Return Crew Day 8 – 15 February 2020
By Oliver Menhinick
Yesterday, just after we sent the blog, a few of us were just relaxing and enjoying the sail when we heard that beautiful sound of a fishing reel running. The first person to the rod was the one and only Francois who quickly grabbed it and started to work at bringing the fish in. We were all a bit confused at first as to what type of fish it was when we saw it further out from the boat but then realised it was a wahoo! We managed to get the beautiful fish on board when all of a sudden huge gusts of wind picked up and we had to work quickly on reefing the mainsail and bringing in the genoa. During all of these frantic activities Francois was also making sure the fish didn’t fall off the boat. Fortunately we had already prepped the fish that I had caught previously so when the brief storm passed Clare made some delicious rice which together with the fish was simply amazing. We then prepped the wahoo for supper and Francois made a delicious marinade that the fish would be in for the rest of the day. The whole crew is really looking forward to Tony and I cooking it this evening. Kristy found the time yesterday to make a little cake which didn’t last very long as the crew gobbled it up very quickly! We polished off the last remaining tidbits for breakfast. Just after we had caught the fish we were all sitting enjoying the weather when all of a sudden we saw something jump out of the water. Then when it jumped again we realized that it was a little pod of dolphins! We all rushed to the bow of the boat to watch them play while our wonderful skipper Rory took the helm so that we all could take a look. Two little babies swam up front as their families protected the youngsters by surrounding them. For most of today we were blessed with some nice sunshine and we all got a tan chilling out in the cockpit. The rain did come again though and the wind went ,so now we are motoring to the end of our waypoint that we should reach by the early hours of tomorrow morning and can hopefullyswitch the motor off and get to do some sailing again.
Our guest tonight on “Who Got on Board!” is Cameron Schmidt. Cameron is 19 turning 20, stays in Cape Town and was a Springbok Scout at the 2nd Bergvliet Scout Group which coincidentally Rory used to be the chair of for several years. Cam is currently studying a B.Ed Intermediate phase at Varsity College (to become a teacher). He loves the outdoors and hikes a lot. In his spare time Cam freelances as a photographer and gives back to the Scouting world through their Rovers movement where he is currently part of the Iron Wood Rovers. He says he came on board the boat as he would love to finally tick this off his bucket list and has always looked forward to doing an ocean crossing.