 7. Our postion at 10am was 05*35'S/099*43'W.
Distance to Tahiti about 3000nm and our ETA remains 08/04/12. All the
best for the week ahead.
Captain Paul
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