I’ve always been a fan of these wildlife shows on TV, Planet Earth and the likes. Since I was a kid, I would be glued to TV to watch any animal show I could see. Remembering my fellow frenchman Jacques Cousteau and his red hat.

Well these days, the screen for the show is 360 degrees and I’m getting my eyes and brains full of it. Mother Nature is giving me its best festival these days, just wow.

Last night I took a second to look at the stars. The splash of the waves in my boat were glittering: bioluminescent algae!! Yesss!! I stayed a good 10 minutes for that. So cool.

I’ve seen birds all along. Mostly the gliders: the big sized albatross, the medium grey or black, or small black. They use the swell and the wind to powerlessly glide across miles and miles of ocean. I guess each size of bird is looking for different type of food so they don’t compete with each other. Although very independent, they like to swing by and look curiously at Valentine and the various cheering noises that I use to amuse them. The medium size ones always so three or four turns and then move along. The smaller ones are the cutest, they have such a tiny beak you wonder what the can eat with that!! During this trip, at the very beginning, I found two of them in my bottom cockpit. They must’ve ended there somehow during the night. They flew off all fine each time.

These past two days I’ve seen a different kind of birds. They have thin and sharp wings and split “scissors-like” tail. They come in black or white (those I’ve seen). The black ones are usually in pair and completely independent as they don’t even respond at all to my cheering. (Aka They DGAF). The white ones are smaller and cutter I think, and somewhat a bit more curious, but they don’t linger too long. Their flight pattern seems chaotic and not very efficient, as they go up and down and right and left, but I’m sure they are amazing fliers to cover these distances. It seems that they all go South or SW, and the fact that I’ve seen them so suddenly without prior sighting leads me to wonder if migration has started for them. This afternoon a white one was coming my way, I whistled to him and it started him a bit, as of he hadn’t seen me coming. I had heard that they keep flying day and night because they can use different parts of the brain at different times, and rest the one not active. Maybe he was in that state?

I’ve seen a few dolphins. Bigger than in the Bay Area. They were far and not the ones that follow the boats I think. They minded their own business. One of they was surfing down a swell, maybe chasing a prey. The two that I saw were different colors: one black and one grey, was wondering why?

Saw one little turtle, but couldn’t get a good look as I though from far it was a bundle of nets so I avoided it by going around. It has a few shells on its back.

Today and yesterday I started to see Tuna like fish. They jump high (like 5-6 feet) for some reason, with a big splash out and a bigger splash back it. Not very graceful but impressive nonetheless. Might be because they are hunting, I’ll just say that it’s because they are happy for now.

But the best of the best, you’ve guessed it, are my favorite and amazing flying fish. A few weeks back I started to see them. I had fun counting them, some days 2, some days 20. There are different kinds: those with 4 wings, those with 2, and those I barely see. The last one I call it the “skipper”, you know like you skip stones on a like? It kinda rebounds again and again at incredible speeds, but I barely see wings. The other ones Ive seen fly alone or in groups up to 3-5. They seem to say: “all right guys, I’m done, I’m outta here!” Haha. These past two days though, I can see the schools (is that how we call a group of fish) are bigger, like hundreds!! . They must be staying together for protection, and when they fly, they fly as a group. Day before yesterday I saw a group of 100-150 flying fish, flying together. It started at one spots, and the fish came coming out of the water, over at least 50 yards. And those are the 4-wings fish, they are excellent flyers and go long ways. Fantastic I tell you. Yesterday, a group of maybe 40 did the same. I was winding down and the came out on my right side, flew in front of me and past me toward the last. The sun was on the other side and the rays made they wings silver. Beautiful, and only two boat lengths away from me. Wow.

All these are really hard to capture on photo or video. They are so sudden, so swift and unpredictable. I recommend taking a kayak and paddle 9 hours a day for a few weeks to get the best sightings, it works like a charm. :)

Distance to Hilo: 491.68 nm