World Service for a while on the 31m band, 9.3Mhz.

The first full day at sea - my first for 20 years.

Sleep is easily lost. I was grateful to find I had three full hours under my belt after drinking to help bring it about. Then long hours worrying about the rolling - as if worrying will right the ship. Then drowsy early hours. Meals and attempts to work but nothing of significance happening, just storylining. These empty days are going to have to be filled. It is no good staring at the calendar delighted that at least it is not four full weeks.

It's a mistake to keep hoping for a contact with home. Each turning on of the phone and watch while it searches drags you back to places you would rather be.

[Wait a minute - there's something that sounds like a zither version of the Helston Furry Dance on the radio!]

The same is probably true of the hiss from the radio - the predominant sound of this trip so far is white noise, though in the morning I could still get Sounds of the Sixties on VHF - Brian Mathews played Little Tin Soldier, perhaps another motif for this trip. Funny kind of fire I jumped into.

But somewhere in this very long day I came to the conclusion that I am going to have to grind away at work. Then at least other things can creep in as displacement activities.

Ivan took me to the bridge after lunch. The Captain was there, very friendly, and showed me the radar, the screen completely free of contacts! We have diverted to the north of the traffic lanes to keep clear of a storm off Galicia. I got a position and plotted it on my chart. Clear of the western approaches, already well out into nothing, about to move over the Porcupine Abyssal Plain - 5000m deep, nearly 20,000 feet! The sea changed to mark this. The Captain confirmed that I can go the bridge any time. I shall go again today and get another position.

Later the First Officer gave us lifeboat and life jacket instructions on the Bridge. He told us we can't go forward in these seas without a crew escort. But I already have been. And round the stern. Two of the crew have been repairing the external door next to my cabin all day, which the wind had ripped from its hinges.

Ivan also gave me the brief tour he hadn't had time for when I arrived yesterday, and I found the room with the television and the videos, and a sort of sitting room by the swimming pool (ah! there it is! Black water in a huge deep tank) where there a few books, some in English.

After the tour we passengers went to the fitness room and Tom and I played table tennis. It was like playing in a sauna! (There actually is a sauna next door but I know nothing about saunas.) Afterwards I had to change my shirt and socks, and should have showered, but just didn't find the time. Displacement activities already.

After dinner we bought a box of three different kinds of lager from Ivan in a complex deal I didn't understand and dread paying for, and gave up on the hifi in the deserted Officers' Mess. In these circumstances everything seems doomy and gloomy, especially Mike Oldfield and some weird opera singer, but also even reggae and Lou Reed, courtesy of Tom. Peter demanded Metallica but blessedly there is none.

We took our booze cruise up to the video room and watched Fargo and The Bourne Legacy. The clocks went back again at 2300 but nevertheless the day wore to a boozy close.

Still couldn't sleep.

 

1300 10/10/04:

N44deg 40'; W 18 17.

Course 239

Speed 19.3Kn