Day 2: Nov 24 -25, the night of the UFO's
Very light wind this monday afternoon, ... and coming from the south east. We are close reach at 220M. The speed drops to 4 knots at times. Clearly not in the trade winds yet. Well, no risk of broaching on this angle. Second dinner where the Gabriela watch retorts to the chicken in wine with a nice soup. The wind picks up but we are still
close reach.
Night falls, night of strange apparitions. First we see a large, diffuse green illumination on the horizon. Speculations abound when it suddenly disappears. Maybe the deck lights of a yacht changing sails? A couple hours later we notice a fast flashing orange light. It seems to be coming to us. This corresponds to none of the regulation lights that ships must show at night.The radar shows .. nothing. Clearly an unidentified floating object, maybe a submarine surfacing. What else could not show up on the radar ... in a rational world.
The night ends better than it started as the wind backs to north east. We can take down the genoa and set up a spinnaker for the night. Morning comes and we now make around 9 knots at 220M under main and spinnaker.
Time to listen to the role call and send our position. It must have been a frustrating night for all the boats, very light wind in places and most always in the wrong direction. It is settled in our immediate vicinity, albeit a bit light. But some boats report very low winds. We made about 170 miles and it appears it could have been much worse. The question for everybody now will be when to turn right and how much of the corner to cut.