Stow away

Last night at cocktail time, no fish, but a bird. Claude says there are
called "fou" with yellow feet. As the wind was picking up and we were
busy rolling up the genoa and reefing down, two of them decided to come
aboard and spend the night on the solar panel. Eventually one of them
went away, but one stayed on and it's only early morning as we were
reefing down to 3 reefs and rolling some more with wind exceeding 25
knots that this guy woke up, obiously not pleased to be disturbed. It
even came to Claude and tried to hit him with its peak to express its
dissatisfaction about the service. Then it flew away, probably back to
Turtle Island, only 30 miles away.
After lunch, the weather looked like it would stabilize with the wind at
20 knots from the SSE, but the seas already at more than 6 feet.
Despite the snail pace of yesterday afternoon, we covered 145 miles over
the ground (156 through the water) and closed in on Noumea by 141 miles
which is now at 866 miles. We might get there on the 28th if the wind
stays that way, as the grib files are predicting.