My one watch from midnight to 4 am is an uncomfortable one. The sea is lumpy and rolly (why does it have to keep changing?) and after four hours sitting staring at a computer screen I feel sea sick and tired. Samantha hasn’t helped either. We have been steering to the wind and the wind is all over the place. She bleeps irritatingly every few minutes. She is the real troll-bitch from hell.
I manage to get to sleep after my watch but when I wake up the sea conditions have not changed. In fact I think they are worse, although the wind is stronger and more consistent so Mike switches Samantha to steer a compass course rather than by the wind. This stops her whingeing.
I put on the pressure cooker curry with the second lot of chicken that has now defrosted. At least this pack doesn’t smell! Eight minutes of cooking and it is done and I leave it to steep ready for lunchtime.
Mike works out that the leaders of the pack, Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper, the two fast Sundeer 60s, are still 130 miles behind us which means they should pass us in a few days although we probably won’t see them do this – there’s a lot of sea out there.
I spend hours trying to work out what we can eat so that we don’t have to throw away too much when we get to Australia. The list of forbidden stuff is long and everything has to be declared. Not allowing fresh fruit and vegetables I can understand, as well as raw meats, poultry and seafood. But why cooked, frozen meats? And why things like unopened jars of mayonnaise? I know they contain eggs but if they are unopened, what’s the problem. I know I will get it wrong and it really isn’t worth worrying about but I HATE throwing away perfectly good food.
As the day goes on the sea gets more and more uncomfortable and lumpier than ever, but at least we are getting the miles behind us quickly as Jeannius romps along at an average of 8 knots for most of the day. When night comes, we still have no reefs in and I convince Mike to leave it that way for once so that we can continue to make good speed.
Our position is: 17 deg 53 min S, 161 deg 17 min E
Distance so far: 9707 nautical miles
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