We left to the ringing warnings of our friends of high winds forecast for our route but we'd studied the weather reports and couldn't find any evidence to support this so we set off with Imagine with Stuart single handing. On the first day the seas were moderate and we rolled. However for the next four days of passage we had perfect sailing conditions and flat seas. For the first time David and I did a six hours on, six hours off watch system as opposed to the 3 hour shifts we had been doing. On the six and six I went to bed after dinner and slept until 1.15am ready to take over at 1.30am. David could then get 6 hours sleep until 7.30am when he got up and we checked in to the morning cruisers net and had breakfast. I'd then go back to bed for an hour or two. We'd have lunch and sometime in the afternoon David would take a nap. The long, uninterrupted sleeps (unless there was an urgent sail change needed) worked well and the hours on watch went much quicker than I'd expected.
Polly kitten likes night passages. She has the choice of sleeping or playing in the cockpit with the on watch, or curling up with the off watch. When the seas are rough and there's lots of boat noise she'll be tucked up to the person who's sleeping. When she's not sleeping she likes to scare us by dashing out of the cockpit and launching herself towards the guard rails. It would be so easy for her to slip overboard that we've put together a collar and lead to keep her inside. The collar is the strap from my wrist dive compass and the lead, a length of light webbing and a piece of rope. What we really need is a ferret harness and lead. Unfortunately there aren't many ferrets or pet shops in this part of the world so the wrist strap will suffice until we get to New Zealand.
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