I can assue you, from experience sailing in southern waters, near the equator....sea birds will land on anything that floats at times to take a break. Gee, if we wanted to , I could have all the Pelicans I wanted to eat....they lined the rails and you could knock one over with a broom easily. I am sure they didn't have any trouble catching birds....on the high seas fishing is another matter. However, there is one thing with the birds....they are usually within 100 miles of land. Very seldom will you sight a bird beyond that distance. Only Albatross in my experience travel beyond the 100 mile limit and you will seldom see an Albatross on your stanchions....but then they are the messanger of bad luck too....I loved to watch the Albatross sail along, their wing tips just touching the water, magnificant birds. There are allot of islands between San Blas and Kiribati....there is also allot of open sea. They were lucky.
In the early 1950's a Norweign named Thor Heyerdahl and a small crew put together a Bals Raft named Kon Tiki and sailed from Western South America to the Island of Roria in the Polynisian Island chain in 101 days. of course they had a small make ship square sail and knew the currents. I am beginning to wonder about the nine month sage of the Mexican fisherman. That is on heck of a long time, their cloths should have been in tatters and they in much worse condition IMO.



KON TIKI