Day 14
Today was forecast as dead calm and we had written
it off as a day to drift under bare poles and accept we wouldn't make much way.
As it turned out we have had a gentle breeze so far since we raised the sails
at 0730 this morning. We furled them last night as the wind
died and everything was slatting and flogging about so we had another restful
night and drifted 6.5nm before setting sail again this morning. Through the day we
have had a consistent light breeze; Never more than force 2, but we have kept
gently moving at around 2kts, occasionally surging forwards at a heady 3kts!
Most importantly though we have kept moving and all of these bonus miles are
putting us ever closer to the trade winds which we expect to encounter around
the weekend.
This morning I got a good view of one of the white
gannet-like seabirds that I had been keen to identify yesterday. Having been
able to get a good look at its markings and features I was finally able to identify
it today as a "Masked Booby". It was rather satisfying to be able to
confidently match it to the images and description given in Peter Harrison's
guide. Apparently the Masked Booby or "White Booby" is the
"largest and heaviest booby" according to Peter... tee hee hee Peter
you old dog!!!
In other visitor news we have had two encounters
today with what we think is a very large Ray; possibly a sunfish although the
first sighting Jamie is certain was a Ray. The first time it followed the boat
around 12 metres off our stern. Jamie could see what he at first took to be a
fin sticking out of the water and wondered if it was a shark following the
boat. Then he spotted the shadow of the creature under the water; around 3
metres across, he was still contemplating if it might be a sunfish when it
dipped the "fin" under and another raised on the opposite side in
quick succession which is when Jamie identified these "fins" as the
tips of a very large Ray's wings.
Later as we were both sitting in the cockpit we heard
a splash and spotted something come out the water; this time within around 10
metres of the back of the boat. Another fin-like protrusion but I suspect it
was again the wing tip of a large Ray; you could see from the footprint it had
left on the surface of the water that it was another large creature; several
metres in size.
Last night we had heard the huffing and splashing
of either large porpoises or small whales around the boat after dark; I suspect
it was the pilot whales we spotted a few days back but that's just a guess.
We have had a pretty peaceful day on-board in the
calm conditions. Mostly reading and doing the odd little job to keep the boat
running smoothly. We haven't seen our resident Red-footed Booby colony so much
recently; just a solo passenger who has joined us the last couple of evenings.
So we hope we are leaving them behind at last. I am seriously tempted to take a
bucket and brush and go and scrub their poop off the decks now if they have
checked out... then again that could wait until tomorrow... or the next day!
Our 5pm to 5pm run today was a modest 33nm; all
bonus miles we weren't expecting to make today so we have a happy Captain; and
happy crew!
