Getting through to the end of my second watch takes Herculean effort and in the final hour I resort to lying down on the sofa and putting the kitchen timer clock on for 15 minutes so that it can wake me up in case I fall asleep, which I do. Luckily Mike wakes up a bit before the end of my watch and I escape to bed.
Again, I fail to fall asleep once I actually have the freedom to do so and after tea and breakfast, I resort again to drugging myself to sleep. This time it works well, and Mike wakes me up to eat the lunch that I prepared last night and he has now cooked.
Having had a decent rest at last, I start to feel normal for the first time in days. It is a lovely sunny day and the sea has rolling, well spaced waves that come directly from behind and gently push us along, which is just as well as the wind is also from behind but light, making our goose-winged genoas flap around quite a lot. However, it is a smooth, comfortable sail and Mike goes down to sleep.
I do the death patrol again, but only find one little body, which is proof that the seas are so calm.
I take the cake batter out from the fridge and test it to see if it is OK. By testing it, I mean, eat some of it (yes, I know, revolting habit but it really is very delicious). I don’t eat very much but it seems to disappear rather suddenly and I realise that there isn’t much to put into the bread maker to make a cake with, so I decide to see what happens if I fry it.
This may sound weird, but it is batter, not unlike pancake batter (only I wouldn’t eat pancake batter – I do have standards) so I dollop small spoonfuls of it into a greased pan and they turn out beautifully. Mike thinks so anyway, and stands and eats them as they come out of the pan. In the end I have to refuse to give him any more otherwise he won’t have his treats for tonight’s watches.
We catch no fish. They obviously are not tempted by our very tatty old lure, much preferring the brand spanking shiny new ones that are straight out of the packet.
I cuddle up to Mike in the cockpit in the early evening watching the sun go down, relieved that I feel normal again, for now. He is probably far more relieved than me as I must have been a complete misery for the last few days. Only four and a half days to go, by Mike’s calculations, which is a bit disappointing as I had worked out it was only three and a half, but we have slowed down a lot over the last couple of days, only averaging 6 knots an hour.
Our position is: 08 deg 49 min S, 127 deg 29 min W
Distance so far: 4927 nautical miles
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