Fresh Catch of the Day

Day 6 started off like day 5 ended... wonderfully open and bright blue skies mated to deep indigo blue water shimmering with sunlight and interspersed white cap ridges. The horizon stretched out in a continuous even line around the vessel. It's hard to describe how blue, how bright, how deep, how pure the colors can be when neither environment or observer are tainted by worldly troubles.

By mid-morning the sun shone brightly on Recidivist's deck as she made her way through the rolling waves in comfortable 15-20 knot winds. The watch crew splashed the occasional bucket of water onto the deck to cool it while the off-watch crew relaxed in the cover of the cabin. A few minor squalls came by and showered us with cool fresh water. Some of the crew lathered up with shampoo right before the squalls hit to get a 'proper' fresh-water shower.

Shortly after lunch we spotted a lone white bird circling our vessel. Sensing an opportunity we decided to put some lures in the water and troll for fish. Sean mentioned that in all his years of sailing he'd never caught a fish by trolling off a sailboat. But just 15 minutes later, Roscoe hauled in a 10lb Mahi Mahi that proved to be the highlight for what was already a spectacularly enjoyable day on the water. We filleted the fish on the transom and cut up a few delectable pieces of 'as-fresh-as-it-gets' sashimi, which we enjoyed with a bit of light soy sauce and wasabi on the back of the boat while passing around a few cups of red wine to go along. A few other pieces were steamed with lemon, lime, soy, and wasabi for an incredibly tasty snack. It was the first fresh food we'd had since we left San Francisco and skipper Ken exclaimed that it might've been the best mahi he had ever had. The entire crew was delighted at our good fortune.

Outside of being able to share this moment in the company of our significant others, what more can one ask for...

11PM PDT (9PM boat time):
The sun has set against a pastel colored horizon with a dramatic golden bronze glow that is reminiscent of a certain brand of sunscreen lotion. As the sun set, we spotted Venus, who has been at our constant hip since the first night we cleared the marine layer.

About five miles north north west of our us are sporadic white lights dancing along the horizon, each which seem to be a few miles apart. They are possibly the same field of buoys reported by coms vessel Valis earlier today. We do not know what they are but guess they are deployed by NOAA or some other organization for scientific purposes.

It's a warm night with some intermittent rain. Recidivist Out.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah ....so yummy fresh mahi. I love the showers it must be fun. Thank you for a real nice blog. Me.

Anonymous said...

Here’s to hoping that the Mahi Mahi gives you plenty of strength for the evening run. Sabrina is closing in on your six.

Anonymous said...

go calvin...go calvin...go sailing...its ur birthday!

dliem said...

this is awesome. can't get any fresher than that.