Luckily I have the quietest watch to be on. We remain reefed in and when the wind drops slightly, so does our speed therefore making it more comfortable to be awake in. I continue to feel out of sorts, achy, feeble and miserable. I must be wonderful company!
I spend my watch on the computer watching the latest Batman film and doing the blog. It seems the most sensible time for me to do it when it is all quiet and I have time to think, although that in itself is a bit of a joke, as I have so much time to think about stuff that sometimes I wish I could block out all thought processes.
Mike again wakes ages before the start of his shift and comes up to let me go back to bed. I’m no martyr. I gratefully accept and go, falling asleep almost immediately. During his watch the wind picks up to 25 knots and he stays reefed in for a while. When it drops back to 20 knots he puts the genoa fully out again.
I wake around 7 am when I hear the VHF leap into life again. I feel a little better, not as weak and achy although the stomach cramps are worse and I feel very slightly sick, although that could be the wave action, as the sea is still making the boat jerk around a lot. By 8.15 am poor Mike is ready for sleep and we change places although not for long as by 10 am he is up again, awakened no doubt by a particularly vicious wave. I make him some breakfast and go back to bed. I feel so much more comfortable lying down.
We continue this ping pong action between bed and salon all day, although to be fair I spend nearly all the time in bed. At one point when I am alone in the cockpit I see a few whales swimming sedately past but they are a long way off.
We have been fishing now since we started but are going too fast to catch anything. Well, that’s not strictly true. What I mean is we are going too fast to catch anything we would be happy catching. If anything could keep up with us, we wouldn’t want to land it.
I actually cook some lunch for Mike – lentil curry – which he pronounces to be the best one I have ever made although he’s probably relieved that I have got up and done something.
By early evening, the sun, which has been hiding behind quite a thick blanket of cloud all day, comes out, and is soon replaced as the skies darken, by thousands of stars. However, the sea is just as revolting as ever – lumpy and rolly – and as Mike starts to prepare some rice to have with the curry for dinner, I start to feel really seasick. It’s pathetic I know, but this makes me cry and I rest on Mike’s shoulder saying I want to be at home – feeling like this always makes me long for my own bed which has cool sheets and doesn’t bloody move!! Luckily this wave of nausea doesn’t last too long. I eat a small bowl of plain white rice while Mike tucks into lentil curry next to me, then Mike sends me to bed at time when he should be going and I should be starting the first of my two watches. I lie awake for a couple of hours then drop off and am woken by Mike just before midnight.
Our position is: 04 deg 06 min S, 99 deg 08 min W
Distance so far: 3186 nautical miles
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