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