More drama on Day 3

So this morning, shortly after I wrote my morning blog, I am on watch, and Barry was with me for the first little while. We're sailing nicely along having recently switched off our engine so there should be no noise other than the sails, wind and waves. But there was this very loud airplane sound... We both were scanning the sky trying to see where this plane was, but couldn't see it at all, the sound died away, and we remarked to each other that this was very strange as it sounded quite close and the visibility was very good.

After a couple of minutes Barry went down below, and I continued to scan the horizon (this being your primary duty when you're on watch!)... and to my astonishment there was a huge creamy-white very unusual looking plane coming straight for us, no more than 20 feet above the surface of the water. And almost no sound... "BARRY BARRY QUICK LOOK..." ... caused Barry and Andy to leap like scalded cats onto deck thinking there was some incredibly serious problem - I pointed to the plane as it flew past us literally within 100 feet, and then we were hit with the sound-wall of the roar of it's engine as it flipped itself over and climbed vertically towards the heavens and then disappeared from sight, though we could still hear the engine roar. Quite incredible! The boys tell me it was an F18.

Later in the day a huge school of dolphins crossed our path fore and aft - there must have been 100 of them in all. 3 of them stayed with us for about 15 minutes jumping and diving around our bow. They're just breathtakingly beautiful to see in their live environment, flipping over to look you straight in the eye, white-as-snow bellies, and scar markings on their backs. It's also noticeable how clear the water is out here, you can see the dolphins when they're quite a ways underwater, maybe 10 feet or more. Really lovely! They move too fast to get a decent photo unfortunately ... so you'll have to make do with just my description! Not quite so dramatic as the plane - but noteworthy for other reasons! We're now at 40 08.7N 69 53.93W.

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