South Atlantic Ocean, Cape Town to St Helena - Feb 2009
We left Simonstown somewhat sadly on the 1st February, for our voyage across the South Atlantic Ocean.
We rounded the Cape of Good Hope and turned NW towards St Helena, our next stop. Seals accompanied us during that first day, and we managed to catch a nice tuna. The sea was very flat and continued fairly flat for the entire two weeks. Winds stayed light SE for most of the time, although once or twice rose to 30 knots.
In the second week we were shadowed by a shoal of ten or so big tuna, one of which Nigel shot from the side of the boat with his speargun. This fish was very big by our usual standards and fed us for days. The other fish continued to follow us, although reducing to four and then a lonely two (not our fault!), right until we peeled off around St Helena. The tuna were hunting using our boat, some of them herding shoals towards the boat while the other tuna hid waiting. The tuna would often jump out of the water when chasing flying fish, and Nigel spent ages on the bow getting a few very good shots with his camera. In the process one very large fish almost knocked him over. I’m glad that fish didn’t land on the deck, or worse, down the front hatch!