018.36.0N    25.59.3W our position 12:00 (ship’s time) today

 

The day started amazingly!  On various watches during the night we saw a pod of dolphins performing for us activating the phosphorescent plankton which showed their path - making them look like torpedos in the dark water.  At the same time, flying fish were leaping out of the water, carrying some of the plankton on their bodies which shone brightly, so it was a mesmerising site.  On another watch, pilot whales were spotted very close to Moose. 

 

Then, we caught our first (and last) fish of the day, a small Mahi-Mahi which we returned to the ocean. A male apparently, as some of you will spot?

He doesn’t look very happy here, but he swam off happily.

 

 

In the morning we spent a few hours cleaning the boat down.  A thorough top to bottom to get rid of all the salt that had built up after the mild battering of the last few days (see pic from yesterday below). 

 

 

 

It was hot work and the whole crew (yes, the whole crew – see pic below!) went swimming in the mid Atlantic sea.  Temperature of the water? 28.5c.  Fantastic.  The current was pretty strong though, although all made it back safely!

 

 

Although it was calm and you can’t see this in the picture, a beautiful swell was building with an average height of 2.6m, that’s about 8ft in old money.  Some of the swell was as high as the flybridge at about 12ft.  Amazing to watch. 

 

We achieved a great milestone today.  After a week at sea, at 1530 UK time, we clocked up 1,000 miles (hence the blog title)!  See the chart plot below.  Only about 2k to go...

 

 

The other good news is that we have just started to hit the trades.  A 10kn ENE wind is carrying us along nicely.  It is expected to build up during the night to 15kn and be consistent over the next days.  Let’s hope so.  After 1000 nm at sea you might forgive the crew for going a bit crazy...we’re starting to see odd shapes on the chart plotter.  What do you see here?

 

 

Here’s the crew doing a bit of exercise and saying hellooo to the folks back home

 

 

Beards are coming on, Rik got bored by his and shaved it off, but still probably win if he starts again.  Or will he? 

 

OK folks, that’s it for now.  After another amazing day that’s the crew of Moose signing off this Sunday eve.  See you tomorrow. x