El Tiburon sailed in to Bahia Santa Maria at 1700 on 11/2 after a thirty-six hour passage from Bahia Asuncion. Land was nowhere to be seen for most of the passage, and the usual ever-present sea life (seals, dolphins, birds) was also conspicuously absent. We did however see two whales spouting and one came up pretty close - about twenty yards away - off our starboard beam. It was a little too close for comfort, given that the Ha-ha lost a boat last year due to collision with a whale.
The wind was 6-18 knots during the trip, with a three foot following sea. We had a strike on one of our fishing lines that snapped the line in a matter of nanoseconds. Whatever had taken the six inch cedar plug bait was surely too big to have onboard anyway. On the morning of November 2nd Luke pulled in a gorgeous Bigeye tuna on one of our handlines. It was truly a beautiful fish. As I got close to examine its nacreous yellow and blue coloring, it looked me over with its big eye (the fish is aptly named) and I felt a sharp pang of guilt at the thought of slaughtering such a beautiful creature. With grateful taste buds we enjoyed maguro sashimi as a breakfast appetizer. The rest of the fish was seared with just a little oil for dinner. Everyone agreed it was probably the best fish they’d ever eaten – and certainly the freshest.
As we were pulling into Bahia Santa Maria we caught a Barracuda. Between its fearsome mouth and risk for ciguatera we opted to throw him back. Plus we had a fridge full of Bigeye.
We are now only about 160 nautical miles away from Cabo. Looking forward to doing laundry and buying some vegetables.
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