fter waiting for a 30 knot westerly to die down we departed Cartagena on the Spanish mainland with our three extra crew Nick, Anna and Irish Rob. It was an easy first night as we motor sailed towards Gibraltar. The morning greeted us with no wind, flat seas and sunshine, ideal weather to service all the fishing reels and gear. None of us had any idea on how to service the reels but we managed to not have springs and cogs flying everywhere and now have three perfectly working reels with drag clutches. These have been teemed with two heavy duty rods and one light one for Robs little “sea boy” reel. Nick has devised a mounting system that allows all three rods to be in action at once and with a range of lures, some homemade, fingers crossed for lots of Tuna!

We approached the Gibraltar straits that evening and it was incredibly busy. We had three crew on deck calling bearings and reading lights on the various ships as well as a fourth down below confirming bearings and ranges on the radar. There was a strong west going current left over from the gale and the fact that the med looses more water to evaporation than the rivers draining in can provide it. We were lucky to have the tide with us though so the two canceled each other out a bit and we made good speed through finally exiting into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in nearly three years.

The next few days were a combination of motor sailing and motoring in a very flat Atlantic and we made good progress towards the Canaries. The weather was beginning to warm up a little too, which was very welcome after the November cold of Europe. Our first day in the ocean provided no fish, but the second day was different. First thing in the morning I was on watch and heard the tell tale whiz of the line running of one of the reels, after checking the two big reels a couldn’t believe it was Rob’s little “seaboy”. I adjusted the drag and started to reel it in. few minutes later we had a small maybe 1/2kg  Bonito on board. We decided to put it back in the sea to appease the fish gods, as he was only little, after the obligatory photographs. That evening we caught another Bonito also on the “sea boy” but put him back also, thinking if we had kept the other one, the two would have been plenty to feed us all!

On our last night before Tenerife we had slowed down as to not make land fall in the dark we were motor sailing. On of the reels started running out fast, this time it was one of the big reels. Nick jumped on it and had to fight quite hard with the fish that alternated between swimming away then turning and charging the boat. We landed it and took a look at the very angry fish in the net. It was long and thin and had an incredible mouth of huge teeth. It didn’t look very tasty so we decided to throw it back but getting the hook back was proving difficult. It was thrashing around with its teeth bared. Que three large lads squealing like girls! We finally got him back in. We found out later that he was a local type of Barracuda, and only a baby!