Light airs, and visitors

07:50UTC 14/08/07 33'59.1N 017'04.7W

The wind has died away to almost nothing, and we've hoisted the biggest sail we have, the 'drifter' that we tried out going down the Solent. Together with the big jib, in 8 knots of breeze we were still doing 4 knots, which for such a heavy boat is remarkable. Now, in the early morning, the wind is down to just 3 knots but we keep about a knot of boatspeed. It'll be engine on soon though, just to keep some miles in the log for today. At 8:30 am, local time, the sun has enough heat in it to send us looking for shade, and the cabin remains cool from the night. With no breeze to keep the heat away, this could be a stifling day.

Motoring yesterday afternoon, we were joined by a pod of dolphins. These amazing animals swam with us for almost twenty minutes, playing and jumping in the bow wave. There were between thirty and fifty of them, hard to tell but there were many on each side of the boat and fins appearing in the wake behind us too. At least two of them were accompanied by young, half size dolphins gliding through the water in perfect harmony with their parent, just inches apart, twisting and weaving as if joined by a string to the larger animal. The largest, presumably the males, were showing off, tracking our bow with their tails just a foot in front of the boat, darting over and under their fellows, seeming to just revel in a chance to play with the boat's hull. They clearly didn't mind that we were under engine, although a few had bright white scars on their backs that looked like propeller marks. Perhaps that's just the trophies of bravado taken a little too far one day, something to remind the other, lesser dolphins that they are rock 'ard, and deserve some respec' from the rest of the pod.

Out here, we are the caged animals, in the zoo, limited to a small area of indoor and outdoor space. They came to look at us, then left to live, feed and play in their almost limitless world.

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