An hour to go to midnight. I just started my watch and Dennis went to bed.

Sitting at the helmsstation, looking at glassy sea, I thought that now we have doldrums at their best. No sound to be heard except the sound of the water when MaRe’s sterns are gently hit by a small wave. Small waves, brought as swell from far away north of us. From a place where there is wind. There is another swell system but it’s much longer and has a height of maybe 50 cm. I see it, I feel it, but can’t say from which direction it comes. Once these swells are gone, and we have a fully flat and glassy sea, then we have the doldrums at their very best.

The moon, a day away from being fully round, illuminates the sea from horizon to horizon with the light, that is reflected from the sunlight behind a horizon.

We haven’t seen any ship in the last 3, 4, 5 days. The visibility into the distance is so good that we could switch off radar completely. Now it is still in stand-by mode the normal swing l setting for the night. I’ll switch it off to save electricity.

That we are not alone here in this huge area, we know from mails we send and get via satellite. There is SY Katinka, which is about 80 NM NE of us. And about 100 – 150 NM south of us, there is SV Almazul. And via her skipper Magnus, we know that there’s another boat, SV Lady Jane somewhere. But that’s the end.

SV Almazul it’s heading to the Marquesas whereas SY Katinka is, like us, heading to the Gambier Island, off of the beaten tracks of boats going to French Polynesia. SV Almazul’s skipper Magnus wrote they will use their engine to try to reach an area with wind. Every skipper has it’s own approach to fuel usage in long distance sail.

Looking at the water closer to MaRe, I could a group of fish. Most likely dophin fish. It seems they follow us since yesterday late afternoon. However, non of them wants to take the lure Dennis is trolling since we left Vista Mar Marina, more than 10 days ago.

When will be catch his first fish? When will we get wind back?