Saturday 13 October Tina Turner does pole dancing

Tina Tern-er on the aft boom

Day 3 of our passage and so far wind from the right direction. As we were getting near to sunset the wind dropped again and we dropped our second headsail for the night. No need to have it flapping around flogging itself into a tizzy.

While we were doing this an observer joined us. A cheeky black tern saw the opportunity of a roost for the night mid ocean and hopped around trying different perches until she settled for the downwind pole on the windward side. She bobbed and swayed there all through the night and flew away as the sun came over the horizon. Of course we had to 'adopt' our pet meaning she had to have a name. Tina Tern-er was our best effort and she was doing a tern pole dancing, tern-ing to face the wind and other idiotic play on words which pass the hours when I the middle of the ocean.
When she flew away she didn't leave us completely bereft – there was a splatter of oily, fishy bottom ejections on the deck as a reminder of her visit. A bucket of seawater removed the offending articles.