Jon T. Howard North Atlantic Gyre Blog #22

Our shift ended at 2 am and we headed to bed to get 4 hours sleep before our 6 am – 6 hour shift was set to begin. The North Atlantic was still tossing the Sea Dragon around mercilessly and I didn’t get the best sleep. The great thing about the 6am –Noon shift is you get to watch the sun rise which from an ocean view is very majestic. Once we had the light of day, it was great to ride the swells sailing full steam ahead. Around 9 am we had our first dolphin sighting as a group of them swam with the ship crisscrossing from side to side surfing in our wake.. One of them even leapt out of the ocean right along the side of the Sea Dragon. Amazing! Late in the morning we had another encounter with another tanker/freighter ship but the closest it came was about 3 miles. That still looks really close after not seeing anything but a few birds for days. Due to the heavy swell conditions we will not be trawling today but pushing North because we are trying to beat a low pressure system that is due to hit Bermuda and according to our skipper Clive, we do not want to sail through it. It is expected to bring gale force winds up to 50 knots and create some very rough seas. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can beat the storm. Now time for a nap, my next shift starts in 4 and a half hours at 6 pm…