Day 3 of our quest for the Galapagos dawned with our lightest winds so far. Clouds surrounded Tahina with a grey haze, and I spent the morning in the cool breeze on the trampoline reading and dozing.
Mid afternoon brought on some squally weather, and with it came enough wind to set sail for a couple of hours. The seas roughened up a bit as well, which led to slamming and banging from the light and variable air causing the boom to bounce and waves impacting the underside of the bridge. The winds eventually subsided enough to where the racket wasn’t worth the hassle, so we gave in and went back to motoring. Oh well, such is life in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, I hear.
Sunset over the Pacific
We made the best of the situation by setting out some lines off the stern, and it seems the overcast skies worked in our favor for fish strikes. We hooked one bull mahi just after lunch, brought him to the boat fairly quickly, but he was still very green, and with one look at the gaff in Franks hand, he turned a back flip, and off he swam. There goes dinner…
Later in the day we hooked a small billfish, possibly a sail or a marlin, but he spit the hook. Then, just before we sat down to dinner, we snagged another bill, this time most likely a white marlin or a young blue, given its size. He was at least 4.5 feet long, but we weren’t set up for that size billfish, and he cut the leader as he landed his last jump. No harm done anyway, since we had no plans to keep the bills.
Into the Sun 
One Response to Mahi, Marlin and Motoring
We spend entire days with teaser baits and wire leaders all ready to get a bill, and don’t even get a nibble…here you are getting more bites without the work. Oh the life on the water!(as for a bull dolphin, if you know the dolphin has set the hook, leave him out there in the water, those guys like to eat in groups, and you are likely to get multiple bites, if you have multiple lines rigged!)