Yesterday morning I came on watch to find that we were going almost completely west, I thought oh man... we are never going to get anywhere I want to get in this direction. (Well Florida might be nice in the winter.) Then the orders came in to get ready to come about! This was more like it! Our course changed to 210 heading straight for the Cape Verde Islands. (I do hope we stop for at least a night, I was a bit upset we missed Madeira, after I kept hearing so many good things about it in Portugal) After cleaning up the deck, our watchful mate took note that we had passed the latitude of 23 degrees north and into tropical waters! The rest of our morning watch got even better when the clouds started to clear up and we could really feel the heat of the sun.
    But this wasn't the end of B watches excitement, a little bit afterwards the words "Fish on" sounded from the quarterdeck. Paul had managed to get bites on both rods out, him on one while Mike and Captain Eliza grabbed the other. Not to long before we noticed we had Tuna on both, Capt and Mike had just about pulled her up onto the deck, when he hook slipped and she got away. But there wasn't time to be sad because the second was approaching quickly. Paul handed the rod to mike while he waited to grab the hook, while Captain Eliza held in her had the strongest bottle alcohol Paul could get at the store. At first I though they were just going to bash the fish on the head but once aboard they opened up the fishes gills and gave it a few shots of Captain Morgan. I had no idea this technique would work so well, but I guess I would want straight rum poured into my lungs. I had never seen a live tuna before; it wasn't quite as long as the Dorado we caught last time but was definitely thicker.
  Back on watch again at 2300- 0300 was not dull either, but I did figure estimate out some ETA's if we kept up our speed of 7.4 kts, I really hope we do. I feel the days are going quickly but then I look at the calendar I have in my bunk and realize wow, we still have at least 6 or 7 more days to go. I am so eager to reach Sierra Leone but still can't believe that this is my last week at sea. While I'm on night watch I have begun to wonder how I am to describe the experiences I have had. I wish everyone could see the great things I have, and I know taking a picture of the sunset or the dolphins playing in the bow waves with the moons light streaming down on them will serve no justice. But another day is done and I need some sleep before watch at 3. Goodnight!

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