Race 10 - Day 14
Crew Diary - Race 10 Day 14: Seattle to Panama
15 May

Fiona Stephen
Fiona Stephen
Team Sanya Serenity Coast
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After two weeks at sea with limited sources of entertainment we were all quite pleased when a large, black seabird took up residence on one of the spreaders last night. He remained there surveying the serenity for a few hours until he decided to take a closer look at us and flew down onto the foredeck. Cindy and Daniel were quite taken by him and reached out to give him a stroke.

Not willing to participate in this form of social interaction, the bird hopped swiftly backwards, and promptly fell into the open hatch of the sail locker behind him. Luckily his fall was broken by the head of HP who had been peacefully sleeping in the breeze below the open hatch.

“Oh. Oh! Ooooh!” he examined as he realised what had caused this rude awakening. “It’s a bird!”

The bird was equally unimpressed with the state of play and cornered himself in the forepeak. After much flapping and squawking from all those involved, Cindy managed to trap him and lure him back on deck where he took an offensive stance, attempting to bite Tom on the way out.

I was sitting at the back of the boat on spinnaker trim when the wild eyed bird started down the deck towards me, with Ming (camera in hand) hot on the pursuit. I cowered from the imminent attack and braced for impact as he neared me, unwilling to let go of the sheet in my hands. Fortunately he appeared not to like the look of me either and took a sharp turn just in front of me - not to freedom as he was expecting, but directly into the webbing of the guard rails.

His beak, wings and feet became tangled and he hung there for a moment, suspended in shock before he managed to dislodge himself. There was a loud splash as he exited stage left and into the drink. The serenity onboard resumed.

Half an hour later, the breeze had picked up and I went forward to the (now empty) sail locker to retrieve the Code 2 for a kite change. I was met by a somewhat foul, fishy smell. As I wrestled the sail in semi darkness the parting gift of our feathered friend became apparent as it smeared itself up my arms, onto my face and into my hair...

Once the Code 2 was safely on deck I located the baby wipes and set about cleaning the sail locker and myself, grateful that I can have a shower in approximately 8-10 days... However despite my best efforts the sail locker remains with a faint unpleasant smell, resembling the penguin enclosure at the zoo. No longer such a sought after place to nap during the off watch.

Bird poo is meant to be lucky right?