The day started with one of those perfect sunrises where everything feels easy and life is good, and then reality showed up. I stepped out on deck and discovered that sometime during the night, a small group of seabirds had thrown a complete and unsanctioned party on the back deck. Everywhere. Even the steering wheel, which it turns out is a particularly inconvenient surface to clean when it will not stop moving under your hands. That turned into about a two-hour cleanup, which is not the way I had planned to begin the morning.

Once order was more or less restored, I got into problem-solving mode. I have been working with the riggers on the replacement shroud, and they needed a list of measurements, including the actual length of the shroud. Normally a five-minute task: stretch it out on a dock, or climb the mast and measure. Neither of those works particularly well when you are solo in the middle of the ocean. So I got creative, came up with a workaround that turned out to be slicker than expected, and shot a short video of the method for anyone curious. While I had the camera out, the morning's wildlife incident also seemed to deserve some documentation, so it got a short film of its own.

The rest of the day settled into a more usual rhythm: deck checks, navigation, a few sail changes. The sailing has actually been excellent at this angle, the weather has been cooperating, and I would not say no to a squall passing through to rinse things down a bit further, but I will take what I am given. We are running the headsail out to starboard at the moment, which has been the best way to keep the main stowed in these conditions, not perfectly ideal but working well and keeping the load manageable. I am doing hourly deck checks through the day and a few through the night, and so far everything is holding together nicely.

One funny note from this afternoon: while I had the sails down to reposition the whisker pole, we were still making about four knots and holding course, which is not bad for a boat doing essentially nothing. That is the gist of life out here. Some days it is beautiful sailing. Some days it is problem-solving in real time. Some days it is cleaning up after birds, which I now have on tape. I will keep making the little videos for now, and either I will get better at them, or I will stop, but at the moment they are fun, and honestly they keep the spirits up. Ciao for now.