Daily report #106

The gannet.

The Gannet. She flew in yesterday morning. A long slender brown bird with that typical beak. A diving beak. This bird is a dive machine without a splash. Beautiful to see. They fly at a height of 20 m, suddenly swerve, fold their wings and dive very slim and slender into the water. I had never seen a JvG do what this bird did. That's why I thought it was a novice. A novice. Left alone by the parents to figure it out for themselves. Working on a new hunting technique. On the menu; flying fish. Not that big one. Too fast, too difficult to catch, too big and too strong in proportion.
Flying fish take off when a boat approaches. This young lady knew that. She went after everything that moved in the water, that flew out of the water and was within her reach. She kept circling diagonally in front of the mast; the place where the fish find the end of the runway. Airborn. In the end she caught two fish. Two that could be beaked. I saw one escape. Too big. Live to fight another day. At least. Maybe eventually food for a Chinese fishing boat. The gluttons. Hence the lack of large flying fish? They cannot escape the meshes of the net.
The lady in question seemed to have eaten enough and floated gracefully down to just above the water and took off effortlessly without a single wing beat towards the African continent. About 400 miles away. 720km. Perhaps to feed her young. The young mother. A job that requires more and more energy. The fish is paid dearly.

Birthday.

Sixty. Certified! I already joked to my brother that I'm starting to look more and more like an old iPhone. Fully charged but quickly empty again, just not assembled in China. At 1am I was cheerfully serenaded by Mark. What a singing voice! My first private concert on the high seas. Few can say that. That at that moment, in that place, on that ship, at that speed, at that course, on that birthday, the birthday hymn was sang in private with metric precision and brought to a beautiful conclusion. UNIQUE!
And the sweetheart had bought two presents and baked cookies from our shared dough. A cookie made from shared dough. UNIQUE! Will I ever be this happy with a birthday anywhere else? In any case, I'll try it.
Thank you all for the congratulations! UNIQUE!

Fuel.

When we left St Helena it was packed. The diesel tank. This does not have a level meter. No idea how much is left after a day of motorcycling. But, after 5 months and regular motoring, we have an idea. 1 liter per mile. The tank can hold 750 liters. So 750 miles. Handy for a ship that sails long distances. So far we have motored a maximum of 200 miles. We didn't have to fill up with more than 200 liters. But now the wind went out with 590 Miles to go. Stress!
It now appears that with less than 200 miles to go, we still have more than half of it. So that's about right. One liter every mile. Good to know.

Wind and sails.

Came on watch today with a chilly breeze from the North East. That is against our course. But not as obnoxious as desired. As precocious as it is undesirable. Only gusts of 10 knots can be used. The rest is hanging and strangling. It is incredibly frustrating that we can do something with wind from approximately 300 degrees on the compass rose and that you then get wind for days from 60 degrees on the compass rose that you cannot do anything with. Where sailing by motor is the only option. This is of course due to our time pressure. Cruisers normally don't have this problem. They just arrive a little later.
Not sure if it makes sense to hoist the sails. Still just have to wait. Later the wind turns a little more in the desired direction. And it increases to 9 knots. Sails up! And the engine to be able to travel the necessary miles with fewer revolutions and less consumption. Our aim is a minimum speed of 5 knots. Then our schedule remains somewhat feasible. We have to get back to work, we have obligations.
Meanwhile, the sun is mercilessly blistering your skin as soon as you step out from under the Bimini. You shouldn't even think about NOT having this ugly thing stretched above the cockpit. As well as some shade cloths. Only the wind in the shade brings coolness.
During the watch the wind goes on and off. Then he is 6, then 9 again and everything in between. The sea joins in happily. In addition to the two ocean swell waves (a long NE and a small SW) there is also the sea state caused by the wind. Then waves of two meters alternate with almost flat water. Tombola. The antique Italian washing machine.
In addition to the fury that this water can give you, the silent periods are also quite problematic. If you are in a hurry.

Greetings Mark and Ton