Identity of a new bird?
This is the toughest thing I have done since cycling through Siberia in the wintertime. The reasons are quite similar. It's a sleep-deprived dash across an unchanging landscape. The days are relatively short on excitement and variety compared to other trips, so the whole thing becomes much more "goal-oriented": the prime objective of everything we do is just knocking off miles, ticking off days, making progress towards an end that will bring both satisfaction and relief and make it all worthwhile.
It is a dangerous game to play, however. Concentrating solely on the end means spirits can be crushed by how far away it seems and how little impact each long and difficult day makes on the total.
So instead I try to concentrate only on my next little milestone. There are plenty of them - the diagonal fifth line through four vertical ones drawn on the cabin ceiling that denotes five more days have passed; getting to the end of a week, the end of a month. I'm also counting down the distance to the end in hundreds of miles. 19, 18, 17, 16, 15... I write on the ceiling each time we dip under the next hundred. It creates a nice impression of making meaningful progress. And each hundred miles is rewarded (whilst depressingly small stocks remain) with an olive and a sliver of salami.
Finally there is the daily sweepstake to guess the distance covered in the past 24 hours. I make my guess strategically: high enough to be optimistic, but low enough so that hopefully the actual answer is higher than my guess.
And by these means, little by little, the little pencil mark on our chart creeps slowly, yet undeniably, westwards across the page towards Barbados. We have already covered one fold of the map. Only two folds remain.
Finally, a massive milestone is approaching. We are not too far from the halfway mark. If we keep going, always a little further, then we are going to make it across this glimmering sea.
ps - I was very impressed by Simon's diligent clothes washing this morning. We are still curious as to when he might take his first shower of the trip though.
pps - can anyone help us identify a new bird we have begun to see? We really need someone with a Zoology degree on board...
This bird looks like an albatross but is closer in size to a normal seagull. It glides low and fast across the waves. Thank you!
Al
