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Northern Child - nc blog



We are now a week and couple of hours at sea and approaching the middle of the Atlantic. Sailing is fair and we have finally hit the downwind autobahn, wind averaging 20kts.
 
Today a very different Monday morning awaited all of us. Rather than the painful sound of the alarm calling us to work we were awakened abruptly for our increasingly dark 6am-12pm watch. Groundhog day led once again to good conversations - those of excellent star universe and the occasional surprising personal disclosure. This morning we saw a swordfish jumping out of the water seeking his breakfast, lost two of our own fish catches (one now is swimming around with our best lure!) - and we just lost the third as I write - these guys are taking the p!ss out of us, i believe i saw one wave at us whilst taking his goggles on and off.  This afternoon we also saw whales playing poker and dolphins playing tennis, our first mate Xav went swimming with the dolphins again, risky as he sometimes gets carried away and spends a couple of hours playing - maybe I need more sleep.....
 
Life at ocean is a small community with interesting dynamics.  11 very different people who have never met before, on a boat living in very close quarters with very little sleep. Some try to bribe their way out of washing dishes but that does not work as money has no value here (you can better trade your shower). Our skipper forum is the tribunal for domestic issues, and rules are set and sometimes challenged, with some exceptions to rules being made and the state of law changed - interesting stuff.
 
So as the day draws in, Mike and Ian are busy prepping dinner next to me, not mentioning what they are fabricating, but I overheard something about anti-pasti. Nobody here has a schedule other than sleeping and/or sailing so any extra (only) time is spend on the human essentials - eating and drinking.
 
Will now sit outside again overlooking the currently rocky ocean and watch the sun go down.
 
1st 1719 19'29.3N 32'58.4W


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