An Arabian Sea Tale

This morning, Eric let me sleep an extra hour, as at the end of my watch at 2am we changed sails again, from the jib to the screecher, since the winds were now more behind us.  This was about a 20 min process, and by the time we were done, I was tired.  I could not sleep before my late2am watch (Eric's watch is 6pm-10pm) so by the time 2am rolled around, I was pretty beat.  I finally hit the sack around 2:30 and with the noise cancelling headphones I was in a deep sleep.  Eric woke me at 7am instead of my scheduled 6am, and he took the noise cancelling headphones and fell into a deep sleep himself.

We had picked up some Uligan bananas before we left the Maldives, super sweet and similar to the apple bananas from Maui.  They were a little too ripe to eat so it was time to bake them.   Yum, I preheated the oven which I finally figured out that it heats to 350 degrees and before too long, it filled the cabin with the sweet aromas of baking banana bread.

While entering in the logs and catching up on my journal, I noticed something that catches my eye outside.  I stop, put my pen down, and go out to see what was there.  I spotted an albatross, a sleek, long winged grey and white bird with a narrow body and long wingspan.  I waved at him, as this is the first sign of life we've seen since leaving Maldives over 5 days ago.  I watched him for a while, he flew high, dipped his wings, then soared down fast, banking left, banking right, complete stop mid-flight, barrel roll down into the water like a torpedo.  He resurfaces, lifting off in the updrafts of the wind waves, a few strong graceful strokes of his long wings and he's airborne again.  Gaining speed, he flies along the surface of the water, just broadside to Sea Child, and waits, looking here and there, waiting patiently.  Suddenly, a school flying fish are startled by Sea Child barreling through the water, they take off away from our bow wake, and there!  The albatross changes direction, spots the flying fish, and dives for them.  As he comes back up again, he takes off again, and I almost feel like he thanks us for our help in his morning meal.

His acrobatic maneouvers have me mesmerized.  I can see how  mankind was enthralled by the flight of birds and wanted to mimic them, taking us into the heavens as well.  I have named my albatross friend, "Sean Tucker", after the famous acrobatic pilot we've seen for years at OSH.  Eric just got up from his nap, and now he is watching the antics of "Sean Tucker".  Oh, the joys of being out at sea.

We are now 214 NM from Socotra Island, sailing fast averaging 10+ knots boat speed on 15knots apparent wind. 

We are satiated by both the banana bread and by the aerobatics show this morning.  This is a glimpse of life on Sea Child.

CURRENT LOCATION:
12 DEGREES 01.244 NORTH
58 DEGREES 07.688 EAST

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