Underway to Dakar Senegal Monday Dec 29,08

We are sailing due South just West of the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania in Africa.

Yesterday morning I awoke to the sound of our “iron topsail” firing up. The winds had dropped to almost
nothing. By the time my watch started at noon however the wind had begun to blow from the NE instead
of the NW and the order was given to set all the squrae sails and the engine was shut down shortly
thereafter. Corey, who was on helm at the time, says the Captain had come up to the quarterdeck just
before, looked up into the sky and said “the start of a real wind”. By the time of my night watch at
midnight we were sailing along at 5 knots under a steady force 4 from the NE! Still going this morning.

During my night watch last night it was overcast so the brightest lights were in the sea itself. We sailed
through bands of some creature that lit up very brightly as we passed. There must of been millions of
them, they were bright enough to cast a faint shadow. They were mostly round so the consensus was that
they were jellyfish but some of them were cylindrical so they might have been squid.

Dolphins were cruising around the ship and playing in the bow wave most of the watch. When they charged into a group of these creatures there was a bright flash as maybe 20 or so would fire up at once. It was like
green fireworks under the surface of the sea. Beautiful and strange indeed.

Thanks for reading.
KJ