Past Half Way

I remembered other reasons why I like sailing at night - for a start the absence of the burning sun is a relief, and even in shade during the day there is an intense glare reflecting off the water. In the dark one also gets to see phosphorescence in the bow wave and wake of the boat, and it may only be scattered luminous occasional beads of blue , like last night, or it can appear almost like illuminated smoke streaming back in the water, quite amazing to watch. And even more amazing to watch at night, especially when there are no clouds and no moon as last night, is the night sky, the constellations and shooting stars, the milky way more intense and dramatic in such a clean and black night.

So to today - well we have left behind the place I turned back from six weeks ago and continue to make good progress in close to exactly the right direction, and we are well over half way to Suwarrow Atoll. The wind has remained steady but is predicted to move towards the SE and ESE, so at some point I will need to gybe to starboard. There have been several times today when I thought the change was happening but then we have swung back onto track so I am still waiting. I haven't needed to change anything at all for about 48 hours! At noon today our 24hour run was a new world record for Sapphire, 136nm, and at this rate we are going to be arriving in the middle of the night in just over 2 days time : tomorrow or probably Monday I will have to slow down so we can arrive in the morning on Tuesday local time.

I had a "proper" meal last night ; boiled rice and a tin of Stew which had meat carrots peas and potatoes, plus lots of gravy. I chopped up some celery which is the only Greens I have on board and mixed that in to try and make it a bit more nutritious. Cleaning the pots afterwards I noticed the gravy made the bristles on the dish mop bright orange! And today Ive had biscuits and cheese and fresh tomato and various other snacks an nibbles, but tonight will cook pasta or maybe have Baked beans…

I have started reading again, using my Kindle , a life of Elizabeth the First, the "Virgin Queen", and its fascinating - her father was Henry VIIIth, her mother Anne Boelyn - who had her head chopped off when Henry tired of her, there was Plague and famine, the Spanish Armada, Mary Queen of Scots, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and all sorts of intrigue, treason and heresy, hangings, beheadings, confinements to the Tower…incredible stuff. Somehow I was never introduced to history in my school days so I am trying to catch up.

Right now at 0200 UTC we are at 158 49W, 15.17S 272 nm from Suwarrow

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