Into The Mystic - Starry, starry night

Star Date : Monday 6th December
Night watch - 0000 to 0400 hours
This is the voyage of the sailing vessel Into The Mystic whose 18 (or 19) day mission is to explore new worlds and new civilisations and to boldly go where no man has gone before (well, sort of, I have just always wanted to write that :-)


568 miles to St Lucia

The stars ? Oh, my word

We are still on GMT on the boat - we haven’t been putting our clocks back so now sunrise is at 0935 and sunset at 2053 hours. There is no moon tonight (it rises at noon tomorrow) so the night is as black as pitch. Except for the heavens which have put on a stunning show tonight. The stars stretch from horizon to horizon, literally billions of them. Every so often there is a shooting star - shooting stars are one of those natural phenomena that you never tire of seeing; momentary wonder and then gone. Your own private star show. Last night Brad was on this watch and was treated to the rare sight of a meteor, they were discussing it over the radio broadcast this morning: who saw it, wasn’t it amazing etc etc

As a child I was a bit of a star geek so I am in seventh heaven at the moment and even though the passing years have robbed me of the memory of some of the constellations I can still remember enough of them to keep me occupied. I can see the Seven Sisters nebula with my naked eye, its look even more spectacular through the binoculars. Light pollution is zero out here in the vastness of the ocean and its a far cry from the polluted and cloudy skies of SE England.

All the old cliches apply: yes, you feel like a mere speck of dust in the context of the cosmos; yers, there must be intelligent life somewhere up there mustn’t there ? Yes, some of the light falling onto our retinas started its journey before dinosaurs roamed
the Earth. It’s remarkable. Totally and utterly stunning. Its yet another part of this experience which will linger long in the memory.

I was saying to my son, Henry, earlier this evening, that ocean sailing must be one of the last great adventures of life that is still available to anyone to participate in. Its just the five of us, on our little boat, crossing a mighty ocean with only the wind propelling us along under the most beautiful and remarkable sky that I have ever witnessed.

All is good here, we probably have four days left at sea. We have just covered another 4 miles in the time it has taken me to write this….

Sleep well

Lots of love as always

The Mystics