We have had our first whale sighting! I was sat on watch yesterday afternoon and between waves I saw what I thought was a bigger, black rubber buoy or something like that – only 20-25 metres away. It disappeared and then reappeared a couple of more times, once with a second one alongside as they moved off astern of us.
Good morning boat fans! I have some really exciting news today: there are NO INCIDENTS TO REPORT from last night!
OK, let’s begin today with the promised wildlife update! Between the three of us we’ve heard / seen dolphins on three or four occasions. The best of these was day one but even that wasn’t all that satisfactory as the boat was doing its own Cresta Run at the time and we weren’t really in a position to appreciate the dolphins. We’ve seen quite a few seabirds, especially on day 3. I think they were mainly gulls and petrels (I’m no Bill Oddy….). And we’ve now entered the realm of the flying fish – they’re almost ever-present, and we’ve cleared a few off the deck as well.
Morning all! Well there were a couple of noteworthy events yesterday. We put the ship’s clocks back for the first time, so we’re now on UTC (GMT) – 1 hour. A clear sign that we are making progress westwards! We also think we’ve arrived at the Trades – not that they’re signposted or anything.
Good morning all from Mercator Squared – this is a phrase I’ve come up with to describe being as far north of the equator as you are west of the Greenwich Meridian, a position we passed through a few minutes ago.
Sealegs are starting to make an appearance now, although I’m not yet up to sitting below decks and typing up a quick copy of “War and Peace” (you’ll doubtless be pleased to hear that!).
The first log from Trucial Coast is going to be a short one out of necessity: I’m still finding my sea legs and anything apart from being on deck scanning the horizon makes me distinctly queasy! Our first day has been pretty interesting.
It’s 22nd November and tomorrow I fly to Las Palmas in the Canaries to sail across the Atlantic. Having signed up to do this right back in January, and had it as a major focus in my year, it still seems to have crept up on me very suddenly! I’ve had my last day at the office till after Christmas, handed my house keys over to my cat sitter, and said goodbye to my girlfriend: it is now very real and I am very nervous!
For many years I had a strong desire to visit New Zealand, thinking it would be the perfect place for me. I’m a real outdoors person and love hiking, biking, rock climbing and getting away from it all.
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