Running Dark

It is now 2230 and bedtime. The captain turned the lights out on the outside of the ship so that stargazers might get a better glimpse of the night sky. We went out and climbed up to Deck 8, just above the bow. There was a sprinking of students out there chatting about this and that. We could see the new moon on the port side reflecting on the ocean surface and lightening somewhere out in the distance in the direction that we are heading. The sky was not completely clear but still the stars were quite bright. We saw Orion and the Milky Way. We can now say that we have seen the Southern Cross. The air was quite humid and we have been travelling through a band of moisture laden clouds that circle the earth near the Equator. It rained hard yesterday. Sometime tomorrow we will cross the Equator and say good bye to the Southern Hemisphere.

It was thrilling being out there in the dark flying over the ocean at 20 knots.