The Man in the Moon

 

 The image before me is straight out of an illustration for 'The Man in the Moon .' Venus (bottom right) dangles beneath the tip of a perfect lunar crescent. Bright white against the black of the night sky. To its left, the Beehive star cluster, sparkling like a scatter of diamonds, forms the third point of a glowing celestial triangle. 

( NB Alas, the Beehive cluster is not visible in my photograph. I had to wait until the predawn glow raised light levels, to capture a reasonably crisp image from Stargazer's moving deck - by which time the Beehive cluster was no longer visible. The timing also explains the blue, rather than black, tones of the sky)

Beyond the horizon the sun is stirring. Casting its glow. Extinguishing the myriad galaxies one by one, until only Venus and the long chinned Man in the Moon remain.

Finally they too are gone. A red eyed sun clambers blearily up into the morning sky, to begin the day.

Stargazer has been reaching, under cruising chute, on the night breeze. To our surprise and delight it was out of the south east, when we cleared the pier head at Dieppe, and stronger than forecast. There is a dawn lull, as the sun asserts its authority. Then the wind fills back in from the east. I harden in the sheets and Stargazer reaches up past Le Touquet. It is midday now and the sun is fiercely hot. The wind swings slightly to the north. Down comes the chute. We harden up onto a beat. Just laying our course, without the need to tack.. 

The tide turns as we approach Boulogne's harbour entrance. Stargazer claws her way in. We moor beneath the down town skyscrapers. Since we were here in July, the missing pontoons have been replaced. We are one of only a handful of boats in. The harbourmaster sees us arriving and runs down to take our lines. "A Brit at last" he cries, laughing.