Position: 40:52:20N 26:51:67W

We had a quiet night last night, but we weren’t alone…

On my watch from 2100-midnight I suddenly saw five or six luminous torpedoes heading fast straight for Nutmeg – dolphins lit up by phosphorescence!  It gives you such an initial shock that I even braced for impact but of course they dived under the boat.  The sight of these phosphorescent dolphins at night is just one of those magical sights that is hard to describe but must be one of the most amazing sights of nature.  

A large pod of dolphins stayed with us pretty-much all night, and you could see them chasing each other and doubling back around and under the boat.  Just lovely to have the company.

On the dawn watch I noticed a couple of pilot whales blowing, and as they got nearer and nearer I realised we were on collision course!  We were only doing four knots and they were a pair of whales placidly breaching along the surface, maybe 25 feet long.  They must have been deep in conversation because they just didn’t notice me and when they were only 3 or 4 metres away I flipped the autopilot off and luffed up around them!  They lifted their beaks quite high out of the water, so close I could have almost touched them, then disappeared for good.  Quite an experience.

There have been a couple of tiny turtles, and a few Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish, and a lot of shearwaters flying around.  It feels like it is rich in wildlife.  We also saw a big fish (bonito?) jump high out of the water several times – hunter or hunted?

Wind is still light and we motorsailed for a few hours this morning.  Sure we will find breeze furher north, just got to keep plodding up the ocean till we find it.  We are equidistant from Newfoundland and the UK.

That’s all for now.