The Eastern Pacific - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 252

of atmospheric conditions that made life very unpleasant, indeed, for boats just one hun-
dred miles behind. For those crews, watching the horizon was a much more urgent pas-
time, with endless waves of powerful squalls keeping them on their toes throughout the
passage.
For us, the next days were variable in every sense: skies clearing from full cloud cover to
a more pleasant 2/8th cover, then back again; sails in and out; motor on and off. The moon
was nearly full now, lending the night watch good company. When the moon did set in the
early morning hours, the effect was like turning a dimmer switch up on the rest of the
stars, so brightly did they shine. The sky closed up again over day three, and much of day
four was spent in a drizzle, like sailing within a wandering cloud.
Our fishing lures attracted little interest over the first part of the passage, then suddenly
drew too much interest from seabirds. Having no desire to add that type of meat to
Namani's menu, we reluctantly drew in the lines. As it turned out, those birds may well
have spared us complications, as we were to find out a few minutes later.
The next patch of ocean was in a wild, frothy commotion. A full feeding frenzy was on,
with a tasty school of fish under attack from all directions. Birds dive-bombed into the
fray from above, while large fish flashed and attacked from below. In the midst of it all,
we spotted three tall, curved dorsal fins, sleek black bodies with a flash of white. A trio of
huge orcas was muscling in on the feast. The fins grew closer and closer to Namani with
each successive breath at the surface, until one of the orcas appeared not four yards off the
stern. After an alarming Moby Dick moment in which the orca had a good, close look at
us and “killer whale” attack stories rushed through my mind, the giant dove and disap-
peared. Whew! My heart rate was slow to recover but the spectacular memory of that
close encounter will last forever. When things calmed down again, we trawled the lines
and came up with Namani's all-time record catch: three tunas struck four hooks almost
simultaneously, and we landed two for a delicious sashimi dinner.