At last the northerly gale which had been blowing hard at 30+ knots abated and the port captain opened the harbor entrance after it had been closed for four days. We had decided to “buddy boat” with Sea Casa on the 240 mile trip over to Mazatlan. They left before us as there was still a stiff northerly wind and short steep waves for the first 20 miles which were straight into the wind, a difficult sea condition for the light and sprightly 31’ Sea Casa. After this we could head east for the rest of the trip with the wind on the beam. We refueled at the fuel dock at Costa Baha and set off after them, Annita taking the steep seas easily as we headed North. Once we had turned East the wind blew constantly all the way to Mazatlan and we had glorious sailing. We averaged over 6 knots and it gave us some idea of what it must be like sailing the trade winds to Tahiti, with a constant warm wind on the beam. Some large fish had taken the cedar plug that Rory had made so we put out a Rapala lure and almost immediately caught a small 2 lb skipjack tuna. Later Rory started to reel in a fish while we were sailing at 7 knts. I was not inclined to head up into wind or drop the sails so we had to reel in the fish, which was fighting hard, as well as battle the drag from our speed. Rory and I took it in turns to reel it in. I was confident in the strength of our 100 lb test line but as we got it closer we could see that it was a large Mahi Mahi and I realized, as Rory was trying to get it into the net, that the leader on the Rapala was only 20 lbs test at most. The fish was thrashing wildly but somehow Rory managed to land it with the leader still intact. It weighed 12 lbs, good for three meals spread over the next few days, the last one frozen thanks to our newly fixed fridge.