Day 5 - Motoring at Sea

We are coming to the end of our 5th day at sea. The kids are playing Minecraft in the forward cabin, and John and I are engrossed in reading novels. We are all chilling out after a very exciting day!

We started motoring last night at dusk (just when weather router Ben said the wind would die out...man, that guy is good.) We have been motoring for almost 24 hours. The seas have a little swell, so we are rocking a bit, but comfortably so. The night watches were spectacular, while being quiet and uneventful.

At around 0900 this morning, I got up and started to make pancakes, while Simon got to fishing for his second day. I was just getting ready to cook them when he yelled, "I've got something!" We all ran back to see him reeling in something big. We slowed the engine while he tired the fish out. Simon brought it in like he had been doing it all his life, while Wavey ran to get the gaff hook. While John helped to bring the three foot long fish on deck (and kill it with the winch handle), I ran to get one of our reference books that confirmed, it was a barracuda.

With a filleting knife in hand, John transformed the aft deck into Science class, and led the class through a fish dissection (thanks Ben and Lana for the knife.) The kids examined all the parts including the internal organs, eyeballs and spine. Barracuda have incredible teeth and the kids examined the teeth closer than you would get if it were alive. John filleted the fish, and it is now cooling in the fridge while we wait for an expert opinion about whether we should have fish cakes or leftover chili for dinner. Barracudas living close to reefs apparently can have toxins that are not safe to eat. (As I am writing this, Simon came up and asked if he could fish again. Given how long it took to clean up this afternoon, we will wait until tomorrow until he gets back at it.)

We continue to make good time and may get in to Anguilla by tomorrow (Friday) night or Saturday morning.