JesseMartin.Net
6th July 1999
ANOTHER week goes by and I'm closer to the finish line.
I'm still not that far off the coast of Brazil. This is because the south-east winds have kept me on a hard tack for more than two weeks.
I have been averaging only 80-100 nautical miles a day.
My weather adviser, Roger, says the wind should be going around to the north-east soon and then a front will come through and take me further south and into the Westerlies of the Southern Ocean.
The past two days I've had 25 knot winds and it's been a bit wet outside so I've spent my time in my bunk eating, reading and listening to music.
I haven't seen any shipping since the northern hemisphere, but I keep the radar switched on just in case.
Usually I automatically wake up when Lionheart needs my attention.
I can be asleep and notice a change in the way she handles or the sounds generating from all over the place bring me back to consciousness and I get up and attend to it.
It is quite an advantage because it allows me to rest when things are under control while being on standby for adjustments.
Emma Stephans at Melton South Primary School has e-mailed me to ask if I think I would do a trip like this again. Probably not, but who knows.
The reason I say no is because I would have already achieved it and there are other challenges and places I want to see.
However, I would recommend the voyage to anyone. I have no regrets for undertaking it in the first place.
I was also asked by Susie and Natalie from Mt Gambier North R-7 School what it is like being on a boat by myself.
Well, I suppose it is like living in your bedroom.
There is not a great deal of room to move around and I never make my bed!
I often just sleep-in in the mornings until I can't any longer and then I munch on something for breakfast (if I haven't eaten it the night before) and take up reading a book of some sort.
This is punctuated by checking the horizon for shipping and making alterations to the sails and boat course.
I'd say there's about two square metres that I basically live in.
The remaining small amount of surface space of Lionheart gets visited only every now and then.
It's a bit tight and repetitive but I have my whole mind that I can explore and so I often just sit or lie down and think about anything and everything.
I love my bunk. It is such a nice feeling to get horizontal.
You can really feel what the boat is doing as it rocks you in between dreams and reality and it is always cosy no matter what the conditions outside are like.
I'm so used to my environment moving all the time that I wonder if I won't go mad trying to sleep on a still bed in silence when I get home.
Who knows - when the time comes I might just keep sailing . . . forever!