Cerulean of Penryn - Cerulean at Night

DATE:2018-11-30 00:00Z
TITLE: ARC+ LEG 2 DAY 10
LOCATION: 14:50 045:48
AUTHOR: Richard Rowley
BODY:

Distance to go 878Nm, Distance Sailed 1279Nm

There is something special about doing the night watch especially this one 9pm to midnight (GMT-2) it's 10.00pm where I am at the moment in the middle of the Atlantic ocean sailing along the 15 deg North, and 46 deg West, we are heading due west along the 15th parallel. Its midnight back at home in the Uk.

I have the boat to myself, everyone else is asleep. it's quiet down below, just the creaking and groaning of the boat, and chinking of the cuttlery in the draw, in the cockpit the arythmic roar of the bow wave as it cuts through a wave and a constant gentle swish from the stern wave. occasionally Cerulean feels almost motionless, but still racing through the water at 6kts, at one with the sea, then the odd wave will catch us on the starboard quarter and roll us from side to side enough to make need to hold on, but generally we just gently lolling from side to side as we eat our way through the miles towards our destination, St Lucia. Sometimes there is a squeek or a whistle others a swquark and a crash others a boom as the foresail backs and fills as we go over a wave...nothing to worry just all part of our daily soundscape

I lay in the cockpit looking up at the stars, almost, but not quite a clear night, the odd wisp of cloud, the moon not risen yet means that we can see all the stars and celestial bodies clearly and without any light pollution...an astronomers dream...if only the boat will stay still long enough to look at them through the binoculars...

looking out across the stern directly east Betelguese shines brightly on Orion's right shoulder and above it Belatrix on his left shoulder, the three stars that make up his belt clearly visible slightly to the south on Orion's right. directly above us is Uranus, I look out to port and there directly to the north glowing faintly just above the horizon on the tip of little bear's tail is Polaris, Thats just a few of the million stars I can see tonight. I should be able to see Mars and Neptune on top of each other, but there is a bit of cloud in front of us where they should be...and our sails.

Up above us gently rocking from side to side is our own star, our masthead tri-colour navigation light painting squiggly lines in the sky, shining red, green and white so that other vessels, if they are around can see us and know which way we are going

I cannot see another yacht or ship around us, not by eye or with our electronic gizmos, but i know they are there just over our visible horizon, occasional noise and chatter on the VHF, more on on the Short Wave Radio when we have out radio net. I know they are they are out there. we are not alone as it feels.

It is an awesome feeling to be far from land a 1000 miles from anywhere for such a long time we have been as sea for just over a week now and it will be another 6 or 7 days before we are on land again.

Hope you don't mind me babbling on, but its nice to talk to you guys.

Cerulean of Penryn
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At 30/11/2018 00:00 (utc) our position was 14°50.00'N 045°48.00'W