Day 15 Fri April 30

Hurtling along - bucketing along!! all day at 7.5 to 8 knots, often 8.5 and once even 9 knots! Seas pushy, insouciant - downright cheeky, push us off course more than once, but winds pretty much steady 18 - 20 knots. Carving the foam . . . Sea colour an astonishing blue - different blue each side of the boat, and a translucent blue at the very top as they curl . . .

Hang on, what a ride . . .

Warned by Wise Ole Man Of The Weather, Don Anderson, not to go too far West, so gybed her over and now heading 165 to 170 degrees, to a new waypoint 05N, 127W. Reports of southerly winds in the region south of latitude 5 degrees N. Boats there are motoring, so we are coming to the end of a great sail - 360 hours! - in the Northeast Trade winds. This is what I came for.

It's a long way out here, and no other vessel sighted for days . Nyumi Nyumi said a trawler came within 200 yards of them last night, and they saw fishing net floats.

I have tried to give, in these notes, an impression of the sights, sounds and feeling of being way, way out on the ocean - more than a thousand miles from land - and I have often tried to describe to you the motion of the boat. Just remember it never stops - you on land, who sit, your chair at rest, at a still table, on an unmoving floor. I have no Thesaurus to find words. The words come to me as I watch. Some are comin' to me now . . . Hey!

The Rough-housing Thousand-mile Wave-riding Sea. . .

(Chords: E minor D major) pretty fast tempo . . . Sing:

Helter 'n skelter, 'n lickety split, a-dodgin' an' weavin' it, quicker 'n spit leapfroggin', houn'doggin', grooving th' mile bouncin' an' reelin', lurch-wiggle style . . . So we go over(and under) th' sea a tiny boat spins a tale bobbling free . . . The rough-housing thousand mile wave riding sea The rough-housing thousand mile wave riding sea Chorus: La la la,la la la, la la la di di etc . . .

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