Night Watch - Somewhere between Gaviota & Bimini

It’s 2300 and our current position is about 52nm off the coast of Marathon, Florida. We’re coming from Marina Gaviota, Cuba bound for Bimini, Bahamas.

I’m the person on watch and am sitting our cockpit. Ashley and Bella are asleep bellow on the port side double berth with leeboards in place. The auto helm is working away making minor adjustments every couple seconds; 5 degrees up, 2 degrees down. We’re on a close reach and flying. We’ve been doing about 7 knots over the past hour and around 6 over the last several hours. Winds are a very pleasant 10-15 knots, seas are 1-2ft. The Gulf Stream is now giving us a definite and big push easterly adding to our speed. We keep beating our previous speed records. The fastest we’ve seen is 9 knots!

The moon is nearly full and very bright! It’s casting shadows onto the deck as if there’s a big light beaming down from the mast. Whenever the moon dips behind a rare cloud it seems like that light has suddenly turned off; reminding you that it’s night.

There’s one ship off our port side stern coming up quickly. The AIS is set to 10nm and it hasn’t shown up yet. It looks like it could be a cruise ship judging by the lights.

I’m in the middle of reading The Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson when I suddenly felt the urge to write this post. Whoops sails are luffing...

Beep beep beep... The AIS collision alarm goes off and shows the Zuiderdam traveling at 22.7 knots. Definitely a cruise ship and I’m assuming she’s a Holland American. Okay, she’s coming up really fast and the AIS says we’re on a collision course... 9 minutes to impact. She’s about 1nm away now. Time to disengage the auto helm and hand steer. The wheel feels light and very responsive at this speed. The ships moving fast so steer towards her and she’ll be long gone before you get there. Ease the head sail and bare off with the other hand. The giant cruise ship  is now lumbering past... Harden up the genoa and resume course.

Time to go bellow and make some Cuban coffee...