Mike lets me sleep until 5 am. We’ve sort of got into the habit of giving the person doing the two watches a longer break in the middle and it seems to work. Before he goes down for a sleep he takes me outside and shows me our stowaways. By the side of the helmsman’s seat, balancing precariously on the safety rail, is a large bird and there is another perched on the rail at the bow of the boat. It’s difficult to see what they are as they are both hunched up with their beaks buried in their feathers. They’d better not leave anything behind on my boat when they go!
At first light, it’s easy to see that the two birds are not the same; one is a seabird and the other is a red-footed boobie.
Photos: Our two stowaways
As soon as the sun comes up the two birds leave, the one that spent the night by the helm leaving a huge pile of poop behind. Thanks very much.
The sea is slightly calmer in the morning and the wind starts to drop a bit. The morning roll call reveals that Ocean Jasper and Crazy Horse are now only about 30 miles behind us, but to the south where there is a bit more wind. I take out all the chicken from the freezer to cook it. What doesn’t get eaten over the next three days gets thrown. We would have to throw it anyway if we left it in the freezer as the Australian quarantine regulations will not let us take in fresh, frozen or even cooked meat of any type
I go back to bed. Just as I’m climbing in, I’m thinking that for the last hour I really didn’t do my watch properly. It was light and I was into a movie. I am just thanking my lucky stars that I got away with it and will be better on the next one when Mike shouts to me that Samantha has gone AWOL again. I race back upstairs, convinced that it could only just have happened as I didn’t hear any tell tale sounds like sails flapping, only to find out from the log that it had happened half an hour ago. We were lucky. Jeannius had held her course even without the auto pilot. It’s a wakeup call about complacency.
Back in my cabin, suitably chastised, I realise that I really do feel out of sorts, not ill or anything just a bit grotty. I still don’t know if this is a form of seasickness as both Sara and Marie-Anne describe their seasickness like this (rather than the throwing up type). Anyway, I sleep until just gone 1 pm then get up and prepare God-knows how many pounds of now defrosted chicken for a huge curry. Realising that if we wait for the chicken it will be ages before we eat, I just do us a quick salad for lunch with the last of the deli meats. In true Johanne “I’ve got my cooking hat on” style, I then cook every single vegetable that I have left on the same principle as the chicken. What doesn’t get eaten gets chucked. I cook red and white cabbage, onions and some strange green things that we were given in Tanna which I think are christophenes. While I am doing all this, Mike sleeps.
The sea has calmed right down by the early evening and we can at last walk around without bumping into things. Going outside into the cockpit is not a pleasant experience though as everything is covered is salt water and none of the upholstery feels dry to the touch. Ugh. I want to wash my hands all the time. As the sun dips below the horizon it casts a magical glow over the water, contrasting with the squalls that appear to the north of us. Thankfully the weather is coming from the south so we don’t get wet.
Photo: A sunset and a squall, side by side
We start to see large ships in the distance and just before I head off to bed we cross the major shipping line from Sydney to Darwin. Mike manages to raise Jim on Ocean Jasper on the VHF so we know they are closing in on us fast now that we are going much slower. They were always going to overtake us – they are so much faster than us.
Our position is: 19 deg 33 min S, 153 deg 01 min E
Distance so far: 10176 nautical miles
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