26 degrees, 47 minutes North 114 degrees, 43 minutes West

OK, I’m going to have to work up to this, so bear with me. We’ll start with morning sunrise at Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortuga). Alarm went off at 0600, way too early since we’re still catching up on our sleep. But it was worth it to have our morning coffee watching a gorgeous sunrise over the bay. Fast forward a couple hours to the start at 0800. We were in full on pirate mode firing the treacherous marshmellow cannon (that my sister Sue bought us as a going away present) at any boat foolish enough to get close enough, which pretty much meant they had to be within about 30 feet. The scurvy dogs we shot at defended themselves with boat cushions and then proceeded to consume the projectiles. After all the starting frivolity things moved very slowly. Not much wind at first, so we were only making about 1 ½ knots. How fast is that? Well, if you spit in the water, the spit will almost pass you up. So, time to set the spinnaker. Up she went and we were off at a blazing 2 plus knots. Couple hours later, the wind was up to 10 knots, so Charisma was doing about 5 knots. Fast enough to get some fishing lines out. No sooner than they were out that Elan was shouting that something was on the line. The pole was jumping up and down, so I yelled; “Fish on!” (I get to say stuff like that since I’m the captain). I grabbed the pole and started reeling. It felt funny, but there was definitely something on the line. As it got close to the boat, I could see something very strange was going on. This was no fish! It was a horde of killer squid! Captain Nemo would have felt right at home preparing to fend off the angry squid. There were at least a dozen of them swooping back and forth trying to grab the lure with their tentacles. Really bizarre. We didn’t try to catch one because none of us knew how to land it or prepare it. We’ll have to work that one out for future opportunities, but in the mean time we retired that lure for a while. The other lure we choose wasn’t much better as it attracted bonito, or as I prefer to call them; “Cat food”. We caught half a dozen before we decided to pull the line for a while and get past the bonito school. A little later our line was back in the water and we caught a small yellowfin Tuna. The fishing was definitely looking up, but this guy was too small to keep, so I shook it off the line. OK, you’re waiting to hear the big news. Around 1600 two momentous events converged to create near havoc and yes… naked madness. Here’s how it went. Elan decided he would take a sun shower. So, out with the shower and off with clothes. Well, you know that once there’s a naked person, slathered with soap and water on the foredeck (with a bucket at hand for his rinse) SOMETHING momentous is going to happen. Oh, did I mention the wind had increased and we were doing about 7 knots with the spinnaker still up? So, right about this moment; “ZINNNNGGGGG”, went the fishing line…FISH ON!” (I love saying that). So, I’m on the pole, Elan’s sliding around on the foredeck on his, um, non-skid, Ann grabs the wheel and yells; “which way do I go!” while trying hard NOT to look forward where the boat’s heading. Naked. Madness. At the same time, Danna was also naked, taking a sponge bath in the head, so she was frantically looking for her clothes to come up and join the fray. Naked Madness. But that’s just the first part. We had to slow the boat down and fast, or the fish would take all the line out. The only solution? Drop the chute. Where? On the foredeck! When? Right Now!. Naked Madness!! I ran up and grabbed the spinny halyard, closed my eyes and yelled at Elan to duck. He slid down the scuppers to the lee rail while I dropped the chute on top of him all the while yelling; “pull it in, pull it in!” Poor choice of words given the moment, but we had a real urgent situation going and the fish was still waiting to get reeled in. Once I got the chute down on the deck (on down on Elan as it were) we were able to head up into the wind and slow the boat down enough to reel the mystery fish in. I ran back to the pole leaving Elan writhing underneath about 50 square yards of yellow nylon. I got ahold of the pole, Elan found his shorts. The mystery fish turned out to be a beautiful Mahi, flashing iridescent green and blue. Got the fish cleaned and filleted before sunset and had the first fish tacos of the trip. Yum! The other item of note is our new hitchhiker. A little sparrow type bird has landed on the boat and found his way under the dodger. He’s bedded down for the night. Good thing because we’re at least 20 miles offshore. He has his head tucked into his feathers and is sleeping by the mainsail cleat. We’re just trying to leave him alone so he can rest up for his flight home. I’m off watch, so going to try and get some sleep now. Elan and Danna are standing watch until 2300. We’re in Mexico. This is our adventure.