Well, I could easily write a huge novella about our trip here; for though it was only a four day trip the range of emotions and new experiences warrants more than this post. However, I shall try to keep it brief for fear of boring you – though it’s turned out a little longer than I planned!

It was a GREAT trip. Completely tiring but hugely rewarding and a huge learning curve both about the boat, her handling in different situations but also about ourselves and our abilities both as a team and individually. Not to mention the resourcefulness and adaptability of the girls; for whom I am a very proud Mum. Kids are amazing.

The night shift was probably the biggest challenge for me. On the first night the moon ( a half moon ) only appeared briefly, between the clouds, and only then sometime during the early hours – after we had finally become accustomed to the dark blackness of the night.

You have to experience a night at sea, in the middle of nowhere to fully appreciate what I am talking about – it is COMPLETELY BLACK.

Really, really BLACK.

Without the moon to light the way or the stars to orientate yourself with you are left in a black space, moving forward, with only the wind in your hair to give some sense of direction. Very strange.

But strangely liberating, once you get used to it.

Thankfully on our second and third night the moon appeared for a longer time and the sky above was clear of clouds so we did have the beautiful star lit night to give orientation and a better piece of mind.

On our last night we thought we’d try out a 2-hourly shift change as opposed to our 3-hourly night shift routine. It was a mistake. Two hours gives you absolutely no time to really rest and get any kind of sleep so we were both completely shattered by first light and won’t be doing a two hour shift change again! Three hours, though tough in the final hour ( and probably more so because it was all new to us) was definitely do-able and I can imagine once you find your rhythm could be really peaceful and enjoyable – as long as the weather was in your favour of course.

The highlight for me, other than the immense satisfaction I felt in arriving at our destination, was the wildlife.

The first one was scary and completely ridiculous but what an experience! ( Once it was over). Let me explain – first off a group of birds, huge, huge birds began circling our boat and tried to land on the top of our mast.

It was crazy! We didn’t want this because our wind vane and our antenna is located at the top of the mast ( they actually twisted our wind vane). So we started yelling at them to go away and then, when that didn’t work Isabel began banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon, Erwin tried blasting them with our horn and Sofia and I went on deck to shake the slightly loose halyards against the mast in an attempt to shoo them away.

It worked, but all of a sudden one of them dive bombed the boat and landed, breathing intensely, less than a metre from Sofia and I! Really frightening and completely mad. Sofia burst into tears with the shock and I had to get her very quickly behind me whilst instructing Erwin to please open the front hatch so that we could escape!

Not long after another bird landed and we were really worried that the rest would follow and we’d be stuck with a boat full of dangerous birds; with HUGE claws!

The largest one, presumably the male trying to protect the female and help get her off the boat whilst wondering what the heck she was doing ( that was the impression he gave to me, anyway) did not stay long ( thank goodness) so we only had one, and the smaller of the two, to deal with.

She seemed completely lost and exhausted so we tried giving her water in pan – gingerly pushed with a wooden spoon from one of our hatches; but she wasn’t interested. Instead she sailed with us for around five hours (!), we almost got used to her, if it wasn’t for her intense eyes and her huge claws. Then when night started to close in she swooped suddenly towards Erwin and onto our solar panels (giving Erwin a mild heart attack in the process) and by darkness she was gone.

The next day we found a small dead bird in our dingy ( located directly below the solar panels). How and when that poor bird arrived we have no idea.

We now know that our large passenger is a ” Short – Toed Snake Eagle”. ( Note the term ” Short – Toed” – are they sure?!!).

Wow.

We also saw dolphins ( such beautiful, fun creatures, I love them) – they didn’t stay too long and I didn’t get a good shot.

The final highlight was seeing a whale! Erwin spotted the tell-tale spray of water from its blow hole and there it was – a whale! Swimming calmly across the ocean taking in air every so often before finally vanishing into the ultramarine blue of the water. (I didn’t get a shot).

What a start to our adventure and how privileged are we to have witnessed these beautiful and majestic creatures flying and swimming in their own habitat.

I shall never forget the short-toed snake eagle and its piercing yellow eyes staring at us, nor the whale swimming so close by!

Here are some other photos of our trip:

The girls and Erwin under our make-shift shade.

I wanted to share with you just how amazingly BLUE the sea is. It was breathtakingly blue; really. I had never seen anything so beautifully blue before. A really rich, ultramarine like colour. Once you began to look at it, it left something in you. No picture unfortunately can give it justice. You should get out there one day, far from land, and have a look! Then you’ll know what I mean! But if that’s not your thing I hope this photo leaves you with some impression..

Here was the gorgeous, welcoming sunrise after our third night at sea. I was really tired at this point and the gradual lightening of the sky and then the warm red glow from the upcoming sun completely lifted my spirit and gave me renewed energy. Thank you sun! ( I fell back to being completely shattered a little while later, but hey).

And here is my gorgeous Erwin, looking as he felt – completely pooped, but really, really happy to see land!

I am so proud of him ( and I ) because despite the few hitches ( like a bird of prey on our roof); our seemingly broken auto-pilot on day three ( it was a loose wire, luckily Erwin is one of the best fixers in the World and found the problem very quickly); our chart-plotter that suddenly disappeared on us once the night arrived ( again fixed by Erwin the next day- it had been wired alongside our solar panels which have a shut off switch during the night – now our chart plotter is wired to work 24 hours a day); despite all of this and lack of sleep we had a great trip and we ( well Erwin) fixed the hitches. How lucky am I. How lucky are we. We all enjoyed it and we worked really well as a team, and that includes the girls.

So finally here she is – Porto Santo and our first sight of land after four days at sea. A short time for most sailors and they may laugh at my inexperience, but you have to start somewhere and for me seeing this blob of land slowly appear out of the horizon was a momentous moment.

We took our hats off to all those sailors throughout our history, the navigators and explorers who went out without charts, engines, refrigeration and all the amazing equipment that we take for granted today; and after weeks or months at sea finally spotted land! Wow. That must have felt amazing. It if wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be able to do this.

How did our first trip go? Great.

And I am chuffed.