34:26.0N 74;30.2W   "Puller" here…

Today started off with very light winds, and getting lighter as the day went on.  We passed our 1000th mile traveled early this morning..a milestone that earned Dark and Stormys for the crew.  "Cav" is pictured demonstrating the perfect mixology.  During the calm steaming of the early afternoon, Peter and Paul B continued serenading the rest of us with their Ukeleles.  Captain Mike and I hauled out the heavy armaments (I.e. The Cannon) from the lazarette to prepare it for the announcement of our impending arrival Wednesday evening, only to find that the brass beast needed a good polishing.  As the weapons officer (I.e the guy assigned to take care of the cannon), I understood my responsibility without hesitation and set to work with the brass polish while "Cav" stood watch.  A bit later, Paul put on a swimsuit, giving Mike a bit of a stir wondering if he planned to swim along with the boat moving along at 6 kts.  In fact, Paul was just planning to dump a few buckets of saltwater over his head to cool down in the light air.  

Then the real fun of the day started.  Mike had just announced happy hour and dinner plans about 5:30 PM when we sighted Dolphins on our starboard quarter.  Pretty soon we realized the extent of this visit, which would prove to be a very rare event.  There were no fewer that 50 Dolphins in this pod, and about 25 of them were swimming right along our freeboard up to and in front of the bow of Arbella.  And they just kept on swimming and tumbling all along our sides and in front of the bow having a grand ol' time.  This lasted for about 40 minutes before they started peeling off one by one.  None the less, we got a lot of photos and video tape of this interaction.  This was a pretty novel experience for me, but even more surprising is that the seasoned salts on Arbella (basically everyone except for me) also commented that they had never seen a pod of Dolphins this large interact with a boat so closely for so long.  What a privilege to witness these agile creatures having a great time in the wild.  Peter believers they are White Sided Atlantic Dolphins.  Check out these great photos, and we promise you will see more when we get back.

We are just a few miles from the gulf stream now, and will be through by morning.