What are the best sights seen from your cockpit ?

LONG_KEELER

LONG_KEELER

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Thames Barges racing on the East Coast is one of my favourites.

Seeing land on my first Channel crossing was a great moment.

Would love to see some Dolphins or an Albatross.
 
A shooting star / meteor rising up from the equator and ball lightening. The best sight though will never be disclosed on any forum. ;)
 
Probably not what you had in mind but the best sight seen from my cockpit is:-

The Old Guvnor handing up hot drinks and sandwiches on a cold day. Or cold drinks and sandwiches on a hot day. Unlike me, she never gets seasick and seems capable of producing something good to eat under any circumstances.
 
Apologies if I lower the tone.

It was morning and I was having my breakfast in the cockpit whilst on a mooring.

The boat just up from me was I think Dutch, with 3 on board - 2 blokes and a girl. All I would guess early 20's.

Anyway, the girl decided that a bath was in order, and proceeded to strip completely in the cockpit Standing there she washed everything using a flannel and a bucket. Absolutely no modesty in trying to hide herself.

Unforgetable.
 
A baby seal nuzzling the inflatable looking for mum. He came close enough to the boat for me to tickle him.

Dolphins are fairly common our way - see them once or twice a year usually.

Gannets diving en masse.

Snow on the mountains (Snowdonia) when sailing in early sunshine.

Yr Eifl (the Rivals), twin peaks on the Lleyn Peninsula, breaking out of the top of a sea mist.

My boat sitting safely on her mooring when I arrive at the quayside after a 2-3 hour drive. But that's not seen from the cockpit is it?
 
Sailing from Royal Cape YC to Langebaan lagoon for a christmas bash. African summers evening, not a cloud in the sky and a full moon. Not a breath of wind so motoring at about 5 kts. Middle watch, at about 1 am I noticed that the entire surface of the sea was sparkling. Couldn't work it out. Very little ripple on the surface. After 5 minutes went up forward to peer into the water from the bow, sea is filled with 300mm long sardine. It lasted more than 2 hours. Even discounting the fact that they were swimming towards me that shoal was over 10 mile long. It was really mind boggling.

Basking shark off Robben island.

Great white shark off Clifton beach.

Waves higher than a Peterson 33 mast.
20 kts + on the log of the same boat.

Southern right whales broaching less than 100m from out boat.

Oh, and my teenage daughter at the helm, braced against the heel, big grin on her face ........ priceless that one!

and from a different cockpit ......

Watching the crucifix form of one sailplane merge with another at about 5000' agl over the African highveld, right in front of me. No sound just a sudden explosion of bits of aircraft in the sky. Thankfully both pilots lived to tell the tale.
 
Motoring (no wind) from Perros Guirec to St Marys.
Mid channel at dusk.
We where joined by a pod of 20+ dolphins.
My cousin's daughter had been on the lookout for dolphins ever since she started sailing with us a few years before.
She was asleep in the forcabin.
On the shout of "DOLPHINS" she shot out of the forcabin hatch like a polaris missile.
The pod stayed with us for over 2 hours.
There was quite a lot of phosphorescence around and once it was dark we could watch them riding our bow wave and a pressure wave from the keel.
It was absolutely amazing and humbling experience.
 
Last September off St Martins Point, about 10 pm. Clear sky, with no moon, and the Milky Way and more stars in sight than you ever dreamed existed. The sky was full of stars, with the odd meteorite thrown in for good measure. It was incredibly beautiful. We forget how much light pollution there is over the UK, and our children rarely experience a sight like that.
 
The whole of the universe on a moonless, cloudless night passage.
A brilliant sunrise, with tea and a bacon sarnie after a cold damp night.
One unforgettable occasion, the blue flashing beacon and searchlight of the Alderney lifeboat at 2am in a force 10...
Topless and sometimes bottomless crewmates. ;)
The long way round St Kilda at dawn - fantastic.
The night sea so full of algae, the shoals of fish were leaving green phosphorescent trails darting away from the boat.
And...
For 2 minutes we were convinced we saw a UFO landing in Howth, on night.
 
Tahiti visible from 74 miles. It was so clear I'm sure it was visible some miles before, but we hadn't been looking.

Space shuttle taking off from Cape Canaveral. The sight was very special, but the sound was more amazing.

The shadow cast over us by the superyacht Limitless as it passed yards from where we were anchored in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua

The eruption of Montserrat as we sailed a couple of miles from its eastern shore.

A thunderstorm as we approached Brisbane after 6 days sailing from New Caledonia. Amazing lightning and thunderclaps so loud they seemed to flatten the water all around.

Total eclipse of the sun in Guadeloupe. The birds started tweeting as darkness approached but fell silent during the minutes of darkness.

...and finally a pair of Orca surfacing, just once, less than 100 metres from in Tonga. I was very pleased that a friend was also on watch otherwise my wife would never believe what we saw.
 
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Rodney bay
 
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