Arthur Logic - Arthur - At Sea - The crazy has kicked in...

A dazzling optical experience

A tortuous never-ending roundabout

A place where crewmates become friends

A relentless racetrack

There are many ways to describe the mid-atlantic at night. At times there's nowhere you'd rather be, at others it's a suffocating nightmare. I love it, I hate it, but it's brilliant and utterly addictive.

Why?

The sublime: on clear night you're witness to the most phenomenonal lightshow. Stars everywhere you look acting as both your entertainment and your means of navigation. Some stars so low you think they're passing boats. Others shoot across the sky like the red Arrows are controlling their every move. It's simply spellbinding.

The ridiculous: how do you keep fellow watch-mates entertainment and more importantly awake for hours on end during a watch? The world was put to rights after the second night so it didn't take long for the delirium to set in. A 3-hour debate about whether you'd prefer Corbyn or Trump on board (I opted for Trump on account of Corbyn's questionable sense of hygeine), trying to explain why your old history teacher deserves global recognition for his work (even the flying fish are now yelping 'who said Orme?' as they dive out of the water), Or discussing what type of quiche you'd be if you woke up one morning as Mr Quiche, have ranked among the more surreal conversations. There are laughing fits, and groans of frustration all mixed in with the reliable tones of Puckerings snoring.

The Challenge: when you're not so fortunate as to have the night sky to navigate by you're left with nothing more than a night vision compass to steer your course. Due to the current movement of the waves you always feel like the boat is turning to port, regardless of which way you steer. Quickly you feel like you're on a pitch black merry-go-round with no way of getting off. You just hope a guest appearance from a dolphin or quiche based revelation will break the cycle.

The relentlessness: the ocean never stops and as we're racing nor do we. And that's a formidable thought. When one watch ends another one starts; new shooting stars, new merry-go-round and new conversations about quiche.

I'll continue to love it and continue to hate it but I'm really hoping we arrive in Saint Lucia at night to add a touch of the Caribbean to this bonkers, starlit, experience.

All political and quiche-based views are that of author and in no way reflect the views of Sailing Logic or its employees.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.