We had a very nice night last night after the wind chop went away and left a smooth slow swell upon which we were able to make better speed (in the mid four knot range). We're pretty much stuck in the low three knots when we're headed into both swell and wind chop coming from the east. Over the weekend we had a pair of red-footed booby birds following us. At first I thought they were masked because they were large white birds with black edges on their wings. But with blue bills and no black eye masks I confirmed it in our Seabirds book. One of them dropped off our trail yesterday but the other one persisted. The evening before last John had to go up to the bow pulpit and throw one of them off the boat. And last night being so calm the remaining bird was determined to make another landing. He made a few touch and gos on the windward side of the dodger, but I think my flailing arms finally deterred him.
Today we put a second reef in the main as it's a little windier. It's also the first day we've taken any significant spray into the cockpit. But it's still pretty safe to stand outside as long as you watch the oncoming waves for anything that might break enough to splash the boat. The sea surface temperature is down to 75 degrees and with mostly cloudy days I can't imagine taking our usual salt water bath. I'm sticking to baby wipes for the time being! Otherwise we're eating and sleeping well, and are back into our usual passage routines.