The Pacific to ourselves .....

The sailing has been glorious for many days now. Winds at force 5, nudging into 6 and so lively times on our watch, trimming or reefing the sails. Before the action photos, though, here are some impressionistic pictures, for fun. The first is one I took by moonlight and the long exposure has given me something resembling an oil painting rather than a photo: a Turner, I think?

This one shows you what the outlook has been like for many days. On the right, with the blue sky, the seas are deep blue. On the left (port) with the clouds, the seas are dark greeny-grey ....

All around there are images I want to remember and share. Here's a reminder that we did use the engine ...

And hugely long shadows from an early watch ....

and a few showing the mainsail reefed / being reefed ....

Or, alternatively, when the wind dropped, we switched to the huge forecourse sail ....

Whilst it all looks supremely calm, we are headed towards a depression with areas showing gale-force winds,, so we've changed tack to follow it down to Easter Island, staying in the green and yellow zones as it speeds away from us to the south east .....

The unexpected work of the last watch was fishing! We run two lines from the stern and (almost) caught a fluorescent lime-yellow Mahi Mahi - which got away - and a beautiful tuna, which will feed us all tonight. And there were some flying fish who arrived on our deck under their own steam 😊

Here's Matthew, proud fisherman, and Gert, who was happy to taste the flying fish, under the watchful eye of Jenny, the First Mate.

It's been a restful day, for reading, lazing around and enjoying the largest ocean in the world, in between watches. The volunteer crew is pretty international, with a strong contingent from the Netherlands and very many good sailors, environmentalists and naturalists. Gert, above, is a journalist, writing about, for example, the indigenous tomatoes of the Galapagos and how they are now being used to improve the farming stock for tomatoes worldwide! There's Fergus, the astro-navigator, from Ullapool....

and Cecile, data scientist from the Netherlands

Lucas, our lovely chef, caught with a t-shirt full of onions

Marcel, a military man with green fingers and a gorgeous garden ...

Grant, who is the expedition ornithologist but, also, the driving force behind the Darwin Disco!

Matthew from Scotland - who will be first mate on the next leg of the voyage ....

Jeff, who is a member of the Explorers Club and flew the same flag which has been carried on expeditions from 1940 to places like the sealed chambers of the Pharaoh Khufa, in Egypt; Everest; Antarctica and forest conservation in Ethiopia and the firestone expedition to Liberia ....

Knot lessons by the sloop, on deck ....

Jeff and Doug enjoying a quiet and sunny watch ....

And entertaining us: Jeff on piano and Doug on guitar in the saloon .....

Darryl, a vet from Maine who is going half way round the world, at the helm ....

Here's my bunk-buddy Lisenka (who runs a hotel in Zanzibar) and watch-mate, Monica ....

I think we are on the best watch schedule at the moment: from 8pm to midnight and then from 8am to noon. Last night, the moon didn't appear till nearly 11pm and the dark sky was bursting with brilliant stars. We saw the milky way - and a canopy of the brightest stars which stretched from horizon to horizon and felt so tangible and close. A clear sky, and the stars you see, are one of the treasures of the sea. There were also three or four shooting stars (though I only caught one!). We've a really settled, flat sea and making 7-8 knots, under engine until the wind picks up again. All so special - more soon .....