birthday surprise...

DAY 12 - 6TH December 2007

Position: 16º 26' N 46º 55' W
Bearing: 285º
Distance to go: 824 Nm

The dreaded 02.00 to 06.00 watch was helped by having the clearest and brightest starry night of the trip so far. We pooled our limited knowledge and spotted a few constellations. What was more obvious than ever before was how the Earth moves in relation to the stars during the night. We tracked Orion's belt as it twisted and climbed through the sky. There wasn't a lot else to do as we were waiting for more wind to come our way. The forecasts of strong 15-20 kn trade winds hadn't lived up to their promise. The other watch had gybed in the night which headed us further South than we would have liked from the rhumb line.

Today was Kate-the-mate's birthday. She won't tell us her age and of course we are much too polite to ask. She had brought some presents form home and Susie cooked 2 meals of her choice. We're very glad she chose fajitas for lunch and bangers and mash for dinner. It felt like our birthday! Rick gave her a present of a bagpipes lesson. It is much harder than it looks. I had brought a cake with me and it was time to eat it. The lovely Mrs Swan had baked a cake especially for the trip which survived the flight from the UK and mid-way across the Atlantic. But once opened, it survived approximately 2 minutes as the hordes laid waste. Katie and the whole crew loved the cake so thanks again Mrs Swan, we're just waiting to see if we can get another one airlifted out before St Lucia.

If Birthday celebrations weren't enough, we had some special visitors during our afternoon watch. 2 whales swam alongside and even under the boat at one point. We are still trying to identify what type of whale they were but they were certainly interested in us for a good 15 minutes. Julian was worried that they could damage the rudder, so we had a tense cat and mouse run for a while before they eventually carried on their course. We let them head off for a mile or two before we resumed our original bearing.

Our first birthday on board and our first whale sightings. What a day. We have been very lucky so far on this trip with the weather and the sea. A few more days to go and we will be able to look back on a unique and wonderful experience.


You can track the progress of Northern Child, which is updated every hour, on their web site at: northernchild.com