The Beautiful night! | 59° North Sailing

0630 Boat time | 08º 11.7’N 112º 53.4’ W

Sailing Wing-On-Wing

It is now 6.30 on FALKEN and the sun is about to come up over the horizon, but the glow started already a half hour ago and it has gradually been getting lighter. Kate was at the helm, while Jim, Adam and I were chatting about who knows what in the cockpit when we heard a flap on the side deck. A beautiful bird had landed on the side deck. I am not sure what kind it is, need to go and dig into our books onboard, but it’s definitely one of the seabirds that has been circling around us since we left Galapagos! He is now resting just outside the cockpit, nicely tucked over the jib sheet and behind the preventer, it’s almost like he wants to hang out with us, or maybe he is simply just getting a well needed rest?

We had an amazing night with a sky filled of stars, except for a short lived rain cloud that came over us earlier in the night. We had Scorpio behind us with Libra above, while Orion was setting just behind the jib. Big Dipper was ‘upside down’ to our starboard and the little sliver of moon comes up later and later now. It’s amazing though how much light we get from the moon, despite being so small. In Swedish we have a word ‘mångata’, the reflection of the moon on the water (translates to 'moon road’ - I love the nights!

Mia Karlsson

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