After an exciting night at the races and lingering a little long in the bar the night before... We were up early for breakfast and then our 8 am watch. Today was an exciting one. The crew was excited because we were supposed to have more wind than ever...good for sailing, at least a Force 5. We pulled up the anchor, left Alderney about 7:30 am, went up for our watch and wouldn’t you know, not enough wind yet for sailing. Though you wouldn’t know it by the breeze on the bridge. It was cold! So we bundled up in a few more layers and our weather proof gear. We didn’t have the best visibility with it being overcast, but did have a few small sailing ships to keep a look out for. Around 10 am everything changed and we were surrounded by fog. We couldn’t see a thing! Which is a little scary if you think about it. Thank goodness for our fantastic crew keeping everything in line and everyone safe. The water tight doors were shut down below decks and our fog horn was sounded about every 15 seconds. We certainly had to be diligent in our look outs in case anything came up. And wouldn’t you know something did! Josh heard another ship’s fog horn in the distance and passed the word to alert Peter in the chart room. Lucky for us Peter had already spotted the other ship on the radar. He said it passed only about a mile behind our ship – yikes! Lucky for us that was the extent of the excitement for our watch. Good thing is we did get in some sailing for a bit in spite of the fog, so we set a few sails...I think its actually getting easier now as we seem to have gotten the hang of it. And the sun finally came out to cap off another good day at sea as most people hung out on the sunny side of the ship and watched a few people take one more chance at going aloft. Another good day at sea on a trip we won’t soon forget.
Heather (FS watch)