Day 2 First day at sea

Where is the wind?
The day was pretty uneventful as there was almost no wind. We floated lazily in a calm sea for several hours. Since it was calm, Captain Mark declared “the pool is open” meaning it was time for a swim. The water was pleasantly cool and crystal clear. It is a strange feeling swimming in water that you know from the charts is over 11,000 feet deep. The protocol is for three of us at a time to have a pleasant swim leaving one person on the boat in case the wind comes up. I cannot imagine the feeling of being in the water 200 miles from shore and watching the boat sail away. With one person always on board, that cannot happen.
I read in the Puddle Jump book that the safe way to swim in the open ocean is by the 10 minute rule. It’s OK for 10 minutes as you will not attract attention from curious fish. That might be worse than watching the boat sail away.
I have the watch from 6 PM to 10 PM so I get to watch the sun set. Afterwards, I could see the mast head light of No Regrets about 7 miles ahead. Around 9:30, I saw a cargo ship about the same distance away moving in the direction of No Regrets. Moments after I watched the cargo ship’s lights cross the path of No Regrets, we were hailed on the marine radio. Dave (captain of No Regrets) reported that the cargo had to change its heading to avoid coming too close to him. Fortunately, the cargo saw him and veered. Often they are on autopilot and no one is watching so it is the sailboat’s responsibility to move out of the way.