Spinnakers, sushi, and suicidal squid

The wind and wave direction has finally merged enough for us to be in perfect conditions for downwind sailing. We busted out our spinnaker, which, for those of you not really familiar with sailing, is a monstrous three story tall kite that we lash to the very front of the boat. While using this bad boy, we can essentially kite surf our way to Hawaii over the next 9 days or so.
Of course, this would be the case if it weren't for all the pesky details!
Firstly, I've never used a spinnaker before. Jon has in his racing days, but always in a group. So what better environment to test out Shenanigans' downwind set-up than 1000 miles offshore? Getting the whole system to work out properly took a few hours, since we were a little rusty at first. This kind of put a damper on our daily mileage of around 130 that we were hitting consistently. But once we finally got the kite to cooperate, we were surfing at about 7.5 knots! And as a bonus, the ride feels like a city bus instead of a heeling crazy boat in the swells; we are still moving around, but at least you can cook without holding on for dear life!
The only issue now is that we cheated a bit too close to the Pacific high pressure "parking lot." We can only run the kite for a couple hours before the wind fizzles out. So unfortunately, we are currently motoring south in search of a good 12-20 knots that can push us straight into Hilo. Thank goodness for our 157 gallon fuel tank capacity with the trusty Perkins that would rather sip than guzzle!
The other day we spooked a school of squid that panicked and jetted out of our way. A couple must have misjudged their aim, because they ended up on our deck! However, we only noticed this a few hours later, so that when we found them, they were pretty much squid jerky glued to the deck. Mmmm!
So, while scraping squid cement off our pretty blue deck, we turned around to see something flopping and splashing wildly behind the boat. We caught a fish! And not just any fish: a scrumptious albacore tuna. After subduing him, he weighed in at 12 pounds. Not too shabby for our first catch of the passage. We had amazing sushi that night, then used some for curry last night. We still have more to get through, so needless to say, we stopped fishing until we run out of all this fresh meat. Waste not, want not.
Thanks to Michael for the handlines and lures, and thanks to Bill and Brenna for the filleting tips!
Today is just about the halfway mark, so I think we will bake a cake or brownies to celebrate.
Happy Mother's Day to Vicki and Judy, and any other moms that are reading!
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