I was on the sun rise night watch last night, my favourite one. The last
half an hour of this watch enjoys seeing the sun come up. I don't think
that the sun sets or rises we've seen have been especially beautiful , but I
guess that you appreciate them more out here. Part of that is relief that
the uncertainty of the night is over (especially if there's been a lot of
traffic, or if the [invisible] waves are big), and part of that is the
feeling of being that little bit closer to nature.
The phase of the moon since we've left has been from first moon to almost
full moon now. It rises early in the evening, and sets by about midnight.
The early hours of the morning are so dark that you can barely make out the
horizon.
In the darkest hours, the stars are so pretty I've considered (but not been
bothered) folding back the bimini sunshade to see them better. At the same
time, I strangely have never really felt that far from civilisation. There
are frequently aircraft high overhead (especially on the northern part of
this trip), ships, and then there's the satellites. My limited
understanding of the ones which are relevant to me counts 66 orbiting the
earth at any one time to keep the Iridium satellite phone going, about 12
above the horizon at any one time to give me a GPS fix, and two separate
constellations (of 4 and 2 each) should I ever need to activate my EPIRB
beacon. That's a lot of technology up there, most of which is close than
the nearest land.
As Helen and rounded the Musandan peninsula on the way from Dubai to
Fujairah, I saw during my night watch a mass of flashing lights ahead of us
in the water. I immediately brought the engine into neutral, thinking that
they were strobe lights marking fishing nets, and not wanting to tangle nets
in the propeller. As Helen came dashing up from below (alerted by the
change in engine tone) we realised that we'd driven across a group of
presumably mating (or dating- showing off?) jellyfish. The intensity of the
pulses was amazing- if they were near the surface they were about the size
of a soccer ball and as bright as a fluorescent light stick. As we enjoyed
nature's light show, I wondered if I would get to a point on this trip when
my first reaction to nature would be admiration and respect, rather than
caution or fear.
We are currently making about 6 kts boat speed on a beam reach. We now have
less than 200NM to go, and are looking forward to standing on terra firma
soon.
