The first night you're so excited about actually being on your way that you don't sleep much (same with the night before departure too actually). We did 3 hour shifts, so by the time you come off watch in the early hours of the following morning - after being on watch 9pm-midnight, and then 3am-6am - you are pretty tired. You sleep as much as you can while not on watch, and by the second night you're getting into the swing of things. It amazes me how fast your brain adjusts and gets to understand that it better sleep while it's allowed to, because otherwise it'll be another 3 hours before it'll get another chance.

By the third night the whole thing seems completely normal. It's kinda surreal, but having the boat constantly sailing seems like the most natural and normal thing in the world. Sitting in traffic and working 8 hours in an office on the other hand, well, that's just madness! 😆

By day 3 you also start noticing other changes - you don't need to rug up so much for the night watches. Plus, you strip down during the day and lie in the sun, soaking up with warmth and trying to build up that tan to protect yourself naturally. Day 3 also saw us catch our first fish. We'd known previously that dawn is a good time for fishing, so we put a lure out at about 6.15am just after the sun came up. By 7am we landed our first - a skip jack tuna. Only a small fish by tuna standards, but enough for 4 meals. I know others use them for live marlin bait, or cut up for bait for snapper, but boy they are also great to eat. The flesh is very dark and when cooked so still pink in the middle, they smell and taste just like a really good quality tender steak!

Day 4 saw our second visitor (the first - a small dead squid on deck - was found when the lure was put out. Goodness knows how he jumped up high enough to clear our topsides, but luckily he didn't ink on our teak deck!). We'd heard reports from other boats of swallows coming for visits and we got one as well. He/she sat there for a while, refusing the fresh water given, and just seemed to want somewhere to rest for a while before continuing on its way.

Day 5 dawned with some excitement as we'd calculated we would arrive at South Minerva reef just after lunchtime. We finally started seeing flying fish (the fishing lure was out again all the way but no luck this time), and the day was warm (after a shorts and t-shirts night). We had been sailing in company with 2 and sometimes more other boats so would have regular chats during the day on VHF. Today's chats seemed to focus on entrance to the reef along with fuel burn rates as we'd been motoring/motorsailing for 3 days by then). We were quite nervous, but watched others going in via AIS, and by the time it was our turn, found it relatively easy, especially given waypoints to follow. There was a bommie to avoid to port on the way in, but once in we easily found a spot and anchored up. Steve dove in to check the anchor has set and check for any surrounding obstacles that we might swing into. He came up reported none, but commented on the clarify of the water - 20 metres and you can still see the bottom. I had a refreshing swim too, but minus the prescription mask, couldn't see anything. We'll go for a proper snorkel tomorrow. After sundowners (that first beer tasted fantastic!) on our friend's cat "Panthera", with plenty of fresh fish on offer (they caught a GT, and friends off another Davidson caught something that looked a bit like a kingie), we headed home exhausted and were in bed by 8pm.

It's now the next morning as I'm writing this while sitting in the cockpit and watching the most amazing sunrise. We'll head over to the enclosed part of the reef (it's a figure 8 shape with only an entrance into one loop) via dingy for a snorkel soon - its reported to be stunning in there.
(See our Facebook posts for photos!)