Some of our crew keep a better watch than others. The 4 regulars lounge their day away in the shady, cool of a windswept cockpit whilst our family of 4 Red Footed Boobies are much more alert. For 4 days now they have ridden on the pulpit and they seem to be enjoying the free ride home. Occasionally, they stretch their wings and go off to do whatever boobies do but they are soon back and resuming their watch and attentively scanning the horizon.
There’s a non-special birthday on board today which was celebrated with lashings of pancakes knocked up by Sally in a rolling, pitching galley. No hint of seasickness on this trip. Dried egg and Panamanian Geisha coffee beans were the imaginative gifts for the aging skipper.
But there’s another celebration afoot. Tonight, at around 8pm, we will, if Neptune allows, cross the Equator and enter the South Pacific. Pollywogs will become Shellbacks according to an ancient tradition.
Meanwhile, with little help from either the avian or the hominid crew, Shimshal surges on under sail at 7 or 8 knots in a 13 knot south easterly. By this time tomorrow the anchor will be down in Galapagos and our family of Boobies will be back home, Let’s hope the regular crew sharpen their watch as they near land!
