Life at sea - 1

Hello to the English readers :)

Here is Eloise from L'Olonnois, December 3rd, 9PM UTC. For the ones who
are still wondering, to my great pleasure, I am still in for this adventure!

As Marie explained in her previous post, this second departure from
Mindelo had a little taste of apprehension and we still keep a very
close monitoring of the quadrant. After this third day at sea, we are
glad to say that nothing suspicious appeared!

It took us a little while to get used to the rhythm of life at sea. From
the start, we organized a shift system with 2h watch for 4h rest, and we
stick to UTC time. My watches come after Marie at 2 and 8 o'clock; 2h
later Thomas takes over. The first 24 hours were not easy as we were not
used to sleep during the day, wake up in the middle of the night, and
fall asleep in a rolling boat. Therefore, we were pretty tired on the
second day. It helped us to fall asleep easily at any time on the second
day, and after the third day there are no more sleeping issue.

The watch which is the most difficult for me is the one at 8PM. I arrive
on deck just after the sun set, but the moon rise occurs only after my
watch. When the sky is covered by clouds, everything is black and it is
almost impossible to see what happen at the front of the deck! The only
source of light come from the plankton, a microscopic phosphorescent
algae which become bright green when the waves are breaking. When going
through the waves, the hull is surrounded by those small green dots that
vanishes a few meters behind us, it looks a bit magic :) Hopefully,
tonight the sky is clear and we can see stars on a 360deg panorama,
without any light pollution, it is an amazing sight! The other watches
are easier. At 2AM, the head lamp is not needed anymore as the full moon
lightens the sky even through the clouds. At 8AM, is it sunrise and
breakfast time. Marie and Thomas usually start to reappear during that
watch and it is time to count the flying fishes collected on the deck! I
am also rarely alone during the 2PM watch which is just after lunch
time. It is at this time that the weather is most pleasant and it is
time for shower, napping and reading in the sun, inventorying the next
fruits and vegetables which need to be eaten, check if no repairs are
needed, steer manually for a few hours,...

We also left from Mindelo with different personal project for the time
of the crossing. Thomas would like to read a Norwegian book
"Pelsjegerliv" and to master the use of the sextant for daily
positioning based on the sun height. I try to review my Portuguese
lessons which are far in the back of my head. Cape Verde was the perfect
place to restart! And Marie had the idea to start knitting (by
anticipation for the return by the North route I believe) but we
couldn't find the right material in Cape Verde :( She attacked a book
from Ken Follett to start with and baked a delicious lemon cake today,
but I believe she will soon need new ideas to fill up her free time!
With all those occupations, time is flying and it is already time to get
ready for the sunset and the night watches.

Talk to you soon!
Eloise