Day 12, for the second day in a row, saw a meager 160 miles under the keel. The two days with very light wind from the east impacted our VMG (velocity made good) heavily. Not only did we proceed slowly but we have had to jibe along the track line due to the wind angle. We sail nicely at 135 degrees off the wind. Anything much deeper and we lose too much boat speed to make up for with the better angle. The evening closed in with showers in the neighborhood. None hit us but they were playing with the wind in the area as the night went by.

Early in the morning the wind came up and we began to post hours in the high 8 knots. The average came down throughout the day but we are still turning out a good 7 knots in lighter winds at sunset. We have a mixed swell which makes things a little rolly in the boat but not too bad. The day was beautiful and we all enjoyed it. Blue sky with fair weather cumulus here and there.

I was determined to catch some dinner today. We were trawling at 8-9 knots and I hooked something big with a pink squid lure (famous for Mahi Mahi). In the excitement the instructions to the helm got confused and we sped up! Well the line broke in short order as we approached 10 knots. Undaunted we put out one of our last squid lures (we lost the other pink squid yesterday due to what appears to be a bad knot at the swivel). Within 30 minutes we had a strike. As I tried to reel it in I was constantly concerned that the line would break. It was a big sucker and he was pulling hard.

After a 20 minute fight we finally got him to the boat. Nobu snagged him with the boat hook and we had a flopping 30 pound tuna on the deck. This is our biggest fish yet. Probably about as big as we ever need to catch. It will take three days of tuna breakfast, lunch and dinner to finish this guy off.

Nobu and I shot two sun lines today as well as a noon sight. We're getting much more accurate with practice.

Nobu says: "Celestial navigation is complicated but very interesting"

Hideko says: "zzzz (sleeping before her watch)"

615 nm to go...