10:08S 128:18W

24 hour run – 148nm

 

There’s an ongoing battle on board Bandit right now and it looks as if the skipper has won which, sadly, means I’ve lost.  It’s all about time zones and turning back the clock.  As we move slowly west we are passing through time zones – we’ve already gone back one hour since leaving the Galapagos.  Each morning it’s lighter later (the sun isn’t rising until 8am) and therefore it’s also making for longer evenings.  All of which indicates we need to do another time change – but neither of us can agree when to do it!   The logical time would be midnight and that’s the option I’m shooting for, but that would mean David has another hour on watch.  As we do six hour watches, the prospect of another long hour is not an appealing one, so he’s suggesting we do it at 3am.  Ha....I see your cunning plan skipper...that means it’s smack bang in the middle of my watch.  Quite frankly, I’m happy to leave the clocks where they are until we arrive in the Marquesas and worry about it then. If we arrive late afternoon (which is looking likely if we continue at this speed) – we can have a swim, a celebratory drink, eat dinner and collapse into bed.  My argument is that then is the best time to put the clocks back as we’d get two extra hours of sleep. 

 

The skipper can’t see my logic and for the past week we’ve been at a stalemate and have spent hours each day discussing (ie arguing) about it.  But crunch time is rapidly approaching as yesterday it was still dark at 7am when David was due to come on watch and relieve me.  He slept until it was light at 8.30am (and I kindly let him).  Last night it was broad daylight until 8pm which meant when I went to bed I couldn’t sleep despite taking melatonin and wearing a sleep mask.  And then there is the problem of our morning SSB net.  When we left the Galapagos the net was at 8am ..but with the clocks going back it is now at 7am.   If we do turn the clocks back again it will be even earlier – at 6am.

 

Last time we turned the clocks back we did it at midday which gave us two 11ams....meaning it was a two coffee day (we have morning latte at 11am).  I think we’ve both agreed that midday is the best time – it drags out the day a bit but it does give the excuse to have two coffees....hmmm does that mean two muffins?

 

I have a sneaking feeling that when I get up from my morning nap at 11am today (the smell of coffee usually wakes me) I will discover it’s only 10am meaning, once again, skipper has won. But he is the skipper, and being the skipper he is always right, even if he is wrong.