Todays job is to fix the reefing lines which entails sending a mouse (not literally you understand) through the boom so we can get the line through.

Prior to this there was a big bird on deck keeping Bernice company on her early morning watch. Quite pretty in a weird kinda way. Great big red rings round it’s eyes. We tried to shoo it off but once it had figured out how to land there was no stopping it.

Then when the boys are playing with the baton trying to re-position and secure it when Huw startled it and it flew into the wind vain and had it’s wing chopped clean off!! Ouch!

Bernice is blog writing and thankful she didn’t witness this.

We have a fishing line out today but no fish as yet so it’s a leftovers mixup for lunch and carbonara for dinner. A nice change from fish and interestingly we’re not really missing meat from our diet. Not sure if we thought we would.

Getting set for the evening we put a reef in the sails, in the process Bernice stubs her ties quite badly 🙁 There’s lots of lightening around and a steady flow of traffic, mostly container vessels. The sky is quite dramatic most of the night and it’s mesmerising watching it change constantly 360 deg around you. Something you are unable to do on land because of buildings and land getting in the way. Out here there is nothing else just the sea to the horizon and then the sky above. Broken only by the occasional boat.

There are favourable winds predicted but they never materialise. As such our night watches are uneventful.