Marlin attack - May 4

Solis log: 27 16'19N 163 01'29W

Yesterday was an amazing experience. There has not been wind really at all. Our batteries get primarily charged from our wind generator, which has not been spinning. Our batteries were so low I had to charge them up. My options for charging are the generator or the main engine which has a generator attached to it. Since both engines get almost the same gas mileage (per hour) I decided to power up the main engine and motor forward as we charged our batteries.

We were going about 45 minutes when suddenly we hit something very hard. I looked behind the boat and it looked like some kind of submerged ball of garbage or something, although I really could not make it out. I spun the boat around to check it out, but we could not find it. Whatever it was, it felt like we struck it very hard with the keel.

We continued on our course, when about 15 minutes later we struck something again. It seemed identical to the first thing. I looked back and saw some kind of blue/yellow ball shape thing. I was just about to spin the boat around to check it out, when only seconds later we hit another something! This time it seemed to be yellow/blue with red on the top. All objects seemed to be about 3 feet in diameter. Luke and dad went up to the bow as I spun the boat around to check it out, when both of them started screaming "shark" "shark" "it's a shark". Dad gave lots of warning not to get any limbs too close or be careful not to fall over. I was at the stern, when the thing came up. I looked and it really did not look like a shark to me, although it was surely large. It came within feet of the boat and I looked and identified it as a sword fish/marlin about 10 to 12 feet long. Absolutely amazing. It had vertical tiger stripes all up along its' body but where almost a florescent blue. It primarily just hung around the stern of the boat. It was swimming around and around. It was there so long I had time to go below and grab the video camera. Luke and I both got good footage. We stared in amazement. We were so close that you could almost gaff it, although I don't think there is a human strong enough to hold on to a probably 500 pound flopping fish. We were tempted to throw in some fishing gear, but thought what a huge waste it would be as we would only get a couple of meals out it.

So the big question remains; what did we hit? Dad's theory is that a school of marlins were attacking the propeller. This seemed absurd at first, but in giving it some thought I guess it is probable. Out in the middle of the ocean like this, what is the chance of hitting submerged objects just a keel level? And hitting three of them within an hour? Strange. I was thinking that maybe the marlin had caught something and were eating it when we hit whatever they were eating. Just very strange. The objects always looked to be about 3 feet in diameter. If we were hitting marlin, wouldn't they look bigger when we turned around to see them? All very strange.

Anyway, I have read a lot of sailing books. And there is always talk of people getting really frustrated, depressed, agitated when there is no wind. Well, that applies here. We are just sitting out here. Day after day after day of just sitting, bobbing around. It is beyond irritating to have crossed over 3000 miles to now be only 350 miles from Hawaii and just be sitting here day after day after day. Please pray for wind.....