Light at Midnight

I am typing this from the North Sea, on a passage to Norway. (It is July 11.) We left Scotland, bound north to the Lofoten Islands. Just after we left Stornaway, our last place in Scotland, unfavorable wind swept in and has inspired us to change our plans. Now, we are headed much farther south, down the coast to a town called Alesund. This made the passage a considerable distance shorter. As of right now, we are bound to arrive early tomorrow, July 12.

Last night, Mama got me up on her night watch, which goes from midnight to four. I blearily got up and came into the cockpit. Mama had gotten me up to see how light it was, and I knew it would be fairly bright for midnight standards. I was astounded. It was so light that it was like day except giving the impression that someone had just turned down the brightness. A ceiling of high, bleak, flat clouds covered the sky, and it was only just dimmer than a cloudy day, so in my sleepiness I felt like it was noon not twelve thirty in the morning. Off of our port bow, a pink-orange glow emanated over the horizon. It was an exotic bright midnight in the north sea.

In Chile, we had lots of hours of light and the day we went around Cape Horn, in the end of December, we had only two to three hours of darkness. But here, we have basically twenty-four hours of light because we are now at 62°North latitude rather than the 55°South of Cape Horn. 

Part of what makes this interesting to me is because I am so accustomed to darkness at night. Before this expedition, I had never gone to sleep at night when it was light enough to read. It also makes me wonder what the winter is like where it is dark at night and less dark during the day, where the sun arcs less than half way up the sky. A light midnight is quite an interesting experience for me. - JackRabbit

                                    Mama took this picture of the sunrise at 3 in the morning.