I awoke to a very different scene. Ghosting along serenely at 6.5nts with the wind at our backs. It provided a very pleasant morning of sailing. We did have a few clouds threatening to rain on us, which would have been welcome considering how much salt is on the boat from being on a 48hour reach a day ago.
On a morale note, we are due to pass our 1000 mile mark for this trip in a few hours. Amazing how the miles add up.
Well the 1000 mile mark has come and gone. The afternoon has turned into a beautiful one for sailing! Our Saturday morning leave to meet the right weather is currently paying off. We cruising along at 7.5-8nts with the wind behind us. The sun is out and after 3 days of jackets and sweatshirts, we are now back in t-shirts! The laundry is hung from the life lines and we can sit back and enjoy the ride. The plan remains the same, cross the Gulf Stream tonight and tomorrow with an arrival at Lookout Point on Saturday afternoon. We intend to anchor the night and assess our best timing on the push into Chesepeake Bay.
My Friday night shift finished with a touch drama when at roughly 1:45 in the morning a 100 foot+ ship popped up on radar 2.5 miles off my port bow on a course to cross me at under a mile. The AIS showed no information at first and then later gave me the ships name specifics. In trying to raise them on the radio to confirm they saw us, we were unable to get them to respond! Finally we phoned them directly through the AIS system to which they responded and confirmed being us. Crisis averted? Nope. At that time another contact popped up on radar bigger than the first! While waiting for that ship to respond I noticed it was on a parallel course with the first contact and turn with it according. By that time it was a little hard to go to sleep at the end of shift at 2am.
