January 21

We departed Punta de Mita at 1pm in calm, sunny conditions. We left Bahia Banderes passing South of the largest of the Tres Mariettas and passed Cabo Corrientes in calm conditions with less then 8k True wind from the NNW at about 5:00pm (11:00AM UT). Saw dolphins at 4:30pm and observed them for a while as they swam with us.

At 5:30 we caught a nice fish, but we are not sure what it is. It has a long tubular body with a fan shaped dorsal fin along the top and normal looking fins on the sides. It has greenish stripes along its belly most of the length of the body. The flesh is whitish not red like a bonito. The remainder of the body is dark blue or black.

At 6:00pm a wind started to build from the NW and we set the main and motorsailed for a while and then unfurled the genoa and shut down the motor. We are sailing gently at about 5k in 9-12k True wind.

At sunset I hooked a really big fish. It put up quie a fight, but in the end I hauled it in and Kate netted it with great difficulty. Unfortunately, we decided to discard the meat once we had butchered it as the meat was bloody red and our experience with meat of this type is that we do not like the flavor. The fish was about 30lbs and ovular in shape, not 'torpedo' like as our previous customer. It also had long thin fins sticking out on its two sides. Quite a fighter. Now that we know what the meat is like, next time we will release this species of fish.