First week at sea

Our second day out the winds were light and from the right direction to try out our new/used cruising spinnaker. Though not made for our boat it flew just fine. by the next morning the winds picked up and shifted direction and we put the spinnaker away. Due to events later in the voyage we were unable to fly it again this trip. The next few days were hot during the day and cool at night. The winds remained light for the most part but we were able to make pretty good time as long as we were in the gulf stream. We had to do a little tacking back and forth as the wind didn't allow us to keep to our course line. We saw lots of boat traffic the first few days as we were sailing northeast off the US coast--fishing vessels as well as ships; and even a NOAA research vessel.

We turned more east with the gulf steam east of Hatteras and spotting other vessels became rare. On the 12th of July in the early morning I saw a meteor shower on my watch. It was pretty spectacular. One in particular must have been relatively closebecause it was the brightest I had ever seen with a bright burst of green at the end before burning out. Nature's fireworks.

By the next morning the winds were extremely light dying out completely by midday. Michael, Justin and Josie took advantage of the calm to go for a swim and wash their hair. This also turned out to be the last really hot day.

That night the moon was almost full. Visibility was good. On the midnight watch I saw something in the water that we were headed for that looked to me like a bunch of birds. It did indeed turn out to be a flock of seagulls as rest in the water. They all rose out of the water just as we got to them. That was the first time I had seen a flock of seagulls floating along like that.