Captains log: Mahi Mahi at the half-way cafe

Date: July 16, 2022

Time: 13:48

Position: 25.19.013N / 139.37.660W

After my report yesterday of hooking a beautiful mahi mahi (check google images for that one), Nick couldn't resist throwing out another line before dark and hooked yet another beauty. A quick thump to the nogin to put it down for a long nap, a moment of appreciation to mother ocean, then filleted and into the refrigerator! There's no discussion of how to cook, what seasoning or what would pair nicely, simply tell Gene there's one more in addition to the one he caught and we know a real feast will be before us in no time. 

Last night was a real whipper snapper. The wind became somewhat calm again last night (big surprise right!). Seas remained messy which means the boat just rolls and rolls like a wild ride. Sleeping is not happening since one is literally rapidly rolled over and across the bed, just the be tossed back when the boat rolls again. When I releived Nick and Joe at 06:00 the wind was light, but by 08:30 the seas had kicked back up and the breeze stiffened quite nicely. We were seeing speeds momentarily exceeding 8knts for several hours, which for this heavy ocean crosser is quite a feat. 

About 13:00 the wind was strong enough for us to reef the mainsail and jib. We did it so efficiently and flawlessly that we all patted each other on the back and said what a great job each other had done. Except for Nick, apparently he was in a very deep and well deserved slumber after his long night watch and work on the deck when just he and I had changed sails around 06:00 in the dark. Its quite exhilarating to be working in the dark with headlamps shining, boat bucking and waves splashing. 

So back to this mahi mahi! As we got closer to lunch we knew something special would arrive. My typical experience in a situation like this with four guys on a boat with fish would be to simply toss that thing in a pan, heat it up in oil, throw it on a paper plate then let every man fight for his portion. But not on this trip. Suddenly, like magic, gourmet plates of fish with curry-rice cooked in coconut milk and a chipotle dipping sauce appeared. "This is the best mahi mahi I've ever eaten" was the proclamation of all of the crew. And the timing could not have been better, as someone coincidentally checked the nav plotter and noticed we were crossing over the half-way mark just as we were enjoying our feast. We even thought we saw a sign sticking out of the water that said "you're halfway there" and "Hawaii, this way > ", but we then remembered that we're probably experiencing some kind of euphoric delirium as no-one ever quite has a grip on the time, date or day of the week. Everything is melting into one. All of us has said "yes, remember that story I told you yesterday? Or maybe it was two days ago. Actually, I don't remember when I told you, but it was sometime in the last 12 days"

Course, direction and ETA. As I previously wrote in another post, we knew we had to do something to get into the wind. The course of action was a southern course. It was a bit painful to not be pointing at Hawaii, but its a classic one step back, two steps forward kind of situation. Now we are in the trade winds, or at least on the cusp of them, and they blow and blow and blow in the direction of Hawaii. For last 24 hours I assume we've made the best progress in one day since we departed. I suspect we will really start racking up the miles from here. We're also in exciting conditions with waves, white caps and wind which gives us a taste of the action we came to see. As long as this wind holds, which its supposed to do, we should see an ETA of around the 25th. The forecasts have been horribly inaccurate and our daily emails from the Pac Cup verify other racers frustrations as well. 

Kaneohe bay has always been our destination and it is the finish line for the Pac Cup. If we roll in after the 22nd, the cut-off day for official completion of the race, everyone will have gone home and festivities come to a close. In this case (highly likely), we will skip Kaneohe and go directly to Honolulu. 

Happy crew, safe crew, good-eating crew and great sailing conditions have filled our sails.