In our little world exists no silence. When we are sailing there are always many different sounds. Most of them I would call normal sounds. The sound of breaking waves, the sound of waves colliding with Cantare, the sound of the squeaking mast and the sound of the fluttering sails are all normal sounds. As are the sounds of Monitor's vane going to a halt at its extreme, metal against metal, the creaking of the teak interior and the sound of water clonking in the water tank. Before we left for the Atlantic we added some more normal sounds. Such as the Serrano leg's banging against the mast and the swishing of the plastic wrappings surrounding our dried sausages that hang in clusters in the saloon.

When I go to bed at 9 pm I bring with me three pillows and a sheet. There are already one big cockpit cushion and a bottom sheet in the bed, these we share. I put in my earplugs, arrange the pillows and the cushion around my body, pull the sheet over my legs and hoist the lee cloth The arrangement of the pillows is extremely important. They make my body stay still although Cantare bounces around, without them it would be impossible to fall asleep. When I am happy with my sleeping position I turn off the light and shut my eyes hoping to fall asleep fast. If I fail to fall asleep fast there's the risk of hearing all the abnormal sounds. Although I have my earplugs in they have a tendency to come through. The abnormal sounds are much more annoying than the normal, mainly because it's possible to do something about them. The abnormal sounds difference from night to night. One night it could be an unwashed fork in the sink, the other night it's the baking plate colliding with the walls in the oven or it might be the sound of a water bottle that is rolling back and forth on the floor. Lying there in my bed, trying hard not to hear them, there comes a time when I start to think about getting up to silence the abnormal sound. I consider which takes the most effort, ignoring the sound even harder or getting up and then having to rearrange the pillows and my sleeping position. Most of the time I concentrate even harder on not hearing them. If you want to learn something from this, that ought to be; always listen out for the abnormal sounds before you go to bed! (But they are slippery, most of the time they don't appear before it's to late.)

Anyway I slept alright last night, although there where stronger normal sounds since the wind has picked up again! The last 24-hours we have been doing 122 nautical miles, much better. We have also past 1000 miles left and will celebrate this with bread baking and a fresh water shower. / The Captain