On the second day of our passage from New Zealand to Fiji, Dan Rogers caught a ~250 pound striped marlin after a 5 hour fight. He caught it using our trolling rod with 80 pound braided line and the small bullet-headed hoochie that Karl Riebling gave us on the passage from Seattle to San Francisco in 2012. (Yes Karl, it was a mighty fish.) The marlin ran 3 times and at one point was 1,000 feet directly beneath Sophie with less than 100 feet of line left on the reel. But Dan fished heroically, the rest of the crew worked together as a team, and Sophie now has her first marlin.

The fish measured 8 feet, 8 inches from spear to tail and it’s maximum girth was 36 inches. We’re guessing on the weight, but it seems similar in size to 120 kg striped marlins we’ve seen on the docks in NZ. The fish produced over 100 lbs. of steaks for our freezer, and Jenna has photos of the fish jumping in the air.

Needless to say, we’ve had an AWESOME DAY.

The remaining details of our passage, by comparison, are incidental. We did 158 miles over a 24 hour period, and that included stopping at 10:30 AM when the fish hit. We ran under the full spinnaker with no main for 7 hours yesterday, and the rest of the time we continue to motor on one engine @ 2400 RPMs in very light air, flat seas, and leaden skies. Our motoring speed is averaging over 7 knots due to a bit of a favorable current and Sophie’s newly-painted hull. We expect to motor for another 24 hours before a southeasterly wind kicks in. I am hopeful we will still have half of our fuel remaining when that happens.

Last night’s dinner was coq au vin with a vegetable stir fry, and tonight we will have a cauliflower mash, vegan chili, stir fried kale, MARLIN, and a homemade apple crisp.

And in case you missed it earlier in this post, please let me repeat: WE FINALLY CAUGHT A MARLIN. WHOOPEEE!!!!

Have I mentioned lately how lucky we are?