A quiet and beautiful night

02 June 2008 19:45UTC 34'04N 065'23W

We had a very peaceful night in flat seas, gently plodding along at three and a half knots. It was a nice start to the voyage.

The day dawned beautifully, I came on watch just after four a.m., and the sky was already getting light. By four thirty I could read my book in the cockpit and at five fifteen the sun rose, the big orange ball in the east. Coffee, breakfast and the sun is out, hardly a cloud, fifteen knots of wind on a beam reach. Near perfection, really.

We said hello to a cruise ship last night, by the time we talked on the radio he'd been tracking us for five miles and just begun his avoiding turn, six miles out. It was good to know we were watching each other. The ship was the 'Adventure of the Seas', which was in St Thomas the day we left. I think she must have been heading down to Bermuda from New York or Boston with another load of funseekers. Funny to think that in the time since we left the Virgin Islands, this mobile city might have been back between the USA and the Caribbean twice.

Then a dolphin came to say hello. I just heard the phwish, phwish, of him breathing next to us, then saw the outline in phosphorescence and off he went to find something more interesting to do. Lovely.

No moon, and the stars were awesome. And we keep seeing these beautiful little jellyfish called 'By-the-wind-sailors', they have a three inch high fin that they hold up like a sail (latin name Velella velella)

Time to go listen to the radio for the latest weather analysis, all's well. N.

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