Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 3, Day 3, Tuesday June 17, 2025

Good morning! As you can see from the pic above, we are about 300 miles offshore from Newfoundland. The light blue area is the Grand Banks which we are just now exiting.

Above is a screenshot showing that there is quite a bit of marine traffic in our area. All except one are fishing boats. Some are small (in the 25 to 35 foot range), and several are quite large (over 200 feet). We have seen quite a few French Canadian fishing boats and one large Japanese (factory-type) boat. Guessing they are fishing for Swordfish (opens up in late spring), Lobster, and this just in….Cod fishing officially opened on a commercial basis last July for the first time in 32 years! The total allowable catch has been set at 18,000 tons (the Norwegians get almost 1,200 tons of that! (What about the Swedes??!!) Anyway, that should keep us in fish sticks for a while. https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/cod-is-back-on-the-grand-banks/71116

We passed by this marker for Lobster “trap”. What we found interesting is that the depth is in the 550 feet range. I guess that is how they get the big ones. We learned that most lobster fishing is closer inland so we did not run into many this far off shore.

To celebrate the historic opening of the cod fishery, we purchased two VERY LOCAL cod products from Taylor’s (last blog). Upper Left are the locally famous Cod Cheeks. A meaty quarter-size muscle that aligns the jaw, they are a local favorite and many restaurants feature them as an appetizer. I dipped them in egg, and then “breaded” them with pancake batter (that’s all I could find). I fried them in butter and served with baked local potato + tartar sauce. Yes, an instant hit. Above Right did not turn out so well. I purchased two small pieces of Taylor’s house made Salt Cod. It looked so normal and ready to cook. Just to make sure, I soaked them for an hour and fried them up with butter and pepper (no salt). As you can see by Randall’s face, “NO BUENO!” They were so incredibly salty, they tasted like the doormat to the salt mine. Randall then looked it up and I guess I should have soaked them overnight while changing the water several times. They cannot all be winners.

Here is a quickie shot of me frying up the Cod Cheeks. Cooking fish in an enclosed boat is sub-optimal. The result might be delicious, but the lingering smell of fish and cleaning up the splatter are no fun.

What I did not report was how cold it was. It hit 40 degrees Fahrenheit the night we left. We were thinking that we would soon hit the tropical southern air, but I guess that because we are heading due east at this point and still looking for icebergs warmer weather will follow. Event though we are heading for the equator, I still kept my down jacket and down sleeping bag and I am glad I did as I needed them. The two pics above are at around midnight when the moon decided to rise just ever-so-slightly out of the SE sky.

Randall took this shot of me during watch – it was too cold to hang outside so I stayed in the “doghouse”.

Early morning sailing (I come into my watch at 0600) can be nice and peaceful as it was this morning. The sun rose at 0445.

Being back on Mōli meant that I had to remember how the good ship operates. I think that I sailed one time to the Farallon Islands since our last Leg, so I kind of forgot how to sail and where all of those darn lines go. Took me a day or two get the hang of it (is it debits and credits or port and starboard??)

Ahhhhh the seabirds. I missed them so. Above is a Northern Fulmar. Many more to follow so you birders stay tuned.

Not a bad way to finish the day. Going wing-on-wing at with about 13 knots of wind. The temperature picked up just a bit, and we are 350 miles closer to Horta (I think that is where we are headed). Just 1,000 miles to go.