An empty ocean is beautiful at night. In warm water you often get lucky with phosphoresence or sea life visitors, but the ‘basic package’ is stars, perhaps clouds, the waves, and sometimes a moon. Knowing that it would be inadequate, I tried to take a few pictures. Depending on camera settings, it can be too bright or do dim and comlpetely lacking proper contrast such that you can easily see sails, rig, moon, and stars.
These pics and thoughts from a night watch on Envolee between Antigua and Bermuda, around 20N, last night 19 May 2024.
It’s a great time to clear your mind and think. There’s perfect white noise in the background and you get an occasional shooting star or visiting seabird. Less often, you can get visitors on deck such as flying fish.
There aren’t many other ways to get so far from light pollution and other distractions, though climbers have the advantage of altitude. It’s always been one of my favorite ways to detach and slow down for a while.
On this occasion, a medium size shearwater (same family as the albatross) visited briefly to investigate the wind eddies around the boat: just a silent black silhouette, taking a few turns close by and then going back about its own enigmatic business.
By a few hours later, the wind had dropped but this was one of the proverbial roses that you need to pause for and appreciate.
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