It is only 11:49 am. but so far it has been an eventful day. Yesterday at about 8 pm (after I had gone to bed) Mike heard a splash behind him and looked around. He saw a booby that had crashed landed in the water just to the stern of where he was sitting in the cockpit. Then the bird struggled to fly, circled the boat a couple of times, and landed on the deck. Mike decided to let him (or her, it is hard to tell with boobies because there is no visible difference [to me at least] between males and females) stay there. It was dark and the bird seemed to be having trouble. When I got up at 2 am for my watch, Mike told me we had a guest, and pointed him out. It was too dark for me to see anything other than a booby-sized blob on the deck.
I had dolphins checking in with me all through the night - coming up and making their presence known the way they do - although I could only hear and not see them as there was no real bioluminescence last night. I kept an eye on the booby shaped blob, and as the sky began to lighten (about 6:15 am or so, I could sort of make him out. I got a better view after sunrise. He was standing nicely on the deck, sleeping with his head under his wing.
Later he woke up and began to preen his feathers (he pretty much continued to preen off and on for the rest of the time he was on the boat). He had a chocolate brown back and a white stomach. His feet were a lovely light green. (There are blue footed boobies too.) When he spread his chocolate brown, wings, there were white highlights visible. His head was a mixture of brown and white feather, which looked sort of beige from a distance. His head was that same color mixture, only lighter. Finally, he had a fringe of white around his tiny face with its big round black eyes. His beak, which took up most of his face, was sort of blue with the lines the same color as his feet on it. It was like a cross between a bill and a beak, really.
Because he was there and getting better and better looking - his feathers were plushier looking, he seemed to be getting peppier, he moved around more, we decided he was just resting, not sick or dying, and made the decision to allow him to stay until he was ready to leave. No problem except due to his choice of locations on the deck, we couldn't rig and use the asymmetrical spinnaker, so we couldn't make particularly good time. But so what else is new with us? We have been poking along with a few time periods here and there with really decent winds.
I am spending a lot of time thinking about why I get so frustrated with how long it takes us to get places. We are about the only people we know who are so loathe to use the engine. I have no idea if people laugh at us or admire us for our determination to sail everywhere. I suspect there is some of both. Intellectually I have no problem with it. I like it out here. I don't get bored. I have no set schedule. Nonetheless, it annoys me when we average less than 2 knots per hour. I need to figure this out so I can get over it. It isn't a matter of saving fuel here, because we could easily motor the while way if we wanted to. But Tahiti will be a long sail, there will be periods when we will be becalmed possibly for days, and we will need to ration our fuel on a trip that will last a month or so.
The other wildlife adventures today were as follows: periodic clots of weird looking jellyfish, several sea turtles, a booby riding on a turtle's back (I have a picture), and a large pod of dolphins who cavorted at the bow of the boat for almost 20 minutes. I guess this is a big reason why I don't get bored out here.
"I made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self." Joshua Slocum, "Sailing Alone Around the World"
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I love your blogs, Kate. I check daily to see if you have written another one. Thank you.
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