Thursday, May 20 1999 south of Trinidad
Day three of passage to Trinidad
Hello again folks!
Well I’m almost tempted to write ‘today same as yesterday’ - but no, although some of the essential elements are the same there have been a couple of high spots.
We’re still rolling along - the swell has picked up again and during the afternoon the water turned back to olive green which basically means we are getting closer to the mouth of the Orinoco. Another indication of that is the reappearance of birds following the ship - they were missing all day yesterday as we were too far away from land.
Just to recap, I got through my night watch safely but not without having to wake up the captain.
The main things we have to look out for are
fishing boats and tankers and then give them a wide birth. The problem is that
sometimes you come across large tankers that are empty and waiting to receive
instructions for a further load - they often wait, stationary out at sea rather
than paying harbor costs- this makes it very difficult to assess which way they
are going and to change our course such that we can bypass them safely. It seems
to be my destiny at the moment to come across things like this during my watch,
when previously the rest of the evening has been deadly quiet. Still it does
stop you from falling asleep !
Three men and one fish
We had a little bit of excitement this
morning - we had the fishing lines out again and before long both lines were
whirring away - we got Michael and then Rudi into harnesses - but the end result
was just a couple of small ‘Skipjack tuna’ (ca. 2 foot long) These are a
member of the bonito tuna family, which, although they are not usually over 3ft
in length, are really beautiful fish with a blue back, silver and white sides
and dark stripes on a white belly.
Our meal for today - skipjack tuna
Trevor gutted the fish (his rule in future - whoever catches it, guts it) and Monika did a great job sautéing them in garlic, lemon and oil - the flesh is dark red when raw, but lightens to pale pink when cooked.
As an aside here, I would just like to mention that we only fish very rarely and then only for our consumption - its quite a nice fresh supplement to the diet after three days at sea.
Sun out, on and off all day and now (late afternoon) it has hazed over.
Our estimated time of arrival in Trinidad is ca. 4.00am - and guess who’s on for that watch -should be fun, but more about that tomorrow.
Signing off now
Janet