Day 26 Thursday 30 January.

By Grant Chapman.

We had a frustrating start to the day with wind of only about 7 knots which didn’t manage to fill the spinnaker. The big bag kept on collapsing and flogging with the rocking motion of the boat in the swell. Peter and Virgil had just come on watch at 6:00am, relieving Cathleen and Grant at the helm when the starboard fishing rod came alive with the something big having taken the lure and trying its damndest to run all the line off the reel in the shortest time possible. Grant leapt to the rod and gradually increased the drag on the reel to slow down the rate of line loss. Only yesterday we had added another whole reel of line to this reel, joining it with our best fisherman’s knot to the existing line on the reel in preparation for an eventuality such as the one happening right now. Even with a tighter drag the knot was seen to disappear off the reel as the extra line we had put on was now all out and the older line was also starting to leave the reel at an alarming rate. We held thumbs that our knot would hold as otherwise we would lose all the new line we had pit on the reel. It was also safe now to increase the drag further on the reel now that there was so much line out, the stretch in such a long length of line taking up more of the shock off the fish straining against the rod. Eventually the fish started to tire and the long process of reeling it in with it doing sporadic but shorter runs each time began. Just under an hour later after a comprehensive upper body workout Grant had the Tuna just behind the stern, the big fish making a few last-ditch attempts to sound and avoid being landed by the hungry crew waiting patiently on the boat above it. Peter expertly gaffed the fish and with some difficulty managed to hoist it aboard. We had caught a 12 kg Yellow Fin Tuna and there was much merriment on board at the sight of this huge piece of sushi that had been procured from the sea. The sun had just appeared on the horizon behind us, lighting up the surrounding clouds in a warm golden glow to announce the start of a new day and life seemed pretty good. It couldn’t have been 10 minutes later when Cathleen noticed that the port side line on the bungee attached to the cleat on the stern was crisscrossing in our wake and identified that we must have hooked another fish. She set about bringing the line in by hand with her gloves on in case of a wrap of line around a finger and once she had the fish alongside Peter once again wielded the gaff with surgical precision and securely retrieved another Yellow Fin Tuna, this one just under 4Kg, from the sea. After dispatching both fish with several blows each to the head with the winch handle we wasted no time in placing incisions in behind their gills and suspended them by the tails in a bucket from the pushpit to let them bleed out. 15 minutes later Peter hauled in yet another Tuna, this one just over 4Kg. We were clearly over a school of school and retrieved our bungee lines now that we had enough fish, and then some, to keep everyone well fed on fresh food all the way to Rio. There was even talk of inviting the new crew that would be in Rio, as well as selected guests such as Cathleen parents, to a sushi and steaks dinner on Rotary Scout once we arrived.

After lunch we distracted ourselves with gutting and preparing our fish, which Cathleen was hands-on with having landed one of them herself. It was fascinating to see the selection of different sea life in the stomach contents of the fish which included squid, bait fish, large worms and skeletons of other predator fish that looked like they were probably baby Snake Mackerel. The big Tuna’s stomach was totally empty which is why the poor creature no doubt took our lure in desperation for a morsel.

Later in the afternoon we got to the point of planning for our entry to Rio as it started to become more of a reality. We calculated our waypoint for the centre of the race finish line and programmed it into the chart plotter but needed to put an intermediate waypoint in to avoid an oil platform in our routing that we had identified on the chart. We needed to do 263 nautical miles to finish and were counting on the 15 knot winds our GRIB files said we would be getting in the evening to knock off a good chunk of this.

We set about lighting the braai on the stern in preparation for our Tuna steaks and on realizing that we only had enough flour for one more loaf of beer bread but 8 beers we made the decision to put paid to 4 of the beers while we stood around the braai chatting, Ashwyn at the helm. It was fortuitous that we were assembled on the stern because we noticed a huge school of Yellow Fin Tuna shadowing the keel of the boat only about 2-3 metres below us. We took an underwater video of them and counted over 65 in one frame (attached to this blog) that accounted for only half of the school, all probably over 6Kg in size. It seemed very odd that these fish would hug our hull in such a manner but then it dawned on us when we noticed a huge Marlin trailing behind the school of fish, its massive pectoral fins and tail allowing it to glide along nonchalantly as it selected what it was going to eat for dinner, its vertical stripes down its body and distinctive protrusion on its head clearly visible in the crystal clear water. Unfortunately we just missed getting a photograph of this monstrous fish.

For supper we enjoyed the freshest sushi one could possibly eat, all carefully prepared using the sushi mat, nori baked seeweed, soy sauce, wasabi paste and pickled ginger. As filler we used slithers of pickled gherkins that lent them a crunchiness and although we didn’t have actual sushi rice we made a good substitute by adding sugar and vinegar to Tastic rice. The sushi was demolished in a trice and for the main course we enjoyed braaied tuna steaks that had been dusted with Cajun spice and with which we had a relish prepared with fried onions, sun-dried tomatoes and spices in a teriyaki sauce.

We enjoyed reasonable winds through the night, perhaps not the 15 knots we were supposed to get, but enough to let us achieve our desired average speed of just over 5knots. We also noticed a small tear in the spinnaker which might have been caused by the bag catching on the pulpit again and we managed to effect repairs without needing to drop it. Our wake was full of phosphorescence which even the water we used to draw into the heads contained, providing much interest to the crew who had to go and inspect it for themselves. On the horizon we could see the distant lights of the Brazilian coastline reflected in the clouds some 50 miles off our bow. We wouldn’t get to see land itself for a good many hours still.

In the early morning before it was light we received a radio call from Santaswift, a large vessel that we had noticed about 4 miles off our port beam. We had noticed that we were possibly on a collision course with her and would need to alter course which she confirmed, saying that she was busy towing seismic cables and was travelling at 4.7 knots on a bearing of 3100 True. She also had a guard ship approximately 2 miles astern of her that was protecting the cables against another vessel crossing over them. They were obviously do a seismic survey of the seabed’s underlying strata, presumably for drilling for oil and gas, and needed to keep the area they were sweeping clear of interference from other vessels. Santaswift advised us that they needed us to maintain a distance of 2 miles off their starboard side, 3 miles ahead of them and 6 miles astern and suggested that we should alter course to port to pass behind them. Rotary Scout had already been following a course that at 2700 Magnetic was deviating too far south from our desired course to steer of 2850 Magnetic on the previous watc, due to the wind having backed further north and we needed to gybe to get back on our desired course. We therefore decided to inform Santaswift that we would prefer to alter course to starboard for a course of 3200 Magnetic and that we were currently sailing at 5-6 knots so anticipated that we could get ahead of her to cross her bows once we had enough distance between us. Santaswift confirmed that they were happy with this decision. We managed to gybe the boat, performing an end-to-end spinnaker pole change and set our new course. All this was achieved without Peter who came on deck for his watch only to be informed of our decision which he said he was impressed with and seemed to be the right course of action to take.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly when at the change of watch to Marcus and Ashwyn the wind dropped. It didn’t take long with us inching forward at a frustratingly slow 3 knots for Santaswift to catch up with us at her 4.8 knots speed at which time they were on the radio to us again advising us that we were once again on a collision course with them and that the 3 knot speed and course they could see us steering that we would not be able to avoid them. We were asked if we had a motor to which we replied in the affirmative but that if we used it we would be disqualified from the race. Man this was so frustrating – where was the wind we were supposed to be getting? We bore up to avoid Santaswift’s path and she was almost beam-on to us as we waited for the big clouds rolling in behind us to give us some lift when the wind eventually started to strengthen and we managed to start accelerating away from her at 5-6 knots of boat speed. It also wasn’t long before we entered a nice squall that brought us 15 knot winds and a good downpour of rain, accompanied by a double rainbow that seemed to end at Rotary Scout, allowing us to have a fresh shower on deck as we stripped down to our swimming trunks. The saga had a happy ending and we were all smiles, after a somewhat tense couple of hours, now that we had avoided having to do a dogleg of 6 miles off our course and all the time we would waste doing this to pass behind Santaswift’s stern. When we called up Santaswift on the radio to thank her for indulging us with her patience once we were well clear of her the captain asked us for our e-mail address which we duly gave him so that he could send us a picture they had taken of Rotary Scout.

An unimpressed helmsman waiting for the clouds

The chaps taking a shower in the squall

The Tuna hunters

tuna under boat

A dawn surpise for Grant and Cathleen’s shift

A freshly gaffed Yellow Fin Tuna

Sushi convert Chris with the hors d’oevres

Captain gaffer

Cathleen gutting her Tuna

Cathleen with her 4Kg Yellow Fin Tuna

Grant with hs 12Kg Tuna

Pleased to discover that we had run out of flour for beer bread

Marcus with our braaied Tuna steaks

Hoisting the South African ensign in preparation for Rio

Some of the sushi we made