This sunrise was about 200 miles after leaving Gibraltar on a brand new, big catamaran in 2014- in my previous life. I was on my way to cross the Atlantic for the first time. I was really new to sailing and everything was a massive adventure.

I learned to love sailing at night and particularly the dawn watch. I dislike being woken at 2am in the middle of a deep sleep, quietly shaken awake by my retiring shipmate, but the dawn later always makes it worth it.

I quietly pull my oilies on in the dark, bleary-eyed, find my glasses and a hat, get a quick briefing (weather, the traffic, the sails) and take over so that my fellow sailor can then gratefully climb into their bunk.

It had been a busy night- it's a very busy part of the world's oceans, where most of the shipping for the Mediterranean squeezes through the gap between Morocco and Gibraltar; 71,000 ships every year plough through this 8 mile wide gap between Europe and Africa.

When you're sailing in the night, you try not to turn on any white lights because it wrecks your night vision for ages. I learned to creep around in the dark, using every handhold that I knew blind, turning on a red headlamp only if I really needed to. I learned to turn all the instrumentation down to the minimum light level - so dark that it's hard to see to turn it back up in the daylight. I learned to listen to the boat. I learned the patterns of lights on other ships so I could tell what kind of ship, how big, which direction. I learned that you can see on the instruments (AIS) where some ships are going and how fast - exotic destinations like Singapore, Cape Town, New York. I still always wonder about them and their crew, also carving a watery path through the darkness.

I learned that the sky - and sometimes the ocean too - is sometimes full of stars from horizon to horizon. I learned that the sun always rises.

With every painting, I remember the magic of the dawn. I hope you enjoy this one.

Oil on canvas, 20cm square, framed in solid wood painted white.

£195

Also available unframed - please message me.