Day 4 dawned with The Best Watch (Aft Starboard) having slept well and been fed early being on watch 10 minutes before the hour – to the smiles of the off-going watch. We were dressed warmly, but on advice from the Officer of the Watch (who had consulted the magic ‘radar’ machine) we donned full foul weather gear. This was to be the best advice we had been given all week as we were quickly engulf’d by dark clouds which produced thunder and lightning of wonderful pyrotechnics and spectacular crashing to the accompaniment of over 2 cm of rain in less than an hour.

All this was taking place as the wind veered towards the south which meant that we were well occupied by bracing the yards and handing some of the sails.

After all the fun of sail handling in the wet, Ali, the Mate, gave a talk on sail handling in the warm and dry lower mess. This left just 4 brave souls of the watch to steer us in the right direction while the wind decided to play games. After the talk, the 4 were given a welcome break for a hot cuppa before going back on watch for the last half hour.

Just as the watch came to an end, the rain eased off and the sky lightened ! However, we were pleased to be greeted with some wonderful hot soup and fresh rolls.

Mike and the Best Watch.