Winter Solstice

I try not to jump ahead too much, but we just celebrated the winter Solstice down here and it warranted a post.

After Maupiti (I am still way behind), we went back to Bora Bora to drop our daughter Kim off for the trip back to Chicago. The winds had been blowing hard fro the northeast with katibatics in the anchorage, but Wind Guru – our favorite new weather site – predicted that the wind would drop to nothing for 3 or 4 days beginning the evening of the 21st. As our next passage was to Fakarava in the Tuamotus from Bora Bora and it was dead against the trades, it was time to head out as we had to meet our son George and his gal friend there.

We left a bit early so we could get some Shabby time in before dark and planned to make Fakarave around 1000 hours on June 23rd at low tide to negotiate the pass in favourable conditions. Shabby didn’t disappoint and snagged a nice Mahi Mahi shortly before dark. We left the Mahi for breakfast the next morning as we had caught a 40 pound tuna just the day before and he was scheduled for dinner.

After a slightly bumpy night, the morning of June 22nd dawned bright and calm with variable winds less then 5 knots. After a breakfast Mahi sautéed in Panko bread crumbs and eggs on toast, Steve and I were just headed off to bed after our night watches when Shabby struck again and corralled a 5 foot long Spearfish. Once the deck was cleared of the Spearfish, Steve and I headed down for another go at sleep.

On the way, I heard the rubber band that we use to hold the mono line on our reel down when we are trolling to keep the lure running well break. Hit but no joy. As I was getting another rubber band, the reel went off again and this time we were hooked up big time with a huge marlin jumping all over the place behind the boat.

40 minutes later we had the big guy by the boat and had thoughts of releasing him as I don’t like to kill marlin, but this fellow was way too big and dangerous to attempt a hook removal. Long story short, Steve and I got the beast aboard and what a beast it was. 7 feet 6 inches long and, as a guess, some 4 or 500 pounds. Our freezers are now filled to capacity and we still haven’t really touched any of the meat that I bought in NZ. Think after Fiji and Tonga I would have learned. We will probably make Seattle with most of still on board and untouched.

Lunch was sautéed marking and dinner was grilled marlin steaks on the barbee with risotto and broccolli.

The winter’s solstice eve brought a beautiful sunset and huge full moon.