Ian Rambles
Thirtd Officer Darius gave us the Safety Briefing. Took us to our muster point close to the funnel. Showed us where the flares and line throwers are kept, next to the funnel, and where the fire extinguishers live, in front of the funnel. He then took us inside the lifeboat, poised at 45 degrees behind the funnel!

Days Run 17h 45m 258 nautical miles ( 297 miles ).
Noon Position 50 19.6N 001 11.9 E

Fiona's Journal
I slept like a baby last night, as I always do at sea, and gained an extra hour into the bargain as we moved back into BST from Central European Time. My first sight, when I surface on the Bridge, is the white cliffs of Beachy Head on our starboard side. It is a bright sunny day with a quiet sea and we progress uneventfully and pleasantly along the English channel. We see lots of large commercial ships like us, and passenger ferries, but not a single yacht, not even when we are passing the Isle of White. Ian tells me there are 80,000 yachts moored on the South coast of England so where are they all on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

We had the midday meal on board for the first time today and it was a hearty three course affair – this is clearly the main meal of the day and, unusually for me, I could not eat it all. I am going to have to pace myself in the matter of food on board. They are catering for men doing a hard day's physical work and all I'm doing is reading books and gazing at the horizon, neither of which requires many calories, though the boys and I are quite hooked on the table tennis now.

Late in the afternoon I suddenly picked up mobile phone signal again so I phoned Mum (much to her surprise) and got her to refresh my memory on the rules and scoring of table tennis. She told me that John, my brother in (common) law, had completed the London marathon in some absurdly short time, 3 hours 29 minutes, I think she said. Well done John – bonkers but admirable!

In the evening we had a really good barbecue on deck. The food was great and a couple of beers apiece really helped break the ice amongst us all, in particular the language barrier.

Apparently we gain another hour overnight tonight (by which I mean the clocks go back an hour so we get more sleep!) as we move into Azores time. We asked the Kapitan who gets the extra hour added to his watch were told that it is always the Second Officer. This seems a bit unfair until you realise that on an Easterly passage he gets an hour knocked off his watch each time.

I nearly forgot to mention our other current on board activity which is an ongoing game of Monopoly, in Polish. The streets all have Polish names and the money is in Zloties and we have to interpret the Chance and Community Chest cards as best we can by remembering what the English ones say and trying to match them to one of those. Predictably George has a very nice little portfolio of properties, all with house or hotels on, and a healthy stash of cash as well. Harry has only The Water Company and one of the yellow streets and mostly fails to notice when anyone lands on one of them anyway. Arthur and Ian are a joint venture, and neither quite has their heart in it, so they are just coasting along. And I own the Mayfair and Park Lane equivalents and the set of 3 expensive green streets but all my properties are mortgaged and I am down to my last 17 zloties. Those who know us well will find this very apposite/allegorical/appropriate/apt/amusing – one of those words beginning with “a” anyway.

Arthur's Log:
Today was just one of those really good days. The three engineers cut a quarter out of a empty oil drum to make a powerful BBQ while some other members of the crew took axes to some wooden pallets for fire wood. Then the chief and two others brought up from the galley every type of meat you can think of - chicken, fish, pork chops, steaks, sausages and some others. We talked and ate and drank beer and heavily spiked punch until we exploded, almost. Some other members of the crew brought out a CD player and some large speakers and we played music until late. Yea! just one of those really good days.

The Harry Report
The ship left and I just bumbled around until I was sleepy.

George's Musings
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