Can those fish stories

It doesn’t look like we’ll have fish this Easter.The only fish we have seen since leaving the market place in Apia have been tinned anchovies and one stiff flying fish which came aboard during a rain squall early Thursday.

Bob Story insisted we include the anchovies in the supplies when we left New Zealand three weeks ago. All but captain Robbie Vaughan were pleased with the choice. Robbie hates the salty savouries with a passion and says he can smell them aboard Van Diemen days after a can has been peeled open. Ross Sellens and I agree they go well with the stiff rum and fruit juice cocktails served by Wizza Wise each sunset as we watch for the green flash, sometimes seen when meteorological conditions are conducive or sufficient cocktails have been consumed. Anchovies are among the smallest items we are carrying. A bit of a luxury, like pickled onions and the jelly snakes Wizza loves, treats for those on watch or just to pique the appetite. Provisioning is a critical task on any vessel because of the space limitations. Stowage has to be found for all the food staples, rice, pasta, potatoes, canned and frozen meat and vegetables and enough spices and condiments to make the basics a little tastier, as well as clothing and sufficient spare boat parts to effect repairs should they be necessary. The meat aboard came from Churchills butcher shop in Opua. There they cryo-packed all the purchases, lamb chops, steaks, sausages and a couple of roasts. We also bought several varieties of the salamis they make. All the NZ fruit has been eaten, though we picked up more NZ apples in Samoa, and some of the NZ bread is still in the refrigerator as are what remains of the ten dozen eggs we bought from an obliging woman who drove down to make the sale before we left. When the bread starts to age it is served as French toast, a Vaughan specialty, and when bananas go soft, they wind up in banana pancakes. The range of bananas we have run across has been impressive. In Vava’u, we found tasty bananas that remained green even when ripe and in Samoa we bought a stem of unripe bananas which are now hanging on the backstay and very slowly turning a lighter shade of green though they are still very hard. The market there is open 24 hours, seven days a week though the attendance and variety of wares offered was down on Sunday, probably because so many Samoans attend church. I went twice, early Saturday with Wizza (pictured) and again with Robbie an hour before leaving Apia. We picked up half a dozen monster bananas, green paw paws, avocados, Tahitian limes, fresh ginger and some huge Samoan grapefruit, which have sweetish pinkish segments under a very thick skin, like pomelloes. We sampled roasted breadfruit and some roasted bananas and coconut cream cooked in taro leaves but they were not suitable for keeping on the boat nor that palatable, to be honest. The fishing however has been very unsuccessful. Wizza says he has had to alter course several times to avoid hitting marlin but there must be other species out there just as reluctant to succumb to the lures we’ve trailed for the past several thousand nautical miles. Perhaps we might strike it lucky when we get closer to some of the atolls near the Equator. Rain squalls have swept across the ocean, cleaning the decks and some crew members who have chosen to strip off and enjoy a truly organic shower. At this rate we may be at Christmas Island, the Pacific atoll, not Australia’s boat people magnet, by Easter Sunday or Anzac Day.