Hi from the North Pacific High
15 August 2011 | 800 miles North of Hilo
Fiona
Water, water everywhere and lots of it to drink plus juice, pop, beer, rum, tequila... Yes, we are hundreds of miles from anywhere, burning diesel and motoring through the High. It came down to greet us, so to speak. No wind now, just a lazy swell that seems to have increased slightly indicating wind further North. Our weather guy indicates we should get wind from the south west at around 34 N caused by a low to our West, so hopefully we should pick that up in the next 24 hours.
Meantime we are being treated to sublime sunrises, sunsets, magical moonrises and moonsets. We're also seeing stuff in the water. A legacy of human existence... a plastic buoy, a bit of rope, the occasional plastic bit of something, no running shoes yet but we wouldn't be surprised. I've heard of an area where garbage accumulates in the North Pacific probably caused by the winds and current, but this is the first time we have seen signs of pollution in the usually pristine ocean. It is real cause for dismay. Yesterday the water was filled with what looked like clumps of brown algae and tiny white disc like jelly fish. Today I'm seeing the oddest looking jellyfish, a 2 " oval disc with a semicircular translucent 'sail' sticking out of the water. We saw dolphins a few days ago, but no other wildlife sightings. That may well be because we have our nose in a book or are cooking, baking, sewing, there's no time to look out. These days we are a floating hive of activity in the middle of nowhere.
Yesterday afternoon we caught a dorado but it freed itself of the lure just as we got it to the boat. It's always a wild cacophony of voices. " How much should we slow the boat?" " Keep the tension on the line!" "Should we use the net?" " The Gaff?" " What about using alcohol on the gills?" " No, we have no cheap alcohol." ( Many years ago we used to routinely use vodka to sedate the fish but that's because we had large, cheap bottles we had bought in American Samoa) Cameron the official fish photographer is always perched high to catch the best views. Thinking about it afterwards, the consensus was that we slowed the boat down too much... No matter, a few hours later we caught an even bigger dorado and this time successfully landed it. A little too late for dinner, but we have fresh fish to look forward to today and plenty to go in the freezer.
Bye from the North Pacific High.