AlexandrA comes home

As we approach the Marquise islands we come to huge sheer cliffs hard to gauge their height but can easily be 500m plus. I cannot wait to get ashore and out of the boat confines. I have been cramming for the last week and long for a decent walk. The first place I will head to will be any store that has a Coke!
The winds this second half have been lighter than the first apart from the last 2 days which was consistent 20+ knots and rising seas to go with them. The lighter winds saw some motoring to keep us moving but also revealed what has been there all along but we could not see.
We had 3 separate whale sightings with the first blessing max and sandy with a whale in full breach out of the water doing a back wacker. With the calm seas it was easy to identify the water spray of the whales breathing. The closest a family came to us was about 200m off the starboard side, then down they dove with the last thing we would see being a huge tail exit the water as they head down.
One thing that is not missed as we sail are any Mosquitoes and flies. Their absence is welcome. One would think that the great Australian salute was unique to OZ but the same incessant buggers have been at every port of call.
I still haven't worn any form of shoes or even put on a t-shirt other than when we have gone ashore. I am looking for a reason why one would live in Melbourne with winters when you can live in the tropics like this.
In the lighter winds we travelled with the two jibs for a couple of days and then reverted back to one jib and the main sail gull winging as the wind was not perfect for us. The last 2 days with 20 plus knots saw us running under one jib only and still making good time.
Well I did wish for smaller fish to catch too which did come true. We caught one smaller tuna which I could actually get into the net and lift in alone. The beautiful skin colour when taken out of the water is very memorable. It was still far too big to keep and would have been such a waste of fish that again we let it go. The next day we were blessed with a double hook up with max controlling the boat and sandy and I on a line each. It's a team effort on a yacht to slow the boat and attempt to pull in a fish. We had some good methods when a line would scream loose with an unknown fish on the end. We would immediately set Sandy to adding the brake to the reel and controlling the fish as Max and I would round the boat windward, winch in the jib as per Australia 2 in the America's cup and leave the main to luff in the wind. To keep control of the direction we would start both motors and then I could help Sis. Obviously when hooking up with 2, as happened twice, this made for some bedlam. This last double hook up proved to be easier to bring the fish to the boat than before, as already mentioned the big tuna took about 40 minutes to land. Hoping this time we had some smaller tuna we found, once in sight of the stern, we had hooked 2 Mahi Mahi. Unbelievably along with the 2 hooked came the remainder of the school swimming next to each fish, about 15 in total in the water. It was exciting to have hooked them but truly heart breaking to see the family coming in with them as they were obviously in distress being hooked. I have never felt bad about catching a fish before but had the same felling as I would have though in accidentally catching a dolphin. The family guarded them as we got them to the rear steps. I landed mine first with the net, being over 1m long but nothing of the girth of a tuna I assume they could be may be only 10kg. With care we unhooked the lure from its lip, took some photos and returned him or her to their family. Unlike the tuna whose tail was so easily held this Mahi Mahi I could only hold using the net to assist gripping. Max had set the auto pilot to hold the boat windward and started recording the video as Sandy landed hers. Again some photos, removal of the lure carefully and back home to the abyss.
The sails were reset and we headed back to our original course. It really felt right as we all discussed over lunch, YMCA ( yesterday's muck cooked again) to have let them go. Really special the remaining fish covering their two hooked mates. We approach these giants of islands and will report on our next adventures soon.
Cheers Mark, Max and Sandy.