D+18 Birthday

Today is James' 44th birthday, and his 3rd at sea. He awoke to Elizabeth looking sheepish after accidentally popping one of the twenty balloons that had mysteriously arrived overnight. The children had made cards and written a story for him (about a skeleton, a man and a ghost...) and performed a finger puppet play; I gave him a skeleton tie and a pot of Fortnum and Mason's Gentleman's Relish and we breakfasted on freshly baked pain au chocolat. It's amazing what you can squirrel away on board without anyone knowing. The cake was also from Fortnum's and laced with single malt whiskey. Lunch was a chilled fish smorgasbord with champagne - including caviar, squid in ink sauce, salmon, teriyaki mackerel and herring in mustard and dill - and supper will be roast duck with cherries so long as the swell calms down little. I have enough galley scars already. James is now taking a celebratory shower to mark the occasion.

Last night, Matthew and I watched Jupiter rise and Mars set, and then spied Uranus close to the moon. The morning saw Saturn rise, followed by Venus and Mercury. We are also far enough south to spot the Southern Cross low in the sky as well as Polaris.

No more wildlife for us, but we hear that a following boat, Gimcrack, had an bump with a whale yesterday, fortunately without damage to either party.