Rowing an ocean requires a certain amount of discipline, not least when it comes to food. Today, I failed.
You’ll no doubt be pleased to hear that my repairs worked, so I went to sleep happy. As the night went on, I became even happier! An unbroken sleep simply doesn’t exist onboard an ocean rowing boat. Recently, every time I wake up, I’ve been checking my position, just to make sure I don’t wake up in the southern hemisphere! Last night, I was amazed by what I saw; not only was I not going south, but I was also going west at a pretty good pace. At this rate, I barely had to row at all!
Once I’d dragged myself out of bed, feeling pretty pleased with the night’s work, I set about rowing. Unfortunately, I came across a strange phenomenon of helpful weather: it’s actually quite difficult to row in. Despite my best efforts, I could barely increase my progress by 1kt, and that felt like a real struggle. Not too worried by this - I was still moving along fairly swiftly - I decided to have a light rowing day to allow my battered and bruised shins a bit of a break.
I’m not known for my restraint when it comes to food; if it’s available and within reach, I’ll eat it. And I’ll continue eating long beyond the point I know I should stop. Sitting in a rowing boat full to the brim with chocolate bars and packets of sweets was always going to be a challenge. I think I got through six chocolate bars and two bags of sweets. Needless to say, it didn’t leave me feeling very athletic and the rowing suffered even further as a result. I’m now being taught a lesson, as I currently feel quite sick and have a shocking headache, and it’s all my own fault!
After my second request for information on the bird, we now have a bit of competition. Following my dismissal of the arctic tern, I have received a message of support for this suggestion, and it turns out it does in fact migrate from pole to pole every year. However, I’m reliably informed that it is still incorrect.
The second suggestion I didn’t take seriously at first, as the name sounded like the kind of thing I’d come up with - it’s got a white tail and I’m in the tropics; let’s call it a white-tailed tropicbird! In fact, it turns out they really do exist, and I have a full summary of everything about them straight from Wikipedia.
But then came another possibility. Could it be a long-tailed skua. Apparently it looks fairly similar as well. The clearest way to tell them apart is that the skua has a black cap, whereas the tropicbird “wears sunglasses”. So, in order to settle the argument, I searched through my photos to find the best picture of its head. And here it is: sporting a fine pair of zorro-esque sunglasses is the white-tailed tropicbird.
I hope something new comes along soon!
