Day 16 Update: Tuna Catch

Summary: Light winds continue, but we’ve got the spinnaker operation mostly down and are the perfect high rhumb line course for Hiva Oa. We caught a bluefin just after sunset, but released it.
Position: 09 11.87 S 131 34.11 W at 12:00 UTC-8
COG: 255 degrees m
Distance: 183 nm (24 hr), 2,748 nm total
Average Speed : 7.6 kts (24 hr)
Distance to go to Hiva Oa: 440 nm
Conditions today are much the same as the last two days. Lower seas, lower winds, and hotter. We headed up above the rhumb line yesterday again to avoid nighttime jibes. With the slight wind shift are heading is now just above the rhumb line to Hiva Oa which is great because it will be easy to turn more southward when needed. We continue to run under the spinnaker only with winds staying between 12-18 kts keeping our speed from 6.5-8.5 kts overall.
We caught about a 20 pound bluefin tuna just after sunset. We still have some tuna left from a fisherman’s trade for beer in the Galapagos and didn’t feel like bleeding and filleting it after dark so we let it go. We were also kind of hoping for another wahoo, but will keep the next catch even if a tuna.
This morning we picked up a Japanese fishing vessel, the “Kotoshiro Maru No. 8” on AIS and radar about 7 nm NE of our position. We heard them say something on the radio, but they didn’t respond when we called back. We expect to see more vessels as we get closer.
We are happy with our recent progress, everyone is doing well, and we are anticipating landfall by Saturday and getting some uninterrupted sleep for a change as well as meeting up with friends again. We met Curtis and Julie on S/V Manna on the way from Seattle to San Diego last September and out of lucky coincidence they expect to arrive Hiva Oa from San Diego on Saturday too.
Wildlife Sightings: fish, birds, and bluefin tuna caught