06’08.5N 029’21.1W
5,1 kn course 189′
Red footed booby!
Today we spotted a red footed booby! I have never seen this family of the Gannet and Blue footed Booby before!! We were looking at a beautiful rainbow, all the way round, coming closer and closer when all of a sudden we spotted a bird that looked a lot like a Northern Gannet. But that could not be.. this is too far South, it would be lost! With a closer look, it was noticed the neck was not really yellow either.. and then it flapped its feet and they were bright red!! It is a white morph of the species. Thinking back, we thought we saw a young brown booby a few days ago, which was sort of beige brown/grey, this may actually have been the brown morph of the species, but we did not check the feet. These lower latitudes is where this beauty lives, feeds and breeds, on the small islands just of the Brazilian coast. And also on the pacific side. It is a tropical oceans bird, with a big variety of morphs. We watched it hunt for his meal for a half hour or so. It was skimming the tops of the waves and the stopping dead in his flight diving into the water to catch the flying fish. In that short time span, it was successful a few times!
We made it through this day with only 1 hour use of engine, when in between the showers we got rocked too badly and lost all speed. This morning was amazing sailing, with just the slightest breeze, bright blue ocean and cumulus puffs around. A proper tradewind scene. Then end of the day, when things had been heating up long enough, some rain clouds started forming and winds became somewhat variable.
On the aft we have filled up the kiddy pool and we are keeping nice and cool in the shade, while peeling and cutting carrots! Temperatures are rising and are often well above the 28 degrees. But as long as we keep this small breeze, it is very do-able.
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