Monday & Tuesday

Monday

My personal wildlife count has not been too impressive so far this trip - if we discount all the flying fish seen..

A pod of Dolphins off Cape Finisterre on Day 1, a white gannet bird on Day 2, and a few little black storm petrels on days 3 and 4, once in the tropics..

However, those flying fish have been interesting. I first started seeing them off Lisbon in 16C water, and they were all solitary and large - mackerel sized.

Now that we are in the tropics we are seeing more 'squadrons' of baby flying fish, from sardine sized to herring sized. The water temp is 25C now and there is a lot of sargasso weed around.

Could it be that they spawn here in the warm waters, perhaps near the Sargasso weed, and move north for more food when they are older?

Will see if the theory works in reverse as we enter the south Atlantic and head towards cooler waters!

Any real answers, rather than my uneducated suppositions, on a postcard please!

Brian

Tuesday

Liking these SE Tradewinds! A steady 22knots of wind, blue skies, beam reaching at close to 30 kn speed. One reef + staysail.

Passing by the easternmost bulge of Brasil now, probably the closest we get to continental land till Cape Horn..

Very hot below, so hard to sleep in the daytime - and the sun is only getting higher in the sky as we move southwards..

Happy Mondays!
Brian