Pirate's Cove tournament anglers try to beat the competition and the wave push from Hurricane Ernesto ...

Many teams in the 41st annual Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament are getting their allotted days on the water early to avoid seas pushed towards the coast by Hurricane Ernesto.

The storm is currently starting more of a north to northeast path, but ground swells should start hitting the East Coast in a couple of days.

Big waves are good for surfers, bad for swimmers and boaters.

So why not fish now.

With gorgeous weather and quite a few billfish happy to participate, the second day in the event saw little change despite 41 billfish (seven blue marlin, 17 sailfish, two spearfish and 15 white marlin) and one gamefish being caught. That brings the two-day total to 86 billfish and 14 gamefish.

Viking 82, captained by Sean Dooley, retained the lead with 800 points on two blue marlin and three sails.

Re-Released with capt. Thomas Bennett is in second with 700 points on a pair of blues and two sails.

Pelican and Capt, Arch Bracher sits in third with 650 points on a blue, a sail and three whites.

There are several other divisions - including gamefish and angler awards - and we’ll include all of that in the final recap when the tournament ends the end of this week.

This year’s Pirate’s Cove features 84 teams competing for a total purse of $1,263,125.