Just after midnight, we encountered a ship in the open water that claimed to see us, but was rather recalcitrant to alter course for us until we had raised him on the radio. Crisis avert I could go back to sleep. Speaking of sleep, the motion is very soothing allows you to fall into a deep sleep.
Today was characterized by more sail changing drills to teach how to decide when to change sails and what was the process given a genoa, main and staysail. When we change watch, we check with the person taking your place, give them wind strength and direction, current boat speed and contacts or sail changes during the preceding shift. Let him know what you are watching to be ready for the next change. We then log current position, wind speed, wind direction, trip log, any comments at the end of shift.
Now out in the sea proper, the roll of the waves and constant 15 -19 Nm wind speed made for a very pleasant sail. You certainly do get the feeling on the vastness of the sea, as well as how small our 56 foot boat is in it. The stars were awesome to behold when they came out at night and the moon was brilliant.
