43 31N 150 28W

The Change in Temperature

We are coming back to normal, that is us Palungees (white folk). The days are

now in upper 70's and night in the mid to upper 60's. Sweatshirt or pullover

on night watch. But there is a contrast between a Fijian and a Palungee. That

is the purpose of the picture to show the contrast.

We thought we were going to be able to make a bit of a turn to the east and

start our way across the high via motor. Tried it early today and it lasted

about 2-3 hours so gave up and took the wind at 060 apparant on a course of 053

for the next 24 hours. Might have to get above the 45 degree mark but that also

spells fog. According to the weather info, very dense fog in places. It will

force another lesson on reading the radar display. That lesson is that if

there is a return on the screen you have to believe it is another boat. You

cannot look out and see a light because the fog is so dense no light gets

through. Also need a lesson on how to set the fog horn on the radio so another

vessel can hear you if you are in near proximity. And the last thing is you

should probably slow down to at least 2-3 knots. We have neve had to set a

policy on how to deal with fog but this far our in the middle of no where I

think we will take our chances and say full steam ahead UNLESS there is a radar

return within 60 degrees of our nose and then slow to 2-3 knots until the

return is gone. If in the fog you must also turn on the fog horn.

We are now about 200 plus miles ahead of Charisma and about 75 miles ahead and

to the west of Carinthia (another Lagoon 440). I could hear Dietmar at the

checkin but when we tried to connect after the Pacseanet he gave no replies.

We caught our first tuna in several years. The first two were Skipjacks and

the last two (one got away with the hook and no it didn't break the line but

actually took the hook off the line, steel leader) were Albacore. The one we

got was about 10lbs and had the nices white meat ever. The boys wanted my

chili verde pork (puaka) so we bagged and refrigerated the tuna. Will try for

more tomorrow. Funny but Mosese said that he never cleaned an abacore when he

was working on a fishing boat. Albacore were strictly for export so he says he

never even tasted one. I told him to gut it and he made a slit just ahead of

the anus where he cut the colon and then cut around the gills and grabbed the

innerds and pulled them out of the front of the tuna clean as a whistle. He

also said he had neve skinned an albacore so this was a first for him. Pretty

spiffy. He cut down the back bone and the belly and then across the mid

section and down along the centeline of each side. Grabbed the skin and pulled

it right off. Next he cut the loins off the back and the belly sides. No guts

to interfere with so all the meat was very clean.

Well it is coming up on time to get the weather so I will sign off for now.

Just remember what I said about the temperature and reference the picture.

John