Sunsets and Moonrises
Day 4 of Race 8. So good to be back at sea on Washington, DC after a fabulous, and quite long break in the stunning Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. When the engine goes off and the wind picks up the yacht as the sails are hoisted on the Le Mans start, the sound of the hull cutting through the water brings peace and calm to my soul.
This may be a short race, only 600 miles, and roughly 4-5 days at sea. However, that means a slightly more intense tempo as distance to waypoints are shorter, making sail changes more frequent and the sailing more focused.
We had a great start at the Le Mans start, pulling ahead of several boats. I then found myself on the bow with several others for nearly three hours doing one sail and spinnaker change after another. I then reallocated myself below with one other crew member packing the Code 2 spinnaker for an hour or so. Day 1 done and rolled into my bunk at 2300 exhausted.
As a crew we have all slipped back quickly into the usual rhythm of the watch systems onboard as well as executing our normal boat duties including ‘cookie’ watch. On this leg being cookie is a real pleasure as we can have so much more fresh food and more adventurous meals.
On deck life is normal, although we started in pretty cold temperatures. Over the last two days the sun has come out and the heat increased, which is a pleasant surprise, and makes sleeping during the day a little more uncomfortable.
We are treated to wonderful sunrises and sunsets. The striking oranges of sunsets and the burning red ball that rises in the morning. We are so privileged to be able to see nature at its best. During the night the skies have been very dark which means we have a great vista of stars, to view lying on the deck.
Last night we had a special moment when in the east a bright white light started shining on the horizon and growing. An amazing moonrise, something that I had never seen before. I got the crew that were on watch all up on deck to view this amazing natural phenomenon. We watched in awe for about 20 minutes as the moon rose and the light brightened. So beautiful.
Then our wonderful AQP, Ella, stuck her head up and said that the moon had an AIS signal on the GPS and in fact was not the moon, but a very large Chinese fishing vessel using an incredibly bright light as it was working! I felt pretty stupid...
As I finish off this blog, we are roughly 140 miles from the Finish Line, and we are racing along at 9 to 10 knots. However, we are expecting the usual ‘windhole’ to appear and frustratingly slow us right down before the finish line. How nature laughs at every sailor’s plans and intentions.