Pretty much an ideal perfect day here in the Picton Castle. We are about 1100 miles from Lunenburg getting close to the Azores. Skies are blue, seas small and sun spangled. The barometer is high. The watch is reeveing off new t’gallant and upper-topsail braces from fresh manila rope and bending on the main royal far aloft. Around 2:00 this afternoon we spotted two killer whales off the starboard quarter, jumping along in the breaking waves. A mother and her baby. The crew were a little excited, to say the least. They hung out with us for 15 or 20 minutes, coming so close alongside we could’ve hopped on their backs, before drifting back and watching us sail on. We tried to lure them back with tinned sardines, but to no avail. Yesterday we saw a couple sea turtles out here in the middle of the ocean, a friendly French sloop sailing on her way home from Boston, a basketball 1000 miles from anywhere, as well as several large cargo ships and tankers on this wet, blue highway. Never a dull day.