Darkest Night
No photos will accompany this short blurb. We’re talking about darkness. And pictures of darkness – I dunno – darkness is hard to capture with an iPhone. Here’s an example of a picture of darkness, from tonight’s watch, it just kinda’ leaves you as wanting more.
But that would be missing the point. Because the point about darkness is, there’s nothing to see!
You couldn’t’ve told me how much I‘d enjoy these night watches. When we left the dock a week ago, the moon was full, and of course that was pretty awesome.
As the week progressed, and the moon got up later and later every night, we were treated to a few hours before midnight of lovely starry skies. A thick carpet of stars – no light pollution out here – and super-long horizon, in every direction – big big sky. Pretty awesome.
Now it’s our 8th night out. Tonight we have heavy cloud cover. No stars – not one. No moon – not yet – might get a faint glow of a half moon in a couple of hours, I suppose, but nothing now at midnight. The ocean is black, pitch black. The sky is pitch black. There is not even the faintest suggestion of where the horizon might be. Sensory dissonance. We’re moving along at a fairly boisterous 6.5kts. You feel the air on your skin, the wind that we make. Feel the boat rock. Hear the wind. Hear the sound of our wake. But not a single visual clue of any movement at all. Completely different night watch. Nothing to watch! Pretty awesome.
Scary scary night. Paint your palette black on black Glad you posted. More please.
Coool! That is spooky! Weird spooky! Eerie, weird spooky! But possibly kinda spiritual? Hard to say without being there. Coool!
Sounds amazing and totally zen. Having no visual clues gives the other senses a chance to work overtime!
Onward,
Shelley
Yes, there’s something magical about a night watch with a pitch dark sky and no lights anywhere, Enjoy..
(Hi Nancy.)
Sharon I can’t even imagine that experience. Wow. Such a contrast from seeing ocean and huge horizons to deep blackness. You really celebrate sunrise I’m sure on nights like that.
On another note….black night in Toronto too. The Toronto Raptors lost play-in & out of the running for playoffs. : (
I too love sailing in the total blackness. The disorientation of not being able to discern the horizon. Just hurtling headlong into the unknown.
Very personal post. Boldly intimate, might I say, to write about ‘the wind that we make’.
Wow, that sounds scary, unless you want to sleep with no light interfering, but apparently you can’t do that as you’re on watch! So to me sounds very scary but in another hour you can sleep under a very very dark nite