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Aretha - Sailing past the Venezuela Coast - 09 56 North 056 57 West



It’s 0237. I’ve been sitting up on deck - the sky is incredibly clear and cloudless with a sliver of moon. The stars are so bright they come all the way down to the horizon and merge with the sea - its hard to tell where the sky ends and the sea begins - it all blurs into one making it nigh on impossible to distinguish ship lights from stars. For the past 3 nights its been like this and I’ve spent hours on deck with Bluebell and Columbus staring up at the stars and using the star gazing app, we have been identifying constellations, galaxies, messier objects, planets and stars. Favourites have been Jupiter which is very bright to our starboard side, the Leo constellation next to Jupiter, Sirius, Orion and the various Messier objects which Columbus is becoming expert at spotting. For an hour on deck tonight Columbus was utterly absorbed reading out to me description after description of different things he was learning of the night sky. Learning by immersion definitely works for him and you realise that the night sky is available to everyone of us every night to appreciate and enjoy.

Bluebell and I reflected on whether there was a little girl and her Dad sailing around their world some millions of miles away on another planet looking out at the dots in their sky and wondering if there were others like her out there. We spoke of how the world had been here for millions of years before us and how the world would be here millions of years after us and just how vast it was out there and the different galaxies and solar systems of which we knew so little. Food indeed for thought and time to appreciate that we really are here in this world for just a heartbeat in the context of the universe and that its for each of us to make the most of the time we are given here - to enjoy life and to contribute to others.

Three nights ago, I was on deck and in similarly flat calm conditions off the French Guyana Coast I spotted what I thought was a flare. My immediate thought was who could it be, is someone in trouble, make sure the radio is turned up to listen out for a call for help. The light though intensified and moved across the night sky with increasing intensity - more than you get from a flare. Ah, a shooting star - wow - this is a huge one. It kept going and after 20 seconds was burning more brightly than ever in the shape of a large elliptical object in the sky. Maybe its a comet I wondered. It kept burning and was now flying overhead over the top of Aretha.

The penny dropped. I remember reading that in Kourou in French Guyana is the European Space Centre. It must be a rocket. It kept burning and moving fast until it disappeared behind a cloud. Exody, one of the other yachts was some 20 miles away from us - I called up Peter to see if he had seen it as well and to confirm he had the same idea about what it was and that it was a rocket rather than a comet or UFO. He’d been watching it too and came to the same conclusion. It was absolutely stunning and chatting to the other boats the following morning, some had seen it drop their after burners into the sea as it continued skywards. I’m glad we weren’t underneath that.

The past few days have been flat calm seas, flat decks and gentle trade wind sailing with the wind largely on the beam. Its civilised indeed and very enjoyable. We are all settled into life at sea and enjoying the passage immensely. It’s not lost on us that this is the last long passage of our circumnavigation for some time and certainly until we finish the World ARC in St Lucia. After 18 months at sea its strange to think that we only have 2 more nights sailing, tonight and tomorrow night until we circumnavigate in Grenada and then day sail to St Lucia.

This afternoon we shared some magical times with our very good friends, Luc, Sarah and Kai on board Makena. They sailed close to us - within 100 metres to take photos of the boats. As we closed, we were surrounded by dolphins - a large pod of regular dolphins playing between the two boats and also spinner dolphins with the characteristic spins as they leap out of the water. As we settled into sailing in parallel 100 metres apart, Luc launched his quadcopter, a flying drone with Go Pro cameras on board and flew around the boats taking video and stills of the two of the us sailing mid North Atlantic ocean surrounded by dolphins. All five of us were on deck and the children were bouncing up and down to wave to Kai who was equally excited and wanted Sarah to launch their dinghy so he could come over to play. The light was incredible and we sailed in close company to sunset while Luc launched the drone for a second time to get more footage. As the sun was setting, the clouds and skyline were intense colours - reds, oranges, blues and greys with a vastness that a camera can merely only hint at when viewed through photos. Mesmeric and enchanting - truly an amazing moment to share between the two crews. After we watched the sun burn into the skyline Sarah called us on VHF to watch their mainsail. They had turned their mainsail (and then genoa) into an enormous cinema screen and were projecting video of Columbus birthday from when we were in South Africa. I challenge anyone else to say they have been to a drive through(sail through) cinema 250 miles off the Venezuela coast!

We now have just over 300 miles until we reach Port Louis in Grenada and where we cross our outbound track - we’ll likely be there late on Saturday evening or if this wind stays light as it is then early on Sunday morning. We have some bubbles in the fridge ready to celebrate. That said we are now in pirate waters and our final 300 miles need us to be super vigilant and to maintain our offshore course. It’s nice to sailing in company with Hugur some 50 miles ahead of us, Makena now 4 miles to port and Exody some 20 miles behind us.

There is plenty of wildlife out here - we’ve been spotting the most unusual jellyfish we’ve ever seen. They have what looks like a pinky/ red sail on top of the water and the jellyfish below the surface. We have no idea what these are (welcome ideas from any budding ocean biologists). Lots of dolphins - some small, some large which may have been short finned pilot whales. Our one bird visitor turned into two bird visitors who simply hitched a lift overnight, used the aft deck as a poop deck and then left us in the morning. Even at 200 miles offshore, there are other occasional birds out here.

Schooling continues apace and the introduction of 12 pence a day pocket money for tasks completed on board, schoolwork and good behaviour seems to be working well. The money is spent in the afternoon at the Aretha Tuck Shop which the children love.

The wind has just dropped again and we have only 7 knots of true wind. It’s good we have current with us giving us a speed of some 4 knots over the ground.

Have a lovely day everyone,

Team Aretha sailing past Venezuela, Out.





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