Sailing Micronesia 2018: February 23, 2018

February 23, 2018

This morning, I woke up feeling quite tired and think it’s probably nerves about going out into the open ocean again as well as having to wind our way through a tricky pass first. It’s over 400 nautical miles to Kosrae with virtually nothing in between which means well over 60 hours, so we won’t reach Kosrae until Monday.

At about 9 am, we sailed away from Emidj and the kind people of this lovely island. Crossing the lagoon was uneventful except for watching out for a few coral reefs and sandy spots until we became closer to the channel. I took the helm while he let down the main sail and it was nerve-racking being so close to the coral reef and me still turning the wrong way at times when I get stressed. Thankfully, he soon took the helm and is was smooth sailing through the islands and bright colored water of the shallows. As we were sailing through, we heard a loud exclamation. Looking around to see where it came from, we saw a group of people on shore watching us as Miss Kiss sailed by, we waved and wondered how long it had been since they’d seen a sailboat with ribelli. During the visit with the mother and daughter it was brought up several times about a dive group that came to dive the wrecks a year before and we figured it was the last time they’d had visitors, but they would have left by the same pass we came in on, so these people wouldn’t have seen their boat. They watched us until we were out of sight and maybe longer.

A little before 6 pm as I was on shift by myself as Pete was resting in the stateroom, I heard a strange noise and went outside to look, the rod was bent and the reel spinning. Running inside yelling to Pete, “Fish on!” I grabbed my gloves and prepared to what? Did I really want to reel in an ocean fish without watching how it’s done first? But there wasn’t any time to think about that long as Pete told me to holster up. After I did, he showed me where I could sit to brace myself and he handed me the rod, showing me how to pull up, reel in, pull up… So, I did, and in the excitement forgot about my worrying, especially since it wasn’t a huge fish, but a mahi as we found out when it got closer to the boat and on top of the water. Pete was busy preparing the harpoon and getting on his harness – most important as last thing I’d want is for him to fall overboard! He was reeled in quite close to the boat when he made a run for at and veered right with a quick jolt. Enough of a jolt that he freed himself from the hook and off he went. Disappointed, but still completely wound up, I kept looking at the lines hoping there’d be another one on, but there’s always tomorrow. We’d seen beautiful rainbows all day long with only a short sprinkling of rain, calm wind and smooth water so far with waves only one to two meters and I hope that tomorrow brings the same.