Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“It's long gone though, and other than that, there's been nothing very exciting except the
wind.”
“That's all the excitement I need right now, thanks,” I stated. “Did you eat?”
“No, I'm not that hungry. I had some biltong; it's a bit moldy though; we need to dry it
some more in the sun,” he said, flicking his cigarette end into the black water.
“You should save those; remember what happened last time?” I said.
“Well, we should be in Hawaii in about three weeks, shouldn't we? I have at least a month's
worth of Fullspeeds left.”
“We should, but there are no certainties at sea from what I've seen so far. I wouldn't bank
on anything until it's happened. Keep a tin the next time we open a can of food, and we'll
keep all the stompies in that,” I suggested.
Gavin turned in for a sleep, and I made myself comfortable and geared up for a spell at
watch keeping. The wind increased in strength during the course of the night. It was time
to throw out a fishing line, and I occupied myself with that for a while. We were sailing fast
now, and the seas were picking up as well. No smoke without fire, I thought. Gone now
was our lovely, easy motion, but we had a good trade wind scooting us towards Hawaii in-
stead.
I was in two minds about the change of wind when the bungee cord boinged out. Damn!
That's all I need now, I cursed to myself. I leaned out, grabbed the taut line, and started to
haul in. We were going too fast for me to do so, and I slipped off the tiller line, and with my
foot, steered us into the wind. It was a balancing act between hauling in the fish and keep-
ing us into the wind and then sailing again, and I repeated this process until I had landed
this fish. I couldn't let Déjà vu stall so I had to keep altering course with my foot.
I was relieved finally to pull over the toe rails a fat, juicy tuna which quivered and drummed
on deck until I put it out of its misery with the aid of the “attitude adjuster” and flaying
knife we kept in the cockpit. The blood washed all over the deck and on the leeward jib
sheet that was lying on the dark wet deck planking. I left the fish and trimmed Déjà vu's
tiller lines, getting us back on course and putting the sails to sleep. I then turned my atten-
tion to gutting the tuna and cleaning up the mess with buckets of seawater and a deck brush.
I returned the fishing line to the lazarette locker, enough fishing for one night I thought.
I noticed a new crescent moon scything up through the horizon. That figures, I thought,
there is always wild weather associated with extreme lunar phases; it is so with the human
psyche as well. Have you ever noticed how well a group of people can party on a full moon
or leading up to one? Try that same crowd towards a waning moon and watch the party
