The Voyage to Nowhere

Night Watch

The improved weather made for a beautiful night watch. The workload was low enough that I had time to take some night pictures. They're time exposures, as might be expected, but the full moon provided a surprising amount of illumination.

Believe it or not, this is a picture of the moon—it's a 30-second time exposure taken from a rolling and pitching boat. As the boat rolled and pitched, the moon traced out a spiraling wavy pattern in the picture.

Here's another time exposure of the moon. You can also see the goalposts at the stern with a spinning wind generator, greatly blurred because of the long exposure. The pole with the two hooks is the gaffing pole to land fish. At left is a backstay with a furled American flag.		A time exposure of the cockpit, looking forward from the aft deck. I like the way the red compass light looks. A compass light is normally very dim and barely visible, but by making a long time exposure, I can make the compass look like it's on fire.

Looking up at the bimini, boom gallows, and reefed mainsail from the aft deck. This is a 30-second exposure illuminated only by natural moonlight.		The starboard side deck with the running lights at the bow. The big slanting gray object is the upside-down dinghy stored on the foredeck. You can see the jib is furled but we're using the staysail.