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July 6, 1999

Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #66

Day 64. Tuesday 6 July 1999 0324 GMT
Wind ENE - 5 knots. Heading 240M
Latitude: 01deg 17.829N
Longitude: 178deg 38.614E

Today is what could be described as a 'dream day' as far as the conditions: wind directly from astern and strong enough to make a difference mileage-wise but not to the level that waves start crashing into the cockpit or towering swell threatens to broach the boat. It is I think the best day's pedal of the voyage so far. Now we are nearing the maximum southerly limit needed to clear the bottom edge of Tarawa (and hopefully also the counter-current), we can concentrate our energies on heading due west. This is the moment I've been dreaming of since the voyage began: to be able to turn Moksha's nose downwind and run with the waves.

Today has been made all the more enjoyable thanks to the hilarious antics of a bird - a white variety of one of those 'Booby' birds I believe - attempting to land on the back of the boat. It is an amusing creature just to look at: a head the size and shape of a tennis ball framing a coal-black face on which two green beady eyes sit perched either side of an enormous beak that's obviously been nicked off a penguin. In the air it looks a bit like a flying sausage. As it made repeated attempts to land on deck, I started to feel like the skipper of a toy aircraft carrier. Each time it would beat upwind until almost parallel with the stern, at which point it would stall and plop down somewhere with an ungainly thud. Most times it found itself perched on the guide wire anchoring the wind generator mast. And this is when the real fun would begin. With Moksha's rump bucking like a bronco underneath it, our unlikely rodeo novice would sway and lurch, desperately flapping its wings to keep balanced like an inebriated fairy dancing the Fandango on a tightrope. For my own amusement I logged the bouts to see how long the acrobat lasted before being ejected into the drink: the record for today - 25 seconds. After each failure the bird would stick its head under water for 5-6 seconds, as if in embarrassment, and then come around for another go. It's persistence (this went on all morning) had me wondering that perhaps it was having as much fun making a fool of itself as I was watching it.

Jason Lewis,
The Moksha motor

Posted on July 6, 1999 5:36 AM