Tuesday, August 10, 11:30 AM PDT
Position 40-00N, 137-25W Hove-to for fish cleaning (and cockpit cleaning).
Dick was becoming frustrated by the lack of fish. Last night he pulled in the line and found it had snagged a paper towel (probably one of ours), which no doubt had scared off any fish. This morning he put out the line as the sun came up, and within ten minutes had hooked a large tuna, about 40 inches long and very thick. Getting it on board was a struggle, but Dick, Carl, and Rich did it. The fish was quickly anaesthetized with “fish juice” (cheap vodka) in its gills, but the boat was a bloody mess by the time it was secure. We hove-to to wash the cockpit, the rails, the navigation equipment, the sheets, and Dick’s boots and foulies. It took many buckets of salt water and some scrubbing to rince everytthing down.
Carl and Dick then proceeded to clean, scale, and slice the beast into many tuna steaks. Our fresh meat supply is no longer a problem, and I think we will be bringing some home with us. Fishing operations aboard VALIS are suspended for the duration.
Any minute now we will resume sailing for San Francisco.
Photo: Dick and Carl display the catch.