Position at 4.30am local is 31d 45'S, 178d 37'E, 721nm to go
Last night, just on dusk, a little mate joined us perhaps from the Tamar River. A swallow had lost his way. He almost landed on my arm then did a circuit of the boat and spied a more settled and out of the way place to land, the liferaft deployment cord. Once settled it gave a chirp and then it was only a minute or two before his little head tucked under his wing and was fast asleep. It became his final resting place as he passed away in the early hours of the night. At sunrise we gave him a sea burial.
We were forced to a stop next day with no wind. We were parked in the middle of a big round empty disc then we spotted an orange fishing float, we fired up the diesel and motored over to find a small mass of green rope which we hauled aboard. It was barnacle encrusted and was home to many small crabs. It was then we noticed that surrounding the boat was a dozen or more big Dolphin fish or Mahi Mahi along with many smaller species. These big fish are delicious too so I went through my fishing kit and threw every lure I had at them to no avail. We cleaned up the rope and stored it in the sea kayak for later disposal on land. Our new friends stayed with us for the rest of the day and attempted to keep up once the breeze filled in after dark. We could see them swimming along in the phosphorescent plankton then they must have given up the chase.
The wind has come in from the ENE and we have shaped a course North towards Tonga.
All is quiet on board as we sail through the night
Wayne And Kathy
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