Spent the day sorting out things on the boat. The leach line on the mainsail has chaffed through but too difficult to fix without taking it down, so will have to wait until we get to the boatyard. Did fix the zip on Nicks bike bag - very important!

spent the evening watching a mesmerizing starling murmuration. Luckily they just fly around for about 45 minutes, landing briefly on anything around, like our rigging. Then within about 10 minutes they all roost in the nearby trees. We did go on deck to watch, and scare them off the boat though. Didn't want to spend most of tomorrow cleaning up!

60 starlings were released in Central Park, New York in 1890 thanks to Eugene Scheffer (President of the American Acclimitization Society). They tried to introduce every bird species mentioned in the works of Shakespeare and arguably, the starling was a success - there are now 150 million of them in North America. Because of its role in the decline of native species and damage to agriculture, the starling is now on the IUCN List of Worst Invasive Species.