Day 4 - "Marlin Mania"

April 27

We've had 3 long days of being becalmed.  Last night I asked for wind; today we're cruising along under main and jib at 7 knots :-)  (To be fair, this happens to coincide with the last weather report we got in the Galapagos.)  It's kind of amazing to me how morale is subtlely affected by our progress, well, it is and it isn't.  I could understand it if we weren't motoring and making any progress over those 3 days, if we were just bopping and going nowhere.  But we were alternating engines and maintaining 5-6 knots.  On that program, we actually have enough fuel to get us HALF way there!  (1500 nautical miles!)  But everyone was just sort of ho-hum, myself included.  I couldn't bring myself to do anything but my watches, reading and watching movies.  And now today, with the wind, I'm all excited to sit up and write, after making a big ole bowl of guacamole dip.  We did have an injection of adrenaline this morning though.  Jean and Elze were on watch and Oly and I were asleep.  We woke to the fishing reel going - "FISH ON".  Standard procedure is Oly runs for the reel and whoever is on deck slows the boat down (turn into the wind).  Sadly, it turned out to be another marlin (we've hooked 4 now I think and they've taken our precious lures - they're just too big to deal with), so I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.  But after a few minutes, the 'click click click, buuurrrrrr' of the line continued.  So I popped out of my hatch: "Are you trying to reel in a marlin?"  "Yep."  "Oh jebus."

For the next 20-30 minutes, Oly reeled and the rest of us sat nervously taking pictures.  Any minute this massive and massively pissed off fish would be thrashing around deck.  Frankly, I was a bit scared.  We'd caught a few glimpses of it, and it was at least 6 feet long, NOT counting bill.  Oly decided he couldn't do it alone, he needed the boat to help, so I ran up to the helm.  For the next, oh, maybe hour, Oly called out directions for the engines and steering (Port
Engine Forward, Stbd Reverse) and my response would echo his command so he knew I understood.  (It was very seamanlike.)  We got her closer and closer and she's getting more and more tired.  But she got smart and dove under the boat - diagonally, and then back out again.  Yes, she wrapped the line around our prop.  F@#$@!  But we could see her end of the line was still taunt, so she was still hooked.  Then I say, "You want me to jump in and see if I can unhook the line from the prop?"  "Ya."  "OK.(Crap)"

So I run below and throw on my bathing suit and grab my mask.  We can't find the sailing knife so I get handed a kitchen knife instead, in case I need to cut the line.  "This is safe" I say, "Where is she?"  "We don't know."  "Great."  So plop I go, into the water, convinced that this 200+ pound fish with a massive beak is going to be right there thrashing around in my face, while I'm untangling a propeller in my bikini.  Thankfully, she wasn't, and the line was loosely wrapped around the prop so I easily freed it.  But, it was still tight around the rudder, so Oly gave me some slack and I dove down deep to free it.  YES - off we go again! 

Dripping wet, I ran back up to the helm, and we started the whole reel in process over again.  Pour Oly is dripping sweat and exhausted by this point, but he puts in another solid 30 minutes.  Girl's really getting tired now; she comes near and sort of lolls to the surface, wiggles a bit, then lolls some more.  We've got her!  Oly tells Jean to gaff her (hook her in the gills).  Jean tries once and loses her as she goes around the prop.  Crap - line is wrapped again!  Oly grabs the hook and has one shot as she's on the side of the boat and before the line breaks.  Alas, our 2+ hour ordeal ends, sans fish.  Off she goes to fight another day.  Between you and me, I'm glad we didn't get her.  She was massive, as I've said, and it would have been a struggle handling her on deck, cleaning her and dealing with all the meat.  We don't have a working freezer and the fridge isn't huge.  Oly was bummed though, after all that work, and Jean was disappointed that he missed gaffing her.  But what an adventure!!!

Thankfully the wind stayed with us through all of our mucking about, and after I dove the other prop, we got Bubas cruising along again.  Today is the first day I feel like a real sailor.