Day 5: Dolphins visit

Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Mon 5 Jan 2009 10:41
20:18.00N 22:43.00W



Hello again,



Just so you don't all think we are lazing around in tropical weather drinking rum punches and slapping on the factor 50, here is a picture of Lorraine during her 0800-1000 watch yesterday morning. The nights aren't as cold as we hear it is back home, but it's certainly not balmy! The days are sunny but only one of us has been brave enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt so far.



We were honoured to have a couple of visits by some dolphins yesterday. There were about 20 in the first pod and about 5 in the second, not sure what make they where (Atlantic, bottlenose etc) as I don't have my Dolphin Spotters Guide with me but they were small. They seemed to be having loads of fun playing between the twin bows of the catamaran and they could be seen surf down our stern waves. Sorry no photos of the dolphins, but we do have lots of photos of the splashes made by them!



Lorraine seems to have recovered from her 4 day 'hangover'. She's stopped 'feeding the fishes' and is generally back on form (I am still waiting for her to cook her legendry meatballs though). Personally I think she was missing all her new found friends that she made when she hosted our leaving party. That's the problem with a catamaran, the huge cockpit makes an ideal party location.



To pass the time we discuss many things onboard but so far we have avoided religion and politics. One particularly favoured topic at the moment seems to be how do you tell the difference between a flying fish and a low flying bird. Apparently the fact that one is small, scaly and looks like a fish with tiny little wings and the other has feathers and look like those things that eat worms and sit in trees is not enough for some people onboard.



Next big question is do we stop at the Cape Verdes? It looks like we will be passing by them very close with the current wind direction. All those in favour say 'I' (I know thats not how you spell it, but I don't have google on board!!).



I hope some of you appreciate the lack of technical sailing jargon used in the email!



Gareth.

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