I hope my mother doesn't read this

Sometimes at sea and thousands of miles from land I see some things that you wouldn't believe, some of which I feel blessed for seeing and others I wish weren't there. On this passage from Cocos to Mauritius alone I have seen two sharks of decent size. One of which was by chance as I was looking out of the cockpit and saw something going the other way about 8ft long and shark shaped, the other when I was on deck alone and the fishing reel went mad as a few metres of line spun out very suddenly at high speed. Because the lure wasn't far out the back and as I was reeling in I could see what I'm sure was a shark in the wave behind the boat. It took one more bite at the lure then let go and swam off. I think I'm glad it did because having a shark on the back of the boat is really going to upset it and I'm not sure I'd want to go anywhere near it to get the hook out. Next up of things at sea was just today at about 1100 miles from Mauritius and the nearest point of landfall. It is not unusual in the Indian Ocean to come across pirates but they are normally further north and not usually this far out to sea, so when I noticed a boat not very far away I immediately called Bry and Tosh up to have a look. There was a fishing boat about 80ft in length, flying the Indonesian flag and sat at sea anchor. Sights like this can feel a bit unnerving. As we got closer and started to pass this vessel it was apparent that there was no fishing gear on board and the whole boat felt a bit lifeless bar a few young men on the aft deck. From my experience in this area of the world I would put it down to either immigrants in a broken down boat or sat there waiting for a drop from one of the numerous big cargo ships out here of drugs or people. Maybe they were just innocently fishing. We will probably never know and in a way I'm glad that we didn't find out, I just wish these obstacles weren't out here because a boat of that size sat to a sea anchor is not in a position to be able to get out of our way and I'm not sure how well lit at night they would be if at all.