Stinky

I'm not actually sure why he's called Stinky or who gave him the name. I first heard it from Pete, he'd just had a dolphin encounter of the close kind. The photo is as we came in to dock at Kaibo, thanks to Aussie Jen for having her camera handy. I was looking down at him from Blue Runner, my feet are in the picture. My sailing shoes could actually be called stinky too.

It's amazing flying along in full sail and having a dolphin swim alongside. When the boats heeling, he actually gets quite close. He glides along with us then disappears under the boat and jumps out on the other side. It's such a privilege to be part of his world. In saying that, I have been in the water with him once and he gets quite aggressive. I keep my distance, others are foolish enough to get quite close.

We got second today, a close race with the catamaran. It seemed easier today, maybe I'm beginning to know what I'm doing on the bigger boat. Last weekend I met an amazing lady with wonderful stories of a time long passed. She was a sailor once and came with us on the return trip. Bruce got her to helm for a bit, a real treat. One of the youngsters who sails with us, Alex, had this lovely lady as his grandma. After talking with her last weekend, I think I've convinced her to write her story. A love story of two ships passing in the Suez Canal, of long distance letters that somehow found their mark and chance meetings. The stuff movies are made of.

Tomorrow is another sailing day, practice for the big weekend of racing next weekend. The wind may be livelier than today, all adds to the fun. Sticky may even join us.