Thursday, August 4, 2016

Sea Creatures So Far...

Ok so to be clear right out of the gate, we haven't really seen too many sea creatures and especially not the kind we're really looking for - Mahi Mahi, Tuna and the like. We've done only a little fishing and so far not so successful. One of the other Express 37's headed back to California called Limitless caught 2 Mahi! Perhaps we could have used some Hawaiian blessings on our lures before we departed :) We'll try again in a day or so once we get out of this cycle of repeated squalls and breezy conditions.

In the water we have seen an abundance of flying fish. These things really are pretty crazy to see as they shoot out of the water and flap their fins like wings and glide along the water for quite a distance. I always thought they just leapt out into the air just to splash right back into the water but no, they really are flying fish.

At night the water in our wake glitters and glows with green flashing lights from a bioluminescent bacteria. When there is any movement in the ocean water the disturbance sends little electric pulses through the cells of the bacteria. This causes the release of luciferase, a protein in the cells, that produces light. The disturbance in the water causes a chemical reaction that releases photons of light. Thank you to my wife Katie for sending me the very scientific explanation for me to share :)

There's trash in the water. We haven't been close to where most of it is collected but it's still a reminder to think about where your trash goes and to recycle!

Finally,(and this is a request to you all through the comments) we have a bird friend who's been visiting us the last couple of days just to check in on us. His name is Ritchie the bird and he's named after our brand of compass we've been holding course to day and night. We thought that was fitting given he seems to be helping us get along just as well. Ok, so to the request...we don't know what kind of sea bird he is so if you can help us out given this description that would be great!

He...or I guess it could be a her...is a white bird about the size of a sea gull. He has black beady eyes and black stripes along his wings. The main feature that might be the best clue is his thin needle like tail. I'm not sure if that's enough description but hey, let us know what you find.

The morale and spirits of the crew are getting better and better each day. Bullet is holding together nicely with no real issues and we're looking forward to our turn right towards the east to San Francisco. That should be Fri/Sat about. Today we hove-to which is a method of stopping the boat safely under sail with the jib backwinded. This allowed us to go onto the forward deck and sort out a few things as well as get a look at any lines and rig for wear - all good!

We were delighted to see the comments from the last post and have some responses for you:

Breakfast in the morning started simple with oatmeal and dried fruit. From there we've gone to scrambled eggs and sausage, breakfast sandwiches, and today we baked egg in our muffin pans with turkey, bacon and cheese - yum! BTW there's a name for that but it's escaping me at the moment and I don't have google...doh!

We got a lot of good feedback on the sunset picture. We're making it a point to take one every day. At this point they've all been the sun setting over the latest passing squall so we're looking forward to a clear sky and the green flash!

Thanks for keeping up with us!

-TBC

9 comments:

  1. My money is on the White-Tailed Tropicbird:
    http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/Graphics/SFD/seabird_gallery/white-tailed_tropicbird.jpg

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  2. Louise and I agree with the White-tailed Tropicbird. It is found in Hawaii and is considered to be endangered. It eats flying fish and tends to follow boats.

    We enjoy your blog posts.
    Greetings to Anthony (Tony).

    Roger and Louise Sargent

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  3. I also agree with the other posts that the bird could be the white-tailed tropicbird...very cool looking! Please post a photo so we can see if we are right :) Hang in there--you guys rock!!!!

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  4. I also agree with the other posts that the bird could be the white-tailed tropicbird...very cool looking! Please post a photo so we can see if we are right :) Hang in there--you guys rock!!!!

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  5. The call of the white tailed tropic bird is keee-keee-krrrt-krrt-krrt - have you heard Ritchie call? So cool to have a mascot! Thanks for the great updates and lots of people following you all with love!

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  6. Glad I could help on the bioluminescence :) Here is a longer description of the bird: The adult white-tailed tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71–80 cm long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length. The wingspan is 89–96 cm, and there is a black band on the inner wing There is black through the eye and the bill is orange-yellow to orange red. The bill colour, pure white back and black wing bar distinguish this species from red-billed. Also, Sailors nicknamed the tropicbird the "bosun bird" due to the call's resemblance to a bosun's whistle. **Thanks wikipedia!!**

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  7. Good job on the provisioning! One of the earlier pictures seemed like a lot of freeze dried, which I'm sure is necessary!

    Keep trying for the Mahi Mahi!

    - Joe Racette

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  8. Looking good on the tracker! and the blog

    Go Bullet

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  9. Have you had enough sun for the solar panels? are you using autopilot? how are the wind reading?

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