Cape Verdes bound for Argentina - 10 Oct
by Kate Laird

16 54 S
36 21 W

173 miles midnight to midnight

Lightish 12-16 knots winds, with squalls of rain and stronger winds (one gust of 45 knots typically 25-28 knots).

Huge excitement today as we caught a dorado! It weighed 19 pounds on our scale and was absolutely delicious. We have two boxes of fillets in the fridge for tonight and tomorrow. In the old days without the fridge we would have tried to dry some of it and ended up wasting a lot of it.

Helen helped Hamish gut it and discovered three big flying fish inside, and then took apart the eye. Hamish skinned and filleted the whole thing so it fit well in the fridge. He fries it in butter in a steep sided nonstick stockpot with a lid to stop the spattering. I tried to get fancier, but it was not a success.

The other wildlife sighting has been two terns, which is quite exciting. According to the bird book, they are probably not Arctic terns, as apparently they migrate farther offshore than this. Arctic terns winter in Antarctica, so we could well see the same one this February that we met in Greenland last summer. It's the longest migration of any bird. I was hoping these would be Arctic ones on the same trip we're on, but it doesn't look like it.

You can learn more about the Lairds and Seal at their website www.expeditionsail.com.