It’s 5am and I’m on night watch with Ferg. The parasail is back out and we’re sailing well – in fact we’re stonking along at over 8kts. The full moon is still lighting up the sky to the west; it could almost be daylight. Behind us, in the east, dawn is just breaking and the purple and orange hues in the sky are simply spectacular. How lucky we are to be right here, right now.
Life on board continues in a wibbly wobbly fashion. While the huge swells have reduced, we’re left with a large sea, with the swell coming in from all angles, creating a lot of rocky motion.
Occasionally in the crossed swell – and usually while we’re eating outside – a dastardly wave will creep up the aft steps and into the cockpit. The first we know about it is when we get wet feet under the table. Now in top resorts around the world, people pay a lot of money to eat their food while dipping a toe in sea water, so we have termed this l ittle occurrence as Destination Dining!
Yesterday’s highlight was a pod of two dozen Atlantic spotted dolphins that swam along in front of the boat. They were not playful like their bottlenose counterparts, but they were happy to escort us for part of the way in this great big ocean. There’s something about watching dolphins swim alongside the boat that just makes me smile.
Elsewhere, the fish have been evading our lines; we need to up our tactics. Books are being read, the galley is in constant use with various concoctions of bread, cakes and hummus being produced. And we’re eating royally thanks to Executive Chef Ian and sous-chef Ferg. Tonight, we’re hoping the waves will have settled down enough for us to barbeque again.
In other news, we’ve crossed another time zone, so have put our clocks back by an hour and are now UTC/GMT -1. It’s lovely and warm, we’re in shorts and t-shirts now, even on night watch – a sure sign we’re en tering the tropics.
And finally…Today is International Women’s Day, so dedicating this blog to all you strong and amazing women out there, especially the females in my family.
Total miles sailed in 48 hours: 294
Total miles to go to Fernando de Noronha: 1176
Date: Wednesday 8th March 2023
© Two Drifters Travel