Wayward Traveler

Saturday, while ghosting along just outrunning the flotsam in the water, a songbird, probably a swallow, landed on our wind generator. It was a pretty little thing with a swallowtail and a lustrous blue sheen to the feathers on its back. We lost track of it with our focus on keeping Carina moving. A few hours later it suddenly appeared - fell really - from the coaming into the cockpit. It looked distressed with its wings spread and head down. Philip gently lifted it and put it on a coil of rope and then offered it some water, After some hesitation, it drank the water, raised its beak to swallow, winked its eyes and rubbed its beak jauntily on the plastic water container. We thought perhaps with rest it might recover from its side-trip here, more than one hundred miles from the nearest land. What hope we had for our little passenger was dashed when it began to convulse and worked its way into the rain gulley on the lazarette. Again, Philip gently picked it up and relocated it this time to the top of our dinghy supplies bag on the stern where it seemed to find some comfort. Within an hour it was dead and we buried the poor little thing at sea.

At 8/7/2016 and 19:41 UTC (GMT) our position was: 00°22.21'S / 144°22.20'E.
We were traveling 197T degrees true at 2.8 knots.





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