Day Eight

Position at time of writing:
09 52N
121 04W
Heading 210T

There was no shortage of entertainment on Hydroquest last night; Our Easter turned out to be a great affair, complete with a few special guest appearances. For dinner Katy made a perfect at-sea pasta with garlic, fresh tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. We took turns pulling loot out of the Easter package which revealed crowd favorites such as chocolate mint eggs, bunny-shaped gummies, and friendship bracelet kits. Thanks family!

The merriment on Hydroquest must’ve looked like a lot of fun to passerby’s. Midway through, Alfie came swooping down from the twilit sky to land on top of the bimini, right on time for the Easter party photos.

“Hey Buddy”, Will and Ben crooned as they stood up in the cockpit to come face to face with the bird. Alfie was totally cool – not scared at all as he settled onto his solar panel roost, looking over us in the cockpit below.

Later on while Ben and Katy were on watch, Hydroquest sailed through her first official squall. Black clouds overhead were a clear forewarning, but it was still a bit a shock when the winds suddenly leapt up to over 30 knots. Will was out of bed in a hurry to help reef the sails. It took me about five minutes longer to wake up (I had just fallen asleep and was having a great dream about doing salsa on the beach) but I went up to help as well.

Once everything had settled out, it was already time for Will and I to take over shift. Ben and Katy plunged down into the comfort of Hydroquest’s belly, exhausted and ready to flop into bed. Three minutes later we heard an “Oh my god!”, a scream, and dubious laughter. And again: “Oh my god. We have another guest.”

They stepped up the companionway with our second party crasher on show: the biggest flying fish we had yet to see – at least 8 inches long. It was dead. They had found it in the middle of their bed! Ben at first thought it was some kind of sick joke, but then realized that the open hatch in the main salon would have been the perfect entry spot for the agile fish. Hilarious! But also really gross.

Still giggling, Will and I settled for our shifts. We were both visited by dolphins, their paths highlighted by the phosphorescence, and we still had Alfie to keep us company.

But we’re not friends with Alfie anymore. This morning he took a beak dive off the bimini during a particularly raucous wave and slammed into the water. Who knew that birds could fall? (He was fine by the way). Upon his sudden departure we looked on top of the bimini and were completely horrified at the amount of shit one bird can produce in 12 hours. It was all over the solar panels and sunbrella fabric top and it took a good hour to clean up his mess.

Our next party is going to be guest list only.

Good news – we still have wind. We’ve been sailing wing on wing all day in 14 knots and a large but consistent swell, averaging 7 knots, directly on course.

Halfway point – here we come!