{"id":1772,"date":"2024-04-26T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T01:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/?p=1772"},"modified":"2025-06-28T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:47:24","slug":"winged-hitchhikers-of-the-galapagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/?p=1772","title":{"rendered":"Winged Hitchhikers of the Gal\u00e1pagos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Gal\u00e1pagos passed to port with barely a ripple \u2014 a distant suggestion of land cloaked in mist and mystery. We didn\u2019t stop, but the islands reached out to us anyway. For several days around mid-to-late April, Sunny Spells<\/em> became a floating aviary, visited repeatedly by the boldest, most characterful seabirds we\u2019ve ever encountered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It started innocently enough \u2014 a lone booby circling at dusk, then a second one inspecting our wake. Within hours we had a pair roosting on the solar panel frame, bobbing serenely along as though they’d booked passage. Over the next few nights, they were joined by friends. Boobies, noddies, and even what we\u2019re fairly certain were storm petrels all took turns flapping aboard, inspecting the rigging, and claiming corners of the boat as their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It quickly became clear these birds knew the drill. They were utterly unfazed by us \u2014 not skittish, not cautious, just\u2026 entitled. One particular red-footed booby adopted the radar dome as its personal throne, glaring imperiously down at us if we dared speak too loudly or open the companionway hatch too fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, with visitors come gifts \u2014 and let\u2019s just say the deck wash hose saw more use than usual. Still, it was hard to resent them. Each evening they arrived just before sunset, circled a few times, then flopped onto the solar panels or lifelines for the night. Come dawn, they\u2019d stretch their wings, preen a bit, and launch off into the rising sun, leaving us with feathers, footprints, and the vague sense of having hosted some eccentric but oddly charming stowaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was something surreal about sharing night watches with a dozing booby perched a metre away, rocking gently in time with the swell. At one point we had five aboard, spaced out neatly like ornaments on a Christmas tree \u2014 one on the pushpit, one on each side rail, and two on the bimini. All facing forward, as if contemplating the journey with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Gal\u00e1pagos may have been out of reach this time, but the archipelago sent ambassadors. And in their quiet, unruffled way, those seabirds left a deep impression \u2014 a reminder that even on an open sea, you\u2019re never truly alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gal\u00e1pagos passed to port with barely a ripple \u2014 a distant suggestion of land cloaked in mist and mystery. We didn\u2019t stop, but the islands reached out to us anyway. For several days around mid-to-late April, Sunny Spells became a floating … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[128,129,6],"tags":[218,216,219,215],"class_list":["post-1772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-natural-history","category-ocean-sailing-passages","tag-boobies","tag-coconut-milk-run","tag-galapagos","tag-pacific-crossing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgewA-sA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}