Day 7 - Passage to the Caribbean
Misterx
Mon 7 Apr 2025 23:16
07/04/25
8:30 pm
Day 7
South Atlantic Ocean
DTD : 2,979 NM (84NM)... below the 3,000nm!
So we scared these two birds away, back on my 8pm to midnight watch, or so
we thought... The saga of the birds didn't end there, by 2am, surfacing from
my slumber, in truth awaken by the terrible squawking, Ian informs me that
there are now 8 individuals vying for the best place to roost on Mr X. The
boom, the solar panels on the bimini, the railing at the back, the sling
cover, there are birds everywhere apparently! Couldn't muster the energy to
get up and have a look... they still probably be there tomorrow. And sure
enough they were... I woke up to a scene of Hitchcock's famous movie...
dark silhouettes of birds shapes all around the railing at the back, against
lightening skies as the sun rose up! What a sight! They were far less
sinister in the day light frankly, actually they were quite cute! And
scared of nothing, I got very close to take pictures, and they didn't
flinch. So they are black, with a grey /whitish patch on the front of the
skull, black long beak, small black eyes, rimmed in white, longish tail
feather, palmed feet in muted orange... if you know what they are... answer
on a postcard, please... Betting a kind of tern of some description...
Anyhow, by 7am they are all flown away leaving only behind them a thick
trail of bird poo everywhere they have perched themselves for the night...
the teak in the cockpit, the solar panels on the bimini, the boom... I know
what the first job of the day is!!!
Guess the cleaning of the poo on the solar panels spurred us into more
cleaning... the wind has really died down now and the sea is super flat...
might as well make the most of it... we got all the bedding out to air in
the sunshine, in the vain hope that the little puff of breeze there is will
be caught by the sheets and provide a little more forward movement... added
some freshly laundered underwear for good measure, just in case it might be
helpful... we were indeed very industrious all morning, the everything was
spic
and span by the time we finished, including Ian who had a proper bucket over
the head cockpit shower!
With the lack of wind, and a fairly cloudy sky, the batteries are not
charging very well. We have had to switch off the fridge again... not so
happy about it and we were discussing this over lunch, how we used to manage
quite easily before, and that the batteries were new... it suddenly dawned
on us, we both look under the boom and realised that the dinghy was still
stored on top of the solar panel installed on deck. It was meant to be a
temporary measure, whilst we were using the back cabin for JC, our guest for
the crossing of the Indian Ocean, and we clean forgot about moving it once
he left... Well no time like the present... we set to rectify the situation
forthwith... of course the back cabin has filled itself up since JC
departure, but it didn't take us long to reallocate all of it to other
places. The dinghy neatly slotted in the back cabin, and we found these
biscuits we were looking for!!! And there we are, we have now an additional
solar panel, hopefully it will help with our fridge problem! We will find
out in the next couple of days.
It is now 6pm and I am getting ready for a little snoozette before my 8pm
watch... Ian calls out... they are back! Well, one of them is, and it is
really bedraggled... feathers akimbo, and not looking so perky... poor
thing, he looks exhausted, we felt sorry for him so we let him stay... but
not before we got the tarpaulin out onto the solar panels... not cleaning up
after you again tomorrow, Mr Bird... although we probably will have to...
the tarpaulin doesn't quite reach the end of the panels, about 10 cm are
exposed on one side... and that is where he chose to plonk himself, of
course! By the time I sit down to write this, we have another guest settling
himself up for the night... I am getting ready for a remake of the famous
Hitchcock movie tomorrow morning, in less sinister!
M