Birdles. Now you’ll have to read on to find out what that means…
As was the case yesterday, sailing is at the bottom of the realistic agenda, so we continue to entertain ourselves with whatever else is afforded to us.
Luckily for us, this continues to be an abundance of wildlife. Yesterday evening saw “the most dolphins, eveeeeeer”. This was no exaggeration, save for that in the pronunciation, which was to ensure everyone knew it really was a special occasion. The dolphins in this area, let’s call them the CMERDS (Coastal Mexican Exploration and Reconnaissance Dolphin Squad) do know how to ‘put on a show’. The idea of dolphins ‘putting on a show’ was first introduced to me as the commentary to watching a large set of Australian dolphins do exactly that, by the honourable Big AB in our first Bass Strait crossing together. Well, I can tell you Alan, these Mexican dolphins will give those Aussie ones a run for their money any day.
We are currently on our initial approaches to Acapulco for our resupply mission, and got more wildlife than ever before. As ‘LIVE’ coverage, straight from the nav station, there are whales breaching on both sides of the boat, the most dolphins eveeeeer, and birdles all around. Birdles are a new revelation to all of us. The Engineer and I were on deck and spotted a bird seemingly standing on the surface of the water. We assumed it must be on a bit of flotsam or the like, and Jonathan joked that it was probably standing ‘on a turtle’, in the sort of tone that indicated there was as much chance of that as of Disco winning a Vendee Globe race. As we drew closer, we both mentally resigned ourselves to prepping Disco for a Vendee, as the turtle spun around in the water, pirouetting it’s avian passenger around with it. Now, for as far as the eye can see, there are birdles everywhere, or as Renaud scientifically refers to them “lazy birds”.
Last night saw another of what has now become a daily occurrence in the gathering of the whole team to watch in eager anticipation or skeptically endure the build up to another potential green flash moment. This communal daily gathering has developed completely of its own momentum, and green flash aside, is just really nice to have everyone spend some time on deck together out of the normal constraints of a watch system.
Last nights green flash huddle also saw one of the funniest little exchanges I’ve yet experienced on Disco, when Ty realised that one of his apparently still ‘in service’ t-shirts had in fact made it to engineering and been used earlier in the day for diesel rags. He really wasn’t impressed, but found it hard to make his disappointment hit home when the entire team were in hysterics.
We also discovered that Landon is as good at making coffee as he is making tea with saltwater. It came to light that he had been ‘pumping’ the cafetiere. That elicited about as much hysterical laughing as Ty’s t-shirt. He is now on an accelerated learning program on ‘life in the galley’.
Nearly at Acapulco, check in soon for the next installment, from the same boat, but a very different crew set up.
NAV STATION
Date: 12th March 2017
Time: 1713z
Position: 16°33.8N 099°43.7W
COG: 320°T
SOG: 5.5kts
Wind: WNW 1-2
Swell: W 1f
Sky: 2/8 cirrus
Weather: Fair
With the support of our partner Weather Routing Inc.
