Monday 5 June

Yep, weather forecast good – sunny, some cloud, wind from the SW, about 4 knots. Up anchor and I’ve found a perch behind the strange wheel. Crouched like a monkey and usefully using my foot on the throttle, we weave our way out of HC, along Scraggy Neck and into the smooth depths of the dredged Cape Cod Canal. V wooded, pretty, some white painted Cape Cod bungalows and newer houses line the bank part way. Only a few other boats and a Cruises-along-the-Canal boat with 3 tourists. At the end of the canal is a power station with a tower visible, J say, 50 miles from the seaward side. Top up with fuel and water at the marina in its shadow – cheerful couple serving on the pontoon – married 46 years, and good for at least another 46, they say!

Main and mizzen up, wind behind us, current with us, autohelm on and at 1400 (now) I’m on watch. Sun shining, cozy one, could be a tad warmer. Great!

Watch system kicks in officially at 6 pm – me for four hours, then J, then me again 2-6 am. I watch the sun go down and bleed across the sea, then see it rise again reborn at 3 the next morning. When J calls me at 2, the sky is clear black and the stars have come down. So this is why I love night sailing. All the jerky, jolty, rocky, rolly for the magic of a star-filled sky. I am entranced.
Off watch, and sleeping in the saloon, when J decides the engine needs checking. Oh, the fearsome, terrible roar, as the insulated boards are removed – Jack, how could you? I grab my pillow and scrabble into the peace of my bunk among the sails in the forepeak. Better risk being sick and cold here, than be tormented witless. I sleep, feet tucked into my trouser bottoms for warmth. You didn’t think I’d change into my nightie, did you?