ARC DAY 6: 2/12 (23.31N, 32 13W) Today I am going to write about the nights on board. Lets use last night as an example. Depending which watch you are on, you could say there are 4 different night shifts:
- from 6 to 10pm:
starts right after dinner and goes quickly into sunset. It is still a bit animated with more people on deck, if you are below deck you are likely to be reading or watching something. Last night for example, Matt, Deborah, Richard, Howard and myself were on shift and Tim and Christian were watching a movie on their laptops, Dietmar and Eckhard sleeping and Flemming and Tom talking and about. Not a bad shift if it wasn't for the total darkness. Sun has set but moon is not yet up. It gets tiring and some time scary if you are sailing fast into the dark ocean. Yesterday was exceptional with an extremely visible sky with millions of starts and all visible. There was a point where the stars in the sky were more visible than the stars on my iPad StarWalk app.
- 10pm to 2am: transition shift.
Not nice getting up but you are happy you are not doing the one after. So is all relative. It gets progressively brighter once the moon comes up and you just kill time. In my experience this one is a quiet watch with people still sleepy from the break and not in the best mood. I find this is the best shift for "thinking time" and reflection and enjoy the collective solitude for a few hours. Last night, Flemming's team put a great performance and completed over 40 miles in these four hours while keeping the boat as stable as possible. Given the state of the sea, Matt and I had to strap ourselves to the bunks to not just roll onto the floor....
- 2am to 6am: the killer shift.
You know is going to be painful before it starts, and they are always painful. It is cold. You are exhausted and is harder to concentrate at the helm. Last night, Richard, Matt and I had to wrestle with Force 6 at the helm in turns during that shift. Not pleasant at all and very tiring. Last night during this shift we got new visitors: flying fishes who fly alongside or across the boat deck. Last night a flying fish nearly hit Matt on the face while at the helm.We also got very wet due to waves and spray. The good is that the water here is warm. The bad is that is very salty you you dont feel very nice... and showering in motion is a key skill that most of us are still trying to master (I miss showering on my sailboat in a marina at the end of a day at sea.)... after a number of these splashes last nighted we ended up laughing for minutes...
- from 6 am to noon: Good shift.
You have slept something and you know it gets better quickly with sun coming up, you can go down and have a bite, be brave and try to boil a kettle for tea and coffee (and get burned in the process)... and slowly start taking layers off.
And then the day and then another night. And Northern Child keeps sailing west. Race wise, we are still doing well. We are clocking great distances everyday around 200 nm we have now less than 1700 miles. Tomorrow we will be at the half point and from then on, we can count down the days and hope everything continues well, safe and have an enjoyable second half of the rally.