L'Eau Commotion Westabout

6:00pm Friday 10th November 2017 ( UTC-2 ) I made a few minor changes last night in very pleasant but rather quiet conditions. Today's sailing was also nice - not fast but pretty well in the right direction - but all in the most delightful weather. Crystal clear air with nice little trade wind cumulus cloud drifting by with enough wind to keep the sails full and have us easing along. Round lunch time the wind became quite light and we started to lose direction with the Windpilot so I disengaged it and turned on the autopilot. Faint but disconcerting sounds emerged from the electric tiller ram and without stripping down the mechanism I would say that a gear has failed on the spiral screw. Even if I did know exactly what it was there is not much point in finding out as I have no spares. In these lovely conditions I did a bit of tidying up and came across a #4 Halco Barralure which had got damp with a light rust stain. No trouble - a little Scotchbrite had it shiny as new. Put a double strand of trace wire on and made su re the knots were all firm by putting it under a gentle pull of about 20kg and kerplunk the hook broke. Some unseen corrosion where it touched the spoon. Ah well the last lure's time had come. Double trace, good strong check pull and over the side while the yacht was doing 3 to 4 knots. Maybe half an hour later I thought some weed must have snagged the lure as the line was slightly straighter so wound in a rather despondent little skipjack tuna. Good. Over the side while I sliced and diced Skippy and before he was even warmed up the line looked slightly straighter. One Dorade. Better. Sat down to dinner and glanced up at the line. A second Dorade. Best!So there you have it. Six full meals all cooked and packed away, caught in sixty minutes after a sixteen week drought. --------------010502080408050800070300--