The Wild Life

Or we should say, wildlife. As we suffer through the seemingly non-stop rain and tiring roll...we have had some interesting wildlife sightings. We had a very large sea turtle "drafting" at the back of the boat. He was swimming at the surface, just off of our swim platform – almost touching it with his nose. He stayed there even with both of us on deck watching him. He had two very white ramora type fish attached to his shell also hitching a free ride. We went to get the camera, but that must have been enough movement to finally scare him off. Perhaps he was training for turtle Nascar and getting practice "drafting."

A small bird called Astarte home one night. Unfortunately, we didn't see him come into the cockpit and he startled Barbara as she went to bring in a sail. She almost stepped on him and his fluttering against her leg startled her. It was a golondrina – or at least that is the Spanish name. Or a Oceanodroma tethys. It was cold and tired and working itself into a frenzy trying to climb out of the cockpit. Barbara put a cloth over it, moved it to a warmer, more secure spot (but out of the cockpit). A few hours later it flew away.

There have been lots and lots of schools of flying fish – and it looks like multiple varieties. The very small ones seem to take off in mass. Probably upwards of 30 at a time take to the air. The larger ones seem to fly solo or in smaller groups. We had a small one on deck one morning...he became bait.

We also had a squid on board – how they get that high is amazing.

This morning we were sailing and we woke up a pod of sleeping pilot whales. Luckily, they aren't as grumpy as Michael when you wake him – they simply sunk below the surface and disappeared. There were about eight on the surface with their fins above the surface when the boat approached, they stuck their heads up, blew big breaths and sunk.

We did catch a fish – only it was the world's smallest mahi ever to bite a hook. He is back in the sea to grow up!

Otherwise, we watch the rain and fill the water tank. We'd do laundry but there is no place to hang anymore wet clothes. The boat is filled with wet stuff – our rain gear isn't working that great! We headed further south thinking we'd pick up more wind but only continue in this trough of rain and calm winds.

Sorry for the lack of entries – the roll just makes it tough to write below decks.

RUSH OUT today and by your copy of "Ocean Navigator" Magazine's annual cruising edition called "Ocean Voyager." In it, you'll find an article by yours truly on repairing your boat in exotic locations. We haven't seen what it looks like yet – so let us know!