Day 20

Day 20 brings us to a very somber mood. It's changed from being about the journey to "Are we there yet?" Everyone is still somewhat happy, just getting pretty tired. Jake has even lessened his words dramatically (and this is definitely a shocker). We're still doing very good at about an average of 7 knots. We've even seen it as high as 9.5, but the motion is ridiculous and far from comfortable. It's like being the star rider of a rodeo on a very lively bronco. The good news is that we are only 380 miles out from Hiva Oa, which translates to about 2-3 days (assuming we stay at this speed).

Right after I posted our last fish story, guess what? I was doing laundry and standing on the deck and saw our fishing lines were crossed. I called it to Andy's attention (after all, I was busy) and when he started pulling the line in, there was a huge, beautiful, bright blue fish fighting for his life. I gave Andy the gaff and woops...there he goes. The sucker was huge...and he was gone. I thought Andy was going to cry because not only did he get away, but he took one of the hooks off our lure (if you're keeping track, that's two squid lures and one hook we've lost so far). But before a tear could fall, we noticed the other line had ripped free of the bungee so we started pulling. Andy got it close to the boat then we changed tactics and I pulled it in to ensure he could get a good angle on it and concentrate on gaffing it good. It was the same kind of fish as the other one (we still weren't sure what yet), with a bright blue back, black stripes and a white underbelly...and it weighed about 25 lbs (and measured 28 inches according to Jake's fish log). When we got it in the boat, it didn't quit fighting. I have some pretty good pictures of Andy trying to keep it in the bucket. We looked it up and it looks like we caught ourselves a good sized skipjack tuna. Neither of us had eaten this before so we weren't sure what to do with it. We grilled it the first night and last night, the little sushi king (aka Jake) was having a fit so we made sushi with it. It was the best fish we've caught to date. I think this is the kind of tuna you get in sushi restaurants when they don't have bluefin (or you don't want to pay for bluefin). It was a deep red/pink and melted in your mouth. We'll probably have it again tonight, we certainly have enough of it.

The next few days will be filled with cleaning the boat and getting the last bit of laundry done before we arrive. I don't want to have to do any "work" when we get there. As somber as it is on board, we're all a little giddy too...we have no idea what to expect. I did get a response from our agent though and if we were to arrive on the weekend, we would not have to stay on the boat as I previously posted. Just put up the quarantine flag and call it a day. Good to know. But it looks like we'll make it well ahead of the weekend...

As always, keep the prayers and good wishes coming...we're not there yet.

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