Dec 28 2004 – 0800hrs │397nm to go, 57th, 5.4knts

60 miles ahead of last year.

What a night. Straight out of one of TurnerTurner, John Mallord William (1775 - 1851); one of the founders of English watercolour painting renowned for his studies of sea and sky in every weather’s paintings – brilliant moon haloed by solid black clouds with translucent edges and a massively fragmented path on the water below. Water not black but steely grey in the reflections and sheets of spray flying all around the boat and over us. 45 – 50 knot-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . gustsShort increases in wind speed – or people who signed the Gust Book. and we had to slow the boat right down to about 4 knots to keep her from banging into each wave. Just passing Gabo now with thick misty cloud all around with rain squalls and sunshine. Sparkling but cold.

Had to run the skedShort for schedule. A pre-arranged (scheduled) time and frequency for radio contact often co-ordinated by a shore station, such as Penta Comstat, which is monitoring location and safety of boats in their area. Failure to respond to one or more sked can be a sign of trouble for Four Seasons this morning cos Berri’s new radio was working the whole fleet while FS couldnt get most of them. Busy hour or so, and really difficult writing positions, relaying and holding on while also working the mike – Berri going up and down and sideways and rolling on 3-5 metre waves. Breakfast will be Pippin fruitcake – Thanks Anne – with no doubt a draught from Dublin.

Love youse all – it’s going to be aslow trip, I think.