A young shearwater came for a sit down last night. He perched on the side deck and spent a couple of hours peering in through the cabin window. Believe me, it’s not that interesting but he did seem quite absorbed by it all and even posed for pictures. Later on he wandered back aft so that he was alongside the cockpit and then spent another hour or so happily conversing with Michael. By all accounts the world was put to rights far better than any politicians could manage. He must have been pleased because this morning when Liz did her fish patrol (she goes round the deck every morning throwing back those errant flying fish that land on the deck overnight) she found a small regurgitated squid on the side deck. What a lovely present! Which reminds me – the other day a small white and brown feather fluttered down from the sky and ended up in the cockpit.

 

This morning I had a shower – the first since leaving Fernando de Noronha. Everyone is very envious. Just after 4:30 this morning the sky became blacker than ink and there was a torrential downpour. I collected a bar of soap and went out on deck, stripped off and had a good scrub. I washed my salty shorts and the cockpit as well  for good measure. Had I been minded to put bungs in the cockpit drains I could have had a bath in six inches of water the rain was that heavy. I thought of calling the ladies so that they could wash their hair but then that old proverb came to mind ‘Let sleeping womenfolk lie’ so didn’t. Of course, when Liz woke up the first thing she said was ‘why didn’t you wake me'?’!!

 

There was quite a commotion in the sea this morning. A pod of dolphins, very large dolphins, had surrounded a small whale or there might have been two whales. From our standpoint it was impossible to tell whether the dolphins were attacking the whales or whether they were protecting them from something else. The whales breached several times and were closely surrounded. After a while we drew too far away to see more than big splashes of commotion in the distance.

 

The sea was teeming with life – as well as the dolphins and whales we saw tuna and other fish as well as the ubiquitous flying fish.  Liz reiterated her stance that no one was to go swimming!

 

P, L, M & M