Sunday 18th July (Lini’s Journal)

Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Sun 25 Jul 2010 23:35
Noon position 46° 41’.4 N 15° 52’.8 W
Groundhog Day – Another grey and drizzly start but we’re still
thankfully plodding ever closer to the UK. At the end of my dawn watch
Finistere is 365 miles away, Brest 490, Falmouth 530 and the log is
reading 864nm from Terceira.
I have decided it takes me so long to get to sleep between night
watches because I am trying too hard, like a child on Christmas Eve.
With only 3hours to get out of, then back into umpteen layers of
clothes, brush teeth, make tea and set the alarm, the pressure is
really on to get to sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow: It
doesn’t happen and half way through my off watch I often check the
time, still wide awake. On watch is a different story altogether; if I
even elongate a blink I could be in Slumberville within seconds and
thus it was this morning.
Si was promised a cooked Sunday breakfast and I merely lay on the
sea berth for an instant to stretch my back. A couple of hours later
cereals clinking into a bowl woke me as Simon, now starving, was
searching for sustenance. He eventually got his breakfast – for lunch!
While I prepared Thai fish cakes with tinned salmon for supper later,
Si chatted to Dick on their 12.30pm SSB rendezvous about their fresh
tuna feast last night: Perhaps we should throw a line over the stern
this afternoon. ‘Aliesha’ also seem to be experiencing the same
adverse current as Brindabella with our heading wildly different from
our course over the ground and the boat speed way above our speed over
the ground. I thought the current would be with us in these parts.
Both feeling much better today the lethargy is lifting and we
hoisted the mainsail before Si’s afternoon nap. As I peer at the
chartplotter, at current speeds we should arrive in Falmouth on
Thursday, but it is always a mistake to assume conditions at sea will
remain constant. For now however the world is grey, albeit dry, there
is a hint of brightness where the sun should be and Simon Winchester
is about to continue his excellent description of the 1883 eruption of
Krakatoa on my iPod…………
When my Simon woke late afternoon and rang CJ on the satphone,
Falmouth suddenly seemed a galaxy away. He has broken his leg and the
full leg cast will have to stay on for over twelve weeks. No sports
camp for him this week: Poor CJ, poor Si; he must desperately want to
hug his dear boy, I know I do. There is nothing we can do to get back
any quicker and we can only focus on his bright sounding voice when we
spoke with excited talk of ambulances and many gifts to keep him
amused in the absence of sport.