First Night Passage

Im writing from the North Atlantic Ocean!!! A few thoughts on our first night passage. It is 5:30am, I took the first shift from 8 till midnight, Sara took the wheel from midnight til 4:30 am and now I’m back on. We looked for a night that wasn’t too windy to do this passage so that it would be easier.

The forecast said 3-4ft seas with NW winds 10-15 knots. That was a perfect window for us so we decided to go. Unfortunately the forecast was a bit off, with no wind at all… I guess better that than the other way around. So we’ve been motoring all night. Right at the start we were able to sail for a little bit. It was so much more peaceful! We heard some dolphins (don’t think they were whales) breathe close to our boat, it was really cool!

The stars are really bright and the water deep blue. We have a real strong flood light that I shine at the water every now and then, I’ve been spotting jelly fish. I’m wearing my nice warm foul weather jacket (thank you Jonno!!), inflatable life jacket, I’m tethered to the boat by a 6 ft line from the harness integrated into my life jacket to a line that goes all around the boat (the jacklines). We also have strobes on our life jackets just in case… No other boats in sight, I have an alarm that goes off every 15 minutes to time my watches. I get up, look around for lights from other boats, check engine condition, check that our heading is still correct and make sure everything is in order 🙂 I’ve got cookies by my side (thank Mark!) and a thermos of warm tea.

Sunrise should be in about 1h. We’ll anchor in Wrightsville beach and probably stay there for a few days to enjoy and explore 🙂

After this entry was written…

In the morning, the wind finally picked up and we hoisted the sails – flying all three for the first time (main, staysail, and yankee). We were moving faster under sail than with the engine!