Sailing under the stars is always magic. No matter how many times you’ve seen the milky way on a clear dark sky, it always has something that makes sailors like us in awe.
We’ve been under thick clouds for the past month, and seeing stars was almost a rare event. Having a full long night without cloud cover boosts the morale of any crew. It also makes helming easier as the helmsman uses the sky as a giant compass and select one, two or three stars aligned with the any part of the rigging and just keep the alignment.
As the night goes, the helmsman needs to select different stars as they move four degrees every hour and disappears below the horizon. Sometimes, one crew takes his smart phone and identify constellations, stars and planets. When far from any source of light, the sky reveals all its beauty.
We are currently enjoying a nice downwind sailing. We are preparing our next sail evolution as a front is coming to us, and we expect strong and gusty up-wind sooner than later today. The next few days will be up beating up-wind, let’s hope all crew to have their see legs ready for a bumpy ride.
For this, I ask the crew to secure all their belongings in their cubby holes and nettings, always secure their bunk and lee-cloth to avoid flying sleeping bags and pile of shoes and boots in the accommodation area. We also ask the parents to secure everything in the galley and everybody to do their duties before we go back at 45 degrees lifestyle.
I hope the East China Sea is as kind as the South China Sea was, but the is something certain, we won’t forget this sailing in the China Seas.