Tuesday, June 1st, 1999  enroute to San Blas

Morning folks,

well we have had a couple of uninvited guests aboard today. When we woke up this morning and went outside we had 6 flying fish on deck, several of the smaller ones we have been seeing a lot of, but also a couple of large ones (20cm), one of which is now in the refrigerator waiting to be consumed.

We also have a large Black Witch moth hitching a ride. It has settled on the aft door, and appears to be taking a rest. It is undisturbed even when we open the door to go in and out. The Black Witch moth has a wingspan of about 13cm, it is mainly brown in colour (!) and has a small bluish-black eyespot on each of its wings.

Just to catch up on a couple of things, yesterday evening we were also honored with a flyby from three Masked Boobies. Two adults, mainly white with a small black burglars mask over the eyes, black flight feathers and tail; and a juvenile which had a brown head and neck, and brown upper wings. The boobies stayed with us for about an hour or so circling the boat and occasionally executing spectacular near-vertical dives for fish.

Masked Booby

We were quite lucky to have them with us, because although they prefer deep water, far from land, for fishing, they do not normally follow ships.

Midday and we are having sashimi (raw fish) for lunch. We had a fishing line out this morning and hooked a Dolphinfish (also known as Mahi mahi, or Dorado). About 50cm long, a beautiful iridescent purplish-blue, emerald and gold with blue spots when caught, but it quickly started to loose its colour and turn grey.

The favorite food of Dolphinfish is thought to be flying fish, and since we have been surrounded by schools of these this morning it was not unlikely that we should catch one. The flesh is a delicate pale pink and delicious with soya sauce and wasabi (Japanese horseradish).


floating island

We encountered this strange phenomenon this afternoon, a floating green mat of vegetation about 8nm out to sea. It may have been washed down one of the rivers by flooding after a heavy rainstorm on land.

We have also been working on the science page this morning, which has the long awaited information on Spinner Dolphins, as with the journal pages we welcome any comments or feedback.

That’s all for today

Janet