Gibraltar

Another weather window said go now, so we went the 240 miles or so in one big hop. It was a very easy journey, nice winds behind us, we sailed most of the way. 4 on board to share the watches so sleep was good. We had a lot of dolphins on the last day and saw another sunfish. The wildlife highlight, however, was of a most grisly nature. I was fitting the windvane steering blade, which involves kneeling at the back with arm deep in water and threading the blade back up it's shaft, then securing with a bolt, all with water rushing by.. it's really quite fun. So I notices an eel like tail brushing my arm back and forth but ignored it till the job was done. Manu was determined we should catch the tail's owner, so I pushed the landing net under the stern and brought out this lamprey. A nasty piece of work. They make their living by latching onto fish, grinding through the skin with those toothy things in it's mouth, then sucking out the juices. You would think other fish would bite them in half to rid the sea of such a scourge, but…. Lamprey produce copious slime when irritated, and not just any old slime. Then they tie themselves in a knot, pull through and leave a big glob of gill clogging slime to kill the fish. So only birds and mammals can eat the lamprey. Apparently they only attack humans when starving!

I'm sorry your honour, but I was feeling a bit peckish.