Reading: The Constant Rabbit (Jasper Fforde) (finished) & An Unsung Hero (Michael Smith) (finished)
Weather: NE 2-4 – variable. Full cloud pretty much all day with occasional showers and increased wind around them ….
Thought for the day: How did navigators of the past cope with constant cloudy weather?
Evening meal: Aubergine and zucchini pasta bake
Course: 220-260oC depending on how much wind shifts in squalls
Distance covered: At 1200 we had done 3,538 miles
Wildlife headcount: A few small birds …..
A fairly quiet day today. The wind has been quite up and down with a few squalls coming past, though scarcely any rain as they mostly bypassed us. However, we still often felt the effects in terms of wind and as they headed past the wind would notch up one to two forces and occasionally shift – usually veering – quite significantly. Then gradually, the course would come back up and life returned to normal. So no sail handling and Jet pronounced a quiet day for maintenance as well.
This gave plenty of time for chatting and reading and I finished off two books – one paperback and one on the e-reader. The paperback – An Unsung Hero – came from the boat library. This is in the main saloon and has hundreds of books for borrowing. Many of these are focused around explorers and the polar regions but there are also classics and modern thrillers. I have already re-read Riddle of the Sands and have my eye as well on two Jules Verne classics – Journey to the centre of the earth and 20,000 leagues under the sea. Around a third of the books are in Dutch, but the rest are English and there are guidebooks for all the regions they visit as well as thrillers and cookbooks – a really eclectic range of reading which should have something for most tastes. There is even a book that I didn’t know about – a follow-up to Riddle of the Sands written by Sam Llewelyn. Unfortunately, the version on board is in Dutch, but I will try and download a copy in English when I get a chance. I did even have a quick look at the Lonely Planet guide to England and checked out what there is in Essex. Our county merits a whole two pages in the guide – sounds about right!
