Position N 21° 32,090' W 69° 41,358' 2000 UTC

Onboard Cantare it is not working 9-5 as in Dolly Parton's case. No, we are new thinkers and have divided our 8 hours of working into two different 4 hours watches. Little before 4 am Catrine wakes me up and it is time for my morning watch. When slowly awakening and abandoning my dreams I always think; it is already my watch? And hoping Catrine would have mistaken the time so I can continue my sweet dreaming. So far no awakeners have mistaken the time, I wonder why… However, after having climbed out the bunk, stowed away the beddings and found some clothes to put on I'm sort of ready to hit the cockpit and get some fresh air to further awake. Before entering the cockpit the lifejacket is put on and a lifeline is secured to one of the safety steal handles. Before the tired old watch keeper can stumble in bed she makes notes of current position, course, wind, speed and so on in the logbook. After a little informal relief of the watch containing a little chit chat about the happenings of the past watch, like if there are any boats to consider, how Cantare is behaving, things needed to be done, etcetera, Catrine is free and off to bed leaving me to my destiny with Cantare. The first hour of watch keeping is usually over before I even noticed it started. Then on the other hand 3 more hours remain, not only 2 hours as usual! Not since Maria and I crossed the Bay of Bicay we have had 4 hours watches. So now it is time to be creative and figure things out to do to stay awake and kill time. Since we are sailing downwind at the moment with the mainsail and one foresail poled out on a spinnaker pole and the wind vane is steering there are not that very many things keeping you busy.  

This morning I was extra tired and had to make some wishy-washy coffee with expired coffee beans. Despite the expiry date was past ages ago the coffee gave me the needed kick and that's what matters. When it comes to kill time, reading with help of a red tacky head light is a popular pastime. Red light is used not to destroy night vision. Catrine and Maria easily engulf themselves in books while I find it little harder to be totally absorbed by them. I think I get enough of reading while studying when I'm basically is covered in books. Recently I have improved though and finished some literature. And at the moment I'm actually captured by the book Heavy Weather Sailing by Peter Bruce and meanwhile preparing myself for extreme weather scenarios that can occur on our long journey back to Europe.