Starry, starry night...

DAY 15 - 9TH December 2007

Position: 15º 23' N 54º 39' W
Bearing: 280º
Distance to go: 372 Nm

Our favourite watch of the day is the 06.00 to 12.00 shift. This morning the sun slowly came up and gently filled our horizon with light. At first orange and then a brighter blue. With not much wind we were able to relax for a while and enjoy the quiet boat while most of the others were still asleep. This is the time of day that I will remember the most. Our immediate seascape feels like we are in a large 360º bubble. It's not a lonely feeling, more of a large private space belonging just to us.

We wouldn't want to enjoy other people's misfortune, however, today was the turn of A watch to get wet while on shift. Hooray. We didn't leave them alone on deck though as we took the opportunity to have a shower and wash our hair in the rain. As we changed watches the wind died prompting another swim. This was a quick dip though as the wind soon picked up. I'm not a bad swimmer but chasing the boat at 6 knots is definitely beyond me.

There were 2 changes during the afternoon, we swapped the headsails round as what wind we did have was now off the port beam and we adjusted our local time to GMT -3 hours. The final time change will be done when we land in St Lucia.

Just before dinner another cry of "whale" was heard. Rick spotted a whale within 10 metres of the boat. We're still looking through the whale book to identify it, snub nose and up to 15 metres long. It blew some water at us and swam away. This was a much more friendly approach than our last encounter.

After our gourmet pork chops in mustard sauce we played hunt the wind. Unfortunately it was hiding away.

We were joined on our 18.00 watch by Julian, Kate and Susie. With the wind making a guest appearance and the miles tumbling, the mood was relaxed and there was some great laughter under a bright starry sky. A wonderful start to the day and some good fun to end it. Perfect.


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