Creatures

 Anyone who has ever sailed any distance with my wife Lynne will know that she adores her creatures. It is a real privilege to be able to observe them in their native habitat, especially if they choose to interact with you. Lynne will wait for hours for dolfins to reappear, or simply watching flying fish. Our recent trip across the Atlantic aboard Hocus Pocus also gave us the opportunity to see creatures that were completely new to us along with some old friends.

I think the most constant companions we had on our voyage was the surprising flying fish.

Surprising because they have a real ability to fly, they will swoop up and down waves and change direction at will. They can also lower their undercarriage ( tail ) and accelerate back up to flying speed in a flurry. I think we saw them every day as well as finding them on the deck in the mornings.

A real indicator that we were in the tropics was the appearance of the white tailed Tropic bird.

This rather beautiful bird began to shadow us as a solo bird but later became a pair and was a daily visitor. We had to bring our fishing lures in when he began to take an interest in them! An obvious identifying feature is the lovely long tail.

Another visitor was a small black gull we think was some kind of Petrel, it's behaviour suggests this as it would swoop just above the wave tops, skimming the surface presumably looking for fish.

A rather prehistoric visitor reminiscent of a terradactyl was the frigate bird, also a bird of the tropics.

Famous for having a distinctive red crop it can inflate when breeding, it is a rather piratical scavenger.

An indicator we were approaching land was the appearance of several gannets, identified from their distinctive diving behaviour however their markings were slightly different from the birds we are used to.

We saw quite a few dolphin, mainly two types the Atlantic white sided.

And the bottlenose.

Both of which were delightful and would accompany Hocus Pocus while playing under her bows.

We were also shadowed by a small whale which we still can't identify with any certainty.

However all these creatures entertained my wife and the rest of the crew for hours on end, it certainly relieved the tedium of a long crossing.

We also saw lots of ( and caught some ) fish. Large predators like the Dorado and Bonito.

The Atlantic is simply alive with life..........