Shortly into the start of the first night shift for Black Watch, we spotted tiny sea creatures floating on the water with what was clearly a built in sail. The body of the creature was essentially a thin oval (an inch to two inches in length) with a clear center and a blue fringe around its circumference. The sail was an opaque white. At first we thought there were thousands of them but as we sailed throughout the night, it became clear there were probably billions of them. Most of the time they were largely spaced out about every foot to two feet but every once and a while we'd sail through or near by a large mat of them. Come nightfall and we could see that these creatures either had phosphorescence in them or were reflecting the moon light but either way, the large mats looked like a shimmering carpet on the surface of the water. Later the next day one volunteered to come aboard so we've got close up photos to share when we get back.
The following morning brought near perfect sailing conditions for String Theory; 15 to 25 knots of wind that slowly oscillated between coming at us from abeam to coming from behind. It was perfect conditions for flying a
spinnaker. Further, while still there, the fog had largely lifted to the point where it only obscured what was in the horizon thus enabling us to, for the first time, really see and feel that we were indeed now out in the open ocean (roughly 100 NM from land at this point); there was nothing in sight as far as the eye could see except for the odd fishing trawler. I'm sure they were quite surprised to see us. The colour of the ocean had also changed from the typical opaque green/brown tinge to a beautiful clear blue; midnight blue to be precise (or so I'm told). It was quite marvelous just to gaze out at the water and watch the sea rise and fall with smaller white caps cresting at random within the swells. And just to make things even better, despite a few short periods of light drizzle, the sun occasionally broke through the overcast to remind us that it was actually summer time and quite hot out and thus we should be grateful for the overcast skies at the moment because the time will come soon enough when
the skies will be clear and we'll be baking in the sun.
But by far the best part of the day was the driving competition. We had a blast taking turns behind the wheel. Not only did the confusing state of the sea add to the excitement but we had a friendly challenge going on between drivers to see who could post the fastest boat speed. Boat speeds ranged between the low 8 knots to our high for the day of 14.9 knots; well done Dave! We also posted several good distance mileages for each watch and hope to continue this pace throughout the rest of the night. We've traveled 311 NM from our start in Victoria as this is being written; over 200 of these today alone. It sure feels good to post some high mileage numbers; hopefully this
will be the new normal from here on out.
The only hiccup for the day was the winds actually continued to pick up towards the end of the afternoon (to about 33 knots), so quickly in fact, that it caught us off guard and an all hands on deck was called for urgent help with a change from a spinnaker to a white sail. It was quite the way to be woken up! And to top it all off there was a bonus at day's end; a beautiful sunset just at the start of Black Watch. This is the first one we've been able to watch and the first time for some on the crew to watch the sun literally disappear into the ocean at the horizon. What a great way to finish off a fantastic day of sailing.
Signed: Boaters Always Need A New Angle But Really Every Angle Deceives
The following morning brought near perfect sailing conditions for String Theory; 15 to 25 knots of wind that slowly oscillated between coming at us from abeam to coming from behind. It was perfect conditions for flying a
spinnaker. Further, while still there, the fog had largely lifted to the point where it only obscured what was in the horizon thus enabling us to, for the first time, really see and feel that we were indeed now out in the open ocean (roughly 100 NM from land at this point); there was nothing in sight as far as the eye could see except for the odd fishing trawler. I'm sure they were quite surprised to see us. The colour of the ocean had also changed from the typical opaque green/brown tinge to a beautiful clear blue; midnight blue to be precise (or so I'm told). It was quite marvelous just to gaze out at the water and watch the sea rise and fall with smaller white caps cresting at random within the swells. And just to make things even better, despite a few short periods of light drizzle, the sun occasionally broke through the overcast to remind us that it was actually summer time and quite hot out and thus we should be grateful for the overcast skies at the moment because the time will come soon enough when
the skies will be clear and we'll be baking in the sun.
But by far the best part of the day was the driving competition. We had a blast taking turns behind the wheel. Not only did the confusing state of the sea add to the excitement but we had a friendly challenge going on between drivers to see who could post the fastest boat speed. Boat speeds ranged between the low 8 knots to our high for the day of 14.9 knots; well done Dave! We also posted several good distance mileages for each watch and hope to continue this pace throughout the rest of the night. We've traveled 311 NM from our start in Victoria as this is being written; over 200 of these today alone. It sure feels good to post some high mileage numbers; hopefully this
will be the new normal from here on out.
The only hiccup for the day was the winds actually continued to pick up towards the end of the afternoon (to about 33 knots), so quickly in fact, that it caught us off guard and an all hands on deck was called for urgent help with a change from a spinnaker to a white sail. It was quite the way to be woken up! And to top it all off there was a bonus at day's end; a beautiful sunset just at the start of Black Watch. This is the first one we've been able to watch and the first time for some on the crew to watch the sun literally disappear into the ocean at the horizon. What a great way to finish off a fantastic day of sailing.
Signed: Boaters Always Need A New Angle But Really Every Angle Deceives