Mike wakes me up just before 2 am for my watch. At least there is a little bit of wind – between 10 and 15 knots – not much, but enough to cut the engines.
It’s black outside. If there’s a moon it’s hidden, along with the stars behind a blanket of cloud. I am not organised and my MP3 player needs charging so I wile away a little time doing the blog sitting in the cockpit. Every ten minutes or so I get up and look at the radar, the navigation instruments, peer in the general direction of where I think the horizon is and settle back down again. Eventually I treat myself to a TV programme from my hard disk just to give me a taste of crossing the Pacific and having to entertain myself for hours on end.
Just before 5 am Jim gets up for his second watch. At least there is a little moonlight now as it peers from behind slightly broken cloud. I manage to get back to sleep and am just wriggling myself awake a few hours later when a cup of tea arrives.
The day is dull all day. The sky is grey and overcast and the weather forecast makes squalls and lightning sound likely but we see nothing but grey. There is just enough wind to keep the sails going although there is quite a lot of flapping around from time to time.
Photo: The Master and Commander surveying the grey horizon
We can hear some of the other boats on the VHF from time to time but they are all out of sight, closer to land than we are.
In the late morning we get a visitor in the shape of a large bird which lands on our boat for a rest. He starts off on the side of the boat then makes himself comfortable in a pile of rope on one of the cushions. Once he has rested a while, he flies off and catches some fish for himself, evidenced by his landing back on our solar panels a short while later and crapping all over them! I am dozing in bed when I hear a loud thud, then frantic scrabbling as he lands directly on the roof over my head.
Photos: Gullbert, our stowaway
Jim names him, Gullbert. I have no idea why he has named him thus and have given up working the direction of Jim’s mind. Some things are better left unexplored!
It is a very uneventful day. No fish caught (or lost) and absolutely nothing to look at except grey sea and sky – although the sun tries to break through a few times, it never quite makes it. We have a couple of spits of rain but that’s all. Actually this is a welcome change and certainly the coolest day we have had since we started, strange since we are approaching the equator.
Photo: Mike catnapping in the salon
I spend the afternoon watching a Harry Potter movie, then it’s dinner and soon after, bed (again). Jim had decided he wants to do the two watches again tonight as he prefers the timing of them. Who am I to argue?
Photo: Sooty and I watching Harry Potter – his choice, not mine!
Our position at 1900 hrs is: 04 deg 31 min N, 80 deg 08 min W
Distance so far: 1657 nautical miles
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