Last night was great. As the sun waned behind the continuous ranges of high peaks and ice caps the moon rose to be kissed by the sun's last rosy rays. Then the heavens were dressed in sparkling stars. Thinking we might have ice bergs we had opted to both be on watch for part of it. This in itself was enjoyable. We put on an audio book - George RR Martin's "A Knight of the Seven". Excellent and well recommended. We get more instalments tonight. For those into Games of Thrones, this covers 100 years before GOT, so the demise of the dragon kings. With no ice to mention we started three hour watches from 01.30 hours today and have continued this throughout the day. We plan to repeat last night's watch but have the 'two on' later when the moon has waned.

We have had several large ice bergs and patches of smaller, brashy bits which have coincided with tidal zones but otherwise the waters have been clear. The pilot mentions 0.5 kts of tide against us up the East coast. However as our 24 hour run figures show this is more like 2 kts against us ie COG was 150 nm but reality SOG was 104 nm. That is the penalty but we are moving and it will hopefully pay out in the end. We are motor sailing to keep boat speed up. The engine is ticking over at 1300 rpm and we are only using 4.1 litres per hour of diesel. At the moment (1700 hours) the backward conveyor belt has reversed its direction so we have 1 kt of tide with us and a boat speed of 7 kts. Sweet.

Not a Game of Thrones more like a Game of Wind and Tides! ;-)

PICTURE : And The View Goes On and On ...