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Sweet Dream - Friday February 7, 2020




The day began, orthodox-fashion, with the night before. First a “shooting star” of such duration and magnitude that eclipsed any I have ever seen in my life! I had just come on watch, scrolled out to find a cargo ship crossing our bow from starboard to port nine miles out, then as I glanced at the horizon to see if the ship’s lights were visible, the meteorite went flying across from the port side of the mast just below the tall dodger top, it burst into light, skipped and dipped on a almost horizontal trajectory as it shot across the sky to the starboard beam and sank into the sea. Wow! I watched for several minutes but nothing else followed. Then I realised how truly close it had been, I was watching it IN FRONT of the clouds! There was a fine, thin layer of alto status clouds stretching from horizon to horizon at that time, even the moon, above us was thinly veiled and for the second fascination of the night, completely surrounded by a perfect colourful “ moon bow”. Only one other time in my life have I seen that phenomenon! Wow! Nothing else of import happened on that watch. We continued to motor, not a stitch of sail flying in the hot flat calm all night. Captain came on watch at 01:00 and relieved me. He had a visitation from a good sized pod of dolphins, the first ones of this journey, always a welcome delight! I came back on watch at 04:00 to relieve him, and my first sight was another meteorite shooting out of the western sky. Not as spectacular as the first one earlier in the night, but still a great way to begin my shift! I had another cargo ship cross from starboard to port 8 miles out, two planes traveling the same direction as us, and a gorgeous pink ruffled sunrise. Captain did the radio net in the morning at 07:00 our time which was 09:00 Capetown time, the time the fleet is using. After radio net I had a nap, then Captain had a nap, then we had lunch and and Lars said he wished the dolphins would come back so that I could see them and boom! There they were! These dolphins are the biggest I’ve ever seen, and they had with them the smallest baby! It was so tiny that the adults would boost it out of the water to breathe! We speculated that we are probably the first boat it’s run the bow wake on, and probably the first human beings it’s ever seen! I sat in the bow seat and took photos. After the group of three with the tiny one peeled off to the side, a single dolphin came and frolicked in the bow wave just beneath my feet. I leaned over and said, “hi there beautiful.” The dolphin pulled out a little to the side, leaped out of the water rolled and looked up at me and I swear it smiled at me. Shiver me timbers! What a moment! Quite a delightful diversion in our flat,hot, windless day on the Sweet Dream.

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