July 9, 2008 Another day of relative calm, but not becalmed. There is wind, but barely enough to keep the sails full. Joel took the opportunity to work on his Frankensail. I dove below the raft to install five more mini-pontoons. First I needed to bring in the fishing line. As I reeled it in I saw a short slender object hanging to the hook. It seems that at some point hours earlier we snagged a giant squid. I inspected the tentacle a bit closer and to my amazement found little teeth surrounding the periphery of the suction cup. I guess it’s not just suction they use to hang on to their prey....you can check out the squid bit - now bait - here:
In a couple of hours we finished our work. The starboard side was sitting another 4 inches out of the water and the Frankensail was flying again. I looked overboard to inspect my work and saw two sardine-size fish coming to JUNK. I haven’t seen fish in a week. Hopefully some large and tasty ones will follow. We finished the day with a meal of onion soup, pepperoni on crackers, and a hefty chunk of cheddar cheese. Joel, the resident chef, has this to say about our culinary horizon:
Our mouths water thinking about the early days of the voyage when we had to eat as much perishable food as possible - bacon, lox and filet mignon....now with only one can of beans left (I cracked the delabeled can code) we’re adjusting to a new reduced diet.
Cabbage is the last veggie to go bad. We’ve been eating cabbage salad every day for 2 weeks – with oil or pesto sauce, chopped onion, blue cheese, and black pepper. All things said and done, not bad. When the last of our cabbage, and our remaining 6 bls of cheese go, were going to play the following food game:
We'll agree on an identical amount of food and eat only this for 6 days. Who ever doesn't drop out or has the most left at the end wins bragging rights. On the 7th day we feast! Not only will it help stretch our stores, it should be entertaining, at least for us. And if we catch a fish all bets are off. Anyone else want to play?
Coming up: JUNK video PSA #3: Plastic particles as toxic sponges
2 comments:
Marcus,
How likely is it that you will get separated from the Junk when you dive under it? I'm in land-locked Indiana and from my perspective that could happen. Are you always tethered to the Junk?
Also, is the Junk going too fast to become a little ecosystem like some of the debris the Algalita found last Feb? If there were 2 little fish, might there be a bigger fish soon? Or some invertebrates?
Joel's Mom
Hi Linda (From Marcus)
We're doing fine, traveling slowly west toward our destination. I did dive under the raft the other day to install 5 mini-pontoons under the starboard side. That job gave us another 4 inches of buoyancy. I do not tether myself to the raft. We drop the sails and let out a long rope behind the raft. At that point the raft and current are moving together, and jumping in is like diving into a still lake.
Yes, there is a little ecosystem growing under the raft. There are little gooseneck barnacles everywhere. In our earlier gyre voyage Charles Moore made barnacle rice. It was... interesting. We're not that hungry yet. There are a few fish. They are small. Half the size of my pinky, they still have their yolk sack attached. But yesterday a Mahi Mahi showed up. You would have been proud of your son and his ability to stalk his prey. Joel is full of proverbs, saying "Hunger is the best sauce." Just after sunset he speared it and seared a couple of fillets. We ate like kings.
At this moment we're traveling .5 knots at 290 degrees. It's slow, but in the right direction. Otherwise there is not much wind, but weather reports say its coming.
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