Sailfish and Tropical Storms

by Bob

It's 84 degrees, the water temperature is 81.8, the wind is 7-8 knots from the southwest, and we are headed northwest. The water
depth is in the neighborhood of 30,000 feet. I wanted to stop and swim, but the boat is liable to get away from us in the wind and
waves.

The water is medium wavy (that's a technical sailing term) with big swells. The swells are 8-10 feet high, and a few of them are
higher. It's a pretty smooth ride, though, because the swells are coming in at an angle and the boat just rides over the top of
them.

The big swells are coming from tropical storm Barbara to our northwest. Or maybe it's still a tropical depression, I'm not sure.
Yesterday it was forecast to be a hurricane, but today they say it will only be a tropical storm. Either way, we'd like to avoid it.
So we're headed to Guatemala instead of Mexico until the scary weather goes away.

Last night we were sailing along at a good clip. I was sleeping. Mike was wondering why the wind got up over 30 knots. Since then
the wind has gradually decreased. This morning I started an engine to help out the sails. Shortly after that, I heard the line
pealing off a fishing pole. We had been dragging a lure all night.

I tightened the drag. Line kept going out. I stopped the motor. Line kept going. I tightened the drag a BUNCH, and figured out that
something pretty big was on the other end. It was moving, too. I finally could start reeling it in, slowly, when the fish was coming
down a swell.

Mike got up to see what all the commotion was about. The fish jumped a few times and we could see it was some kind of bill fish --
sword fish, marlin, etc. Eventually we got it up to the boat.

The birds Mike was fighting yesterday managed to get the gaff away from him and deep--six it. So we got the fish alongside the boat
and Mike tried to get a rope around its tail. We had to be careful because those fish can slice you up pretty bad when they're
flopping around. At this point I was guessing it was six feet long. We thought it was a sailfish, because it had a big dorsal fin
like a sail.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Mike managed to get a rope around the tail and winched the fish part way up the steps at the
back of the boat. It was BIG. Our scale only goes to 50 lbs, and we weren't tall enough or brave enough to lift it up to be weighed.
So Mike got the tape measure. The fish was a little over nine feet long, from the tip of the sword to the tip of the tail.

Mike got brave and pulled the hook out of its mouth with a pair of needle nose pliers. Then we turned it loose. It stayed on top of
the water for a few minutes, and eventually swam away. We checked the books and confirmed it is a sailfish.

Now we're back on track for Guatemala!