At the risk of repeating both myself and Louise and everybody who said anything about last year’s voyage, I must just say that it’s wet. It doesn’t just rain every now and again, but pours down in incredible amounts for hours. It looks like we will have the wind with us the next four or five days, but it will be raining most of that time. Honestly, here we are on the way to sub-tropical southern England and the highest temperature is 16° C.
Oh well, mustn’t complain.
We have just had our evening meal in a huge hall – a moment’s peace from the rain. In an hour’s time we are invited to a reception at the sailing club and the crew is in a really good mood. Tomorrow we sail further south and east, and it could well be we are going on the longest single leg ever with the Sea Stallion. It may sound relatively feasible, but three or four days on a ship like the Sea Stallion are a trial for everyone. There is almost no space and a lot of noise. Your watch is four hours at the maximum. It rains most of the time and we are constantly trying to get the best out of the ship. Many of us get less than one hour’s sleep when we’re off duty. That gives perhaps four or five hours sleep in a 24-hour period – not much when you’re going to work for four days.
But it will be both exciting and interesting.
Must stop now – skipper is calling a meeting.