BY-THE-WIND SAILORS
Freedom-loving ocean voyagers – not toenails. By Susanne Masters
Susanne Masters
Illustration by Alice Goodridge
WILDLIFE
By-the-wind sailors spend their entire adult life on the surface of the sea
ALTHOUGH THEY FLOAT IN FLEETS THEY ARE AN ARMADA WITHOUT STING FOR PEOPLE
Wintery beach walks with my dog yield an assortment of flotsam and jetsam on the tideline: oranges, nurdles, and sometimes what looks like discarded toenails. Closer inspection finds concentric rings and a triangular fin on the surface, not manky toenails after all. It takes a storm to reveal the iridescent creatures that create these vessels with which they sail oceans and seas.