Is there anybody out thereee! / The pros and cons of being at sea - Part 1

So this blog comes in two parts. I was going to write about the pros and cons of life at sea but that will now have to wait for the morning as I have compeltely lost all train thought! This is why...

Sent: 10th February 2010

Position: 015degs 42' 07 N  115degs 14'03 E

Boat time: 23:10hrs

Part 1 - Is there anybody out thereeeee!?!

Last night one of the spookiest things happened so far on the race. We were talking about haunted houses and such things and chatting away on the Midnight 'til 4am night watch, when a line of lights appeared on the water. We thought at first that they were far away and on the horizon but suddenly they were very close. We couldn't tell what they were - whether they were a line of lit bouys or small boats or what? Then one of the lights grew another light which started shining at us like a spotlight and seemed to be getting closer. We then got out our bigger spotlight and shined it at the lights to try and determine what it was. We saw a small boat coming towards us and we tried to intimidate it with our own spotlight. We couldn't get a much of a visual on the vessel but it stopped coming towards us at any rate and we passed by undisturbed.

Tonight we have seen more of these lights. They form in perfectly straight lines which makes us think that they are little Phillipino fishing boats. Even though the boats seem impossibly small to be 240 miles from land, they line themsleves up in absolutely dead straight lines and as you go past they all flash their torches to let you know they are there. it is one of the most surreal and beautiful sights to see strings of the boats all prefectly lined up in the pitch dark.

Tonight we passed about 30 metres from one as he didn't have his light on and only had a torch at the last minute. But it confirmed how small the boats are and we saw at least one person in it. Not a job I would like, that's for sure!

  

Read the next blog to get a feel for what's good and what's bad about living on board a thoroughbred racing yacht with 17 other people.