Passage Fishing Report

Very Successful Fishing!

We caught fish the majority of the days during the 7 ½ day journey. Once the reel took off and we noticed a fish was on the line, one person ran to the fishing rod to reel it in, one person ran to the helm to slow the boat down, and one person ran to the liquor stash to grab some vodka to pour into the gills of the fish which kills it a bit quicker. After the catching of a fish, a celebratory beer, champagne or other cocktail was in order.

The first fish caught was a blackfin tuna which Richard reeled in and immediately filleted up for some delicious sashimi.

The next fish on the line was the biggest Mahi we had ever seen! It took Gene an hour to reel it in. 

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with the gaffing of this huge Mahi, and he ended up getting away at the very last moment. We all still claimed that it was the biggest Mahi ever seen – 50 lbs at least!

The following day, we successfully caught another Mahi, about a quarter the size of the first one, but still pretty big and made for an excellent dinner and blackened Mahi sandwiches for lunch the next day.

One afternoon, we had a huge fish on the line and when we reeled it in close enough to get a good look. All three of us were astonished – it looked like a huge sail fish! We decided to let it go since it is not great for eating and was really hard to gaff and get onto the boat. After referring to our fish guidebook, we identified it as a spear fish which is in the same family as sword fish.

Richard's first attempt to gaff the monster before we realized it was endangered!

Gene's obvious excitement from the big catch! He had just sworn not to pull the lure in until it caught something since that particular lure was batting .000 to date...

Just a few hours after the spear fish, we successfully hooked a big Wahoo which we filleted and had for dinner that evening.

Other fish that were caught and released were 1 barracuda, 1 pirate fish (at least that's what we think it was), and a number of flying fish that literally flew onto the deck of the boat each day.

On Thanksgiving day, we caught 4 Mahi. The last one caught was ~ 30 lbs. This is obviously the turkey of the sea. Last year we caught 2 Mahi on Thanksgiving day, so it's now a tradition!

The last fish we caught, on the last day of our journey, was a blackfin tuna to round out the trip. Richard again proceeded to dazzle us with his expert tuna filleting skills, and we had some tuna sashimi for our last lunch together as a group.

Final fish count: 9 Mahi's, 2 Blackfin Tuna, 1 Shortbilled Spearfish, 1 Wahoo, 1 Baracuda, 1 Pirate Fish (Small fish with black stripe over it's eye... appropriately named... Pirate Fish)

Passage from Ft. Lauderdale to the Virgin Islands

Friday, November 16 – Friday, November 23

We set sail on our journey on Friday morning, November 16^th. The goal was to sail straight to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands without stopping, which we had expected would take between 7 to 10 days depending on the weather conditions. We were very lucky with the weather, and couldn't have picked a better window to do the crossing. The wind was out of the north which is very unusual for that time of year, and the seas were very calm. During the crossing, we maintained an average speed of 6.2 knots and arrived in St. Thomas 7 ½ days after our departure from the dock in Lighthouse Point. We had a great time during the crossing! After the first night, we quickly got into our routine of helm watches, cooking meals, fishing, and celebratory drinks after the catching of each fish. 


We were lucky enough to secure Richard to join us for the crossing to help us sail the boat down and teach us a few things along the way. Richard was our captain during our sea trial of Kalalau and a very experienced captain who has sailed this course to St. Thomas several times and has delivered boats all over the world. With the calm seas, we had very relaxing days which allowed us to catch up on sleep and read a few books. One day the seas were so calm that the ocean looked like glass.

The Daily Routine – Watch Schedule

Our daily routing centered around our watch schedule. Richard and Gene did the majority of the watches while Kat had a couple of watches each day and did all of the cooking and dish washing. The daily watch shifts ran as follows:

8 am – 10 am: Richard

10 am – Noon: Gene

Noon – 2 pm: Kat

2 pm – 4 pm: Richard

4 pm – 6 pm: Gene

6 pm – 9 pm: Richard

9 pm – Midnight: Gene

Midnight – 3 am: Richard

3 am – 5:30 am: Gene

5:30 am – 8 am: Kat

Arriving in St. Thomas

We arrived in St. Thomas around 5 pm on Friday, November 23^rd and we secured a slip at the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook. After a quick wash down of Kalalau, we enjoyed some champagne and went out to dinner in Red Hook. It felt a little strange to walk on land after almost 8 days at sea, but it is a great feeling and we were happy to finally be there to begin our adventure.





Along the way we got low on diesel so had to refuel mid-ocean. This is where Gene got his first fuel syphoning lesson from Richard. Both tanks were topped off with 15 gallons of diesel each. We estimate that we burned right at 90 gallons of diesel to travel the 1053 miles. I'll compare that with any powerboat any day... Although it takes us longer to travel... As a great man once said, "The journey is the destination!"



















Kat's watch conditions... :)

















Sunset just North of Cuba.