Our egret stayed around long enough to get named Greta. She spent most of the evening and early night watches on the foredeck, away from the crowd. At 2:09 according to the log, two more egrets flew by and roused her enough to go see what all the fuss was about, but she circled back about ten minutes later. At least, we assume it was the same egret, not one of the others having heard of our excellent hospitality deciding to get a little rest. Greta stayed on the aft deck next to the stowed fishing pole for the rest of the night, hoping to see some action (so were we all, Greta, so were we all), but did enjoy some fresh water poured across the deck in the morning for her benefit. She lasted through setting a pole for wing and wing, though she declined to stay on deck for that, and circled a few times while we got things settled. About 10am she decided she was as well rested as she could be for the next journey, whether it was to Brazil or Grenada or the next ARC yacht.
Our on-ship bird nerds think that Greta is a non-breeding stage cattle egret: small, yellow bill, black legs. Apparently they were only found in Africa and the Iberian peninsula until the late 1800s when they started to be found in South America and from there, North America and then the world. While the article we found thinks they came over on the trade winds, our experience suggests they made it across by boat hopping.
We are looking forward to getting to the halfway mark in about 10 hours.