The Big Day

September 17, 2022 

On September 16th we decided that, unless things changed by morning, we would leave the following morning.  We had spotted a potential weather window a few days before, and had watched the forecast updates intently. 

That afternoon I went up the mast to check things over, Kiki was pulled up on board and lashed down, and all of the last little things were stowed away.  We were ready.    

September 17, 2022 was the big day, and at 09:00 we headed out of Matilda Inlet.  We were up early, but we didn’t end up leaving until 09:00 because we just couldn’t quite decide.  The weather looked good, but it also looked like we might have very light winds more frequently than we wanted.  However, the long-range forecast was showing that if we didn’t take this opportunity we might end up waiting a long time, or worse still perhaps this was the last good window.  So, we decided to go!  

At 10:00 we cleared the last of the shoals out from Vancouver Island and headed out to sea.  By 13:00 we were sailing; sailing south to Mexico!  What a feeling!  

As soon as we were out far enough from land that we were out of the "No Fin Fishing" zones, we put out our two rods and hoped for a tuna.  Through the afternoon we ended up seeing two tuna jump out of the water, each at different times.  It was the first time that I had ever seen a tuna, but we didn't get any bites.  It is funny, because I never thought that we would be seeing tuna, and then not catching them.   

However, we did have some animals that were interested in our lures.  One was a Black Footed Albatross, and the others were gulls.  The gulls circled as a pair and then tried to swoop down to the surface and catch the lure.  Luckily, they were too slow, such that each time they came down to the water they were left behind.   

The albatross was much more skilled at catching moving prey.  It would circle, swoop down, and then run along the surface of the water after the lure.  We tried yelling at it from the back deck, but it paid no attention to us, and then, before we could reel in our lines, it swooped down, ran and ran, and grabbed it.  It was at this point that it realized something was wrong.  It was now being pulled along behind our boat instead of ending up with a tasty treat in its mouth.  It continued to run, and then decided the meal wasn’t worth the effort and it dropped our lure back into the water and took off.  Luckily it had not been hooked, was unharmed, and had learned its lesson and then stayed away from our lures.   

As the land faded into the distance and the sun began to set over the open horizon we were left sailing, out at sea, for our first night.