The Bird

Day 5 –Jim wakes me up from an afternoon nap by tugging at my ankle. We have a stowaway!  Trump better build his promised gold-plated wall quickly, we are not even safe even in our own boat!

I crawl upstairs, bleary-eyed, and try to make sense of the situation. The stowaway happens to be a bird resembling a blue-footed boobie, which I have seen in Galapagos, but with yellow feet. He seems to have his right wing injured and refuses to eat my fried breadfruit. Also, he tries to bite Pierre when he offers him some fried eggs.  Apparently, we have morally offended him by offering eggs.

The bird is picking up our habits rather quickly – at night it gracefully sways on the half-empty fuel bladder like it is a waterbed for birds, while we sleep. Later he poops all over the deck. Nah, we did not teach him that.

Day 6- I wake up early for my new morning shift schedule and to my disappointment, the whatever-its-name boobie-bird is not on the deck anymore. I was hoping that we were becoming friends already. Just then, he gracefully lands back on the starboard hull out of nowhere and starts a long and thorough cleaning ritual. With an occasional rear-end squirt on the boat’s trampoline. I get envious of his bathing ritual because it reminds me that if we won’t fix that darn dessalator (the water maker), we will be refreshing ourselves with the ocean water soon, hopefully sans the trampoline part.

Day 7 – I wake up for my shift and carefully crawl to the bathroom. By now I have mastered the pantomime movements around the boat without stubbing my toes into those sneaky thresholds, which I keep hitting at all hours of the day. Monsieur L’Oiseau is sitting right on top of the bathroom hatch co-navigating the ship. I am trying to take his picture, he makes sure I got all the good angles by watching me with the corner of his eye and adjusting accordingly.

Monsieur L’Oiseau has marked quite a lot of the deck’s territory. Pierre suggests that it is time to shoo him away. I think he is still injured because his right wing is flapping in the wind when he sits on the deck. Jim thinks he is acting out just to get our empathy.  Also, Jim is thinking about cleaning that poop because “we can’t go to a fancy marina in Hawaii all covered with bird poop”. Arnaud doesn’t think of him at all because he is snoozing after his shift and dreaming about his girlfriend. 

Jim wakes up and tells us that Monsieur L’Oiseau sat on the hardtop throughout the whole night shift co-piloting the boat. I guess he wanted to give the captain his feedback more directly.

Monsieur L’Oiseau and I spend my shifts watching the flying fish evolution right in front of our eyes.  It is amazing how they propel above the surface of the ocean for surprisingly long distances. Those tiny little creatures fearlessly attack the waves like a school of bullets in “Saving Private Ryan” opening scene.  Totally goosebumps for me. Never underestimate the power of baby flying fish in large schools going at 43 mph (yes, I had to look it up). Looks like in a few weeks they might be able to attack and deflate a whale or a shark or at least by the end of the crossing some of them will mutate into birds. Monsieur L’Oiseau is eyeing them with me.  We both get bored and Monsieur L’Oiseau decides to test his wing. He takes off but hits the lifeline and falls under the trampoline. My heart starts racing and I stare intently at the wake hoping he comes out. Nope. Jim reassures me that a sea bird can’t drown.

A few minutes later Monsiour L’Oiseau is back. With two of his buddies. The newcomers are not as impressed with the boat they have heard so much about and they leave.

I spot a ship! Yay, only the third ship throughout the whole trip. Seems like an unmarked fishing vessel which doesn’t show on either radar or AIS. Just after we scan to ensure that there are no nets being towed in our path, Monsieur L’Oiseau decides to upgrade his ticket and flies toward that oh-so-good-smelling fishing vessel. All you can eat seafood buffet. Kinda like Salty’s at Alki  Sunday brunch for birds. Seems like nobody has loyalty nowadays, not even the birds.