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wind dies down by morning, leaving a heavy sea, which makes rolling
even worse. Cold wind and grey skies all day; covered 241 miles,
in Long.97[degrees] Yesterday several sails were damaged, but none entire-
ly lost. Barometer falling again, night cold and wet. Espaniola
goes up the rigging with the boys, but will not go out on the yards,
stands by the mast, holding on with both hands and cries.

Saturday Mar. 12th. 84 days at sea, and about 1700 miles from Port
Victoria. Heavy squalls all day and ship [xxx] listing and rolling
uncomfortably, occasional nasty bumps when a big cross sea hits us.
Hitler Youth looks a little anxious at times, in one bad squall
Captain took the wheel with 2 of the boys. Logged 234 miles but
Captain says log is a bit slow and we probably sailed 40 miles
more. Have sailed approximately 1140 miles in 4 days, barometer
falling fast so may mean more winds. These are definitely the
Roaring Forties, Long 103[degrees].

Sunday Mar.13th. Very heavy squalls with hail and rain all day,
listing and rolling to 34[degrees] or more, but 35[degrees] degrees is the limit
of the instrument! Very difficult to dress or do anything except
hang on! Logged 264 miles, long 109[degrees]. The gentle middle-aged
gent's heart has begun to rebel against the very strenuous exercise
it had been getting, so he has been put on day work, lamp-trimming
and chores. The spineless Spaniard has dissolved into tears
again after bucking up for a few days. Captain took a poor view
of his crew to-day, including the very delicate youth who can't see,
there are three "invalids" amongst them, he says; as he regards
Toni as "mentaal wrong", as he calls it! A. seems to have "had it"
rather, as to-day said she was beginning to feel cooped up and
would like a long walk on a beach somewhere. I don't think she
is so very keen on the sea.

Monday, Mar.14th. Grand sailing all day - 100 miles in 2 watches.
Towards evening sails were take in, so it looked squally, and as
usual, the wind eased off, but side sea was still heavy. One or
two tremendous bangs on the ship's side sounded rather alarming,
one could easily imagine ice or some submerged object. The ship
being empty and high out of the water makes her somewhat like an
empty drum and sounds are very much magnified. A. has been tally-
ing up how many words of her story she has written, so far she has
penned 40,000.

Tuesday and Wednesday March 15th & 16th. Fair wind and following
sea, easy smooth sailing, still going well, 257 and 157 miles
respectively. Neptune Is. about 500 odd miles away. Everyone
getting very excited to think they are almost "there", but when
they see Port Victoria ....!!!! A. for the time being seems to
have "had it", she says Steward has "ceased to be funny". Yester-
day she had a deep discussion with the Finnish M.A., H., and others
on the subject of dimensions, time, space and speed etc. and so on,
she's very imaginative and young, and gets carried away, as it
were, coming to earth and getting afternoon coffee was really
opportune. "Passat" is almost a University College this trip,
earnest young men poring over tomes, maps and charts everywhere,

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