We’re seeing land birds!

It’s a full moon, and we’re less than 100 nautical miles from seeing land for the first time in …. 30 days! Yes, Don thought it would take 30 days, and here we are. So ready for that smell of land. You can see exactly when we touch land via our site’s Menu “Enjoy’s Journey Map“.

So why the sh*t comment?

Well, sh&t comes in all shapes and sizes. For example, the beautiful red footed boobies left sh*t all over the boat that not only stinks, but now has hardened into a tough shell that will be difficult to remove. Sigh, the price of nature.

Is that the only shi**ty thing that happened?

Well, then there was the clogged “head” situation. When a boat has a clogged black water tank, sh*t has to go somewhere and that somewhere is out the side of the boat with a fragrance that is one -of-a-kind. Don was very pleased with his new solution. He rigged a hose to our salt water washdown pump, taped it over the Waste port, put a wooden plug in the excess Waste thru-hull for when things like this happen, opened the Waste thru-hull at the bottom of the boat, and voila! We actually have a video of the lovely sound and view of the sh*t finally draining from the tank. There are international MARPOL sewage discharge rules requiring commercial ships to be more than 12 NM from land before pumping their treated sewage into the ocean. But, these international rules don’t yet apply to pleasure craft and we need to follow the rules of the country that we are nearby.

Is there more?

Well, there are two sides of this story and actually, it really wasn’t that sh*tty. I was trolling for fish as I am wont to do, and thought there was a strike on my lure. Pulling it in, I realized it was fine and just as I went to pay it back out, an apex predator eg black marlin angled her stout black bill and took a long look at me. I looked at her and then she bit the lure. Luckily, the fight took place on my Shimano TLD-50 that was somewhat up to the task, but I just couldn’t bring her in. Not only was the 65 lb flourocarbon topshot paid out, I was starting to lose my 65 lb braid. Now, we have a rule on ENJOY–NO MARLINS, we cut the line. But, I wanted at least most of my line back but as fast as I was pulling it in, it was paying out to the marlin which are known to swim 22 mph. So, with Don’s insistance that it Just Wasn’t Worth It, I allowed him to cut the line and said good bye to my jethead lure. Now, the good thing, was that I rigged that lure and it Held! I braided the topshot to the braid line, and it Held! But, when it was over and I touched the reel, I burned my finger because it was so hot from the speed of the fight. I have now re-rigged my fancy tackle and Shimano lady is ready for service.

Celebrate good times come on!

While not on the Shimano but my favorite Fenwick rod (see blog about Enjoy’s fishing program), I did reel in this lovely skipjack tuna today. She was 2.25′ and 25 lbs which Don gutted like a champ. We had a celebration last night supper with sushi and a magnum of unfiltered sake that I had saved for the occasion! Note, the fresh pumpkin and green onions we still had after 29 days at sea!