7/2 - mile 1543

7/2 –Watch last night was cool as 5-6 dolphins swam with us for an hour or so, feeding off our running lights. Two birds were using the light as well and you could see them once in a while swooping in and out of the gloom. Woke up this morning to find that Brian and Kevin had found one of the poor birds on our galley (kitchen) floor. Apparently he’d flown into the hatch opening. They moved him onto the back deck where he promptly crawled under the dinghy. An hour later he’d vacated safely.

Brian put out a new lure on each side of the boat (we run two lines) and an hour later we had our first Yellowfin Tuna! Our experience cleaning the skipjack tuna a few days ago helped significantly as we were able to quickly and cleaning get 10-15 pounds of tuna (25 pound fish) sealed up and in the fridge. We also had a little impromptu sashimi meal right there on the deck.

I immediately began rounding up the sushi supplies (Nori, wasabi, etc.) and banged out 3 quick spicy tuna rolls. We had only just finished cleaning up than the other reel went off, and Kevin reeled in another 25 pounder. After cleaning that one, we found ourselves with 30 pounds of amazing Ahi and pulled the rods for a few days while we eat down our supply.

We are pretty much at the half way point to Attu now. Fuel is holding strong – with about 230 gallons of diesel left (we started with 400). We burn a gallon an hour or so at 5 knots - a little more than 5 mph – leaving us with about 1250 miles of motoring before we are out. Right now our plan is to stop at Adak Island, where there is a small refueling outpost for commercial fishing fleets, and refill there before trying to stretch the last 400 miles west to Attu. We shall see what the wind gives us.

More to come!