25 October 2015

(watch 00.00 - 04.00)
GPS coordinates: S1126.481 / E16100.690
Average speed: 6 kn.
27 degrees Celsius.
Day 6 at sea.

The moon is nearly full, the wind has picked up and Rennell island grows steadily closer. At 2.00 am when Eric took over steering I got my camera from my cabin and began shooting at the sky. I can't really put into words what it's like to look up and see the heavens revealed so clearly, words can't do it justice. I'm sure you've all experienced that at one time or another.

We're trying to sail as close to the wind as possible, our bearing is 255 degrees. Even as Eric and I stood at the helm you could feel the wind strengthening. It's set to pick up over the next few days and should speed us on our way.

I did a lot of thinking during this watch, reflecting on how lucky I am to be here on this sailing boat, about how I used to be petrified of jumping into a swimming pool even if somebody was standing there to catch me, how did I end up on a large sailing boat in the middle of the ocean which is bouncing around in the wind and waves. How did that happen?!

Only once before in my life have been woken up by or to look at animals, the first was in Tanzania when two love making hippo's disturbed my slumber. Today was the second, I'd only been asleep 2 hours or so when Menno came into my cabin and excitedly to me there were false killer whales on the bow. No one was quite sure how many there were but they were dancing and jumping everywhere! Keeping up with our boat with such ease, myself, Sarah and Menno stood right on the bow of Infinity. This was my first real encounter with relatives of the dolphin family. They must have been with us for about an hour, definitely worth waking up for. I shot over 100 photos and a whole lot of film in that time.

We're also passing between the main Solomon Islands group which is out of sight to the North and Rennell Island which lies to our South at distance of about 6 nk miles.