Page 19

-19-

or snowed under masses of foolscap penning furiously, deep and
wordy discussions about everything under the sun - a real "school
ship". As our revered late King George V said (on a gramophone
record, anyway) "Git knowledge"!!

Thursday Mar.17th. Wind getting lighter but we are still sailing
quite well, weather noticeably warmer and it's grand to see more
sun. "Stoo-erd" in a "stoo" all day, working like a beaver, clean-
ing the saloon, the harder he works, the louder he mutters about the
short-comings of "Flicks" (A.) He is just like an overworked
farmer's wife, can't think of anything but chores and is tessy with
everyone.

Friday Mar. 18th The wind completely died and we have been becalmed
all day, but such a lovely day, hot sun and blue sea again. Steward
told A. to polish the panelling in the saloon, so I helped her and
we soon finished it and got out on deck, where I spent the rest of
the day reading and making a small Finnish flag for the Motor Boat.
The weeks that have been put in on that boat must have cost the ship
a fortune in wages, everyone takes a hand, occasionally the engine
is persuaded to tick over, and it shakes the whole ship!

Saturday Mar. 19th. 13 weeks at sea. A dull cold day and still
becalmed. Everyone busy painting and and getting ready to arrive. The
motor boat the centre of attention, Captain finishing an orange
colored sail for it, Chief making a mast, Holger painting the outside,
Moss and A. painting inside, all and sundry looking on, and I am still
sewing the flag for it. The last pig was killed to-day.

Sunday Mar. 20th. A lovely morning, blue sea and light S.E. wind,
getting stronger later, and towards evening it almost developed into
a minor blow. Sail was taken in as we were making too far West.
At. 4 a.m. we changed on to the other tack. On Saturday night we
met a steamer - first sign of the outside world since Tristan da
Cunha. There was the usual running around with torches, no one
specially deputed to morse a message. The ship signalled quite a
lot. "Mossy" morsed "Passat" several times and received a satisfa-
tory reply, so we may have been reported. Poor old Captain doesn't
know anything about Morse, so looked on gloomily and muttered "Dey
really shouldn't do dat".

Monday Mar 21st. Dull and cold, head wind and tacking all day.

Tuesday Mar 22nd. Strong S.E. wind, tacking all day again. Sunny
and warm with lovely blue seas. Tonight for a short while there
was a beautiful display of the Aurora Australis, the southern sky was
lit up with red and shafts of rose light shot the sky, the south
western horizon was a pale green, it was lovely but rather eerie.
A's nerves getting very frayed with Steward and mess-boy.

Wednesday Mar.23rd. Still battling against strong S .E. winds,
tacking back and fore in very much the name spot. Everyone, espe-
cially A. getting restive at the delay in getting there. The sail
for the motor boat is complete, also the flag - the latter not a