I get a bit of excitement during the night when we are contacted by RMS St Helena. At first I don’t realise that it’s a ship contacting me (the ship is 12 miles directly to port but the blip on the radar is right on the edge and I fail to notice it) and think it’s the island of St Helena. Being over 200 miles away I am impressed by the range of their radar, then I realise my mistake, and spend a few minutes chattering with the very nice guy on watch. It turns out that they pass information to the island regarding the ships heading there. When he asks how many people there are on board, for one minute I worry that I am telling a prospective pirate all he needs to know to come after us, after all, AIS has not provided me with any details about the ship as it’s too far off, but I tell myself I am being paranoid and give him the information he asks for. I watch as he disappears into the night making no change of direction to come and charge after us. He is kosher after all!
It pours with rain for a while and although there is nearly a full moon, I can’t see it at all. Even the rain doesn’t come with any wind and we continue to motor.
I sleep for a couple of hours as usual during the morning and get up to a mixture of bright sunshine and white clouds, better than the grey stuff. I have my usual half an hour in the sun then retreat into the shade again.
My new haircut has evolved over the last few days, as usual. I attack it on a regular basis, sometimes doing it better than others. This time it’s a better one and a little shorter than usual. Mike likes it as I’ve left it to go curly, my ‘dead poodle’ look.
We are rewarded with a glorious sunset. There haven’t been that many good ones on this passage but today’s is a real treat as it glitters across the water.
Photo: A South Atlantic sunset in all its glory
Getting to sleep is a problem again, and after an hour I shout up to Mike that I am still resting rather than sleeping. Apparently there is a beautiful moon out again. I resist the temptation to get up and look because I know that will really make me alert again, well, as alert as I ever am anyway.
Our position is: 17 deg 05 min S, 04 deg 07 min W
Distance so far: 20152 nautical miles
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