Rest from the Rolls

The wind left us today. We were ready for a break. Not so much from the wind, but from the wind-driven swell and northerly rolling seas that have been with us for this past week. Sometimes you just get tired of living on the walls.
We had a choice: bob around in the 1-5 knots of variable winds and try to work the sails all day long
or
turn the motor on, proceed west at 5 knots/hour, fully charge the batteries, make water all day long, and put the fishing lines out, FINALLY.
Can you imagine what we chose?
The sailing purists out there will shake their heads, but we really don't care, in our book sometimes a little motor-sailing can be a good thing.

And not only have we had a relaxing enjoyable non-rolly day today, but we have succeeded in topping up the batteries, filling our water tank, and, guess what, yes, after only 4 hours total in the water in the last 5 days, we caught a fish! Nice! The small black and purple jet-head lure was the winner.

"Fish on", I yelled to Nic as she was napping in the sea-berth. I turned the Yanmar off and started pulling in the 200 lb.test hand-line. It was a smaller Mahi Mahi for us, only about a 2-footer, but definitely not a baby and a perfect size for a couple meals for us on passage. No need for the gaff, I pulled it on board with my hands and said my blessings to the fish and the fish gods. Nicole never stirred.

I was just getting ready to fillet the fish when I noticed Nic's eyes open..."hey, we just caught a mahi". "No way", she said, and woke with a smile and a start. A happy start. She had her earplugs in.

Tonight, fresh Mahi Mahi marinated in a Jamaican Rum sauce with an Asian cabbage and carrot coleslaw with rice. Tasty.

The lines are back out for a couple more hours of daylight, so who knows, maybe another fish will hit before sunset.

In the meantime, we are continuing to enjoy our non-rolly rest day as the trade winds and seas are supposedly coming back around this evening and should last for at least the next 6-7 days. We're not complaining, so far our passage has been pretty smooth sailing and hopefully the next 1400 miles will be the same.