It is 2:40am I am in a deep sleep but my body clock says it is time to do something. I am warm and dry, where am I, what am I meant to be doing…. Oh yeah I am on a boat – which one – Rhum Boogie… obviously on the water – where – in the middle of the pacific. Do I really need to get up? – yes – oh yeah I am the skipper and I am on watch at 3am. OK start swimming to the surface out of the deep sleep – don’t go back to sleep. Sit upright – thats a good start – wow this is going to take more than that to get out of the depths of my sleep. Sugar. Go into my personal stash next to my bunk – skittles – a handful of those in the mouth. Instant sugar rush – that will wake me up. It is nice and calm the boat is heeled slightly and it is not hard to get out of the bunk. Walk to the hatch before the kid calls down to wake me and disturbs the other off watch.

So ‘what you got? ‘ I don’t know.. (what do you mean you don’t know – patience ashley) the instruments say 30 knots of wind and 35 knots of boat speed (hmmmm – bugger – well at least they didn’t wake me up to tell me the instruments had gone down). Deep breath – ‘well what you think you have? ‘ (surely you haven’t lost your sight and feel as well it is a bright moonlit night – steady ashley – stop being a grumpy b****). ‘Seems like the wind direction and speed have been steady during my watch.’ – good answer junior. Over to the circuit panel maybe the voltage has dropped – no of course not I always look at that when I wake up there is plenty of power. Turn off the instruments and the autopilot and reboot – from deck ‘I don’t have heading’ – (steady ashley be patient…) ‘Use the binnacle compass on the deck in front of you’.

Go into the head use the head – we are on starboard – damn have to fill a bucket of water to flush as the inlet is out of the water. Go on deck fill bucket flush head. Reboot instruments. No difference. Oh well I don’t really care. Get on kit wow this is nice it is dry and I am in shorts and t-shirt with no shoes. Not a hardship it is going to be a good watch. Get on deck stopping at companionway to clip into safety tether – must remember this so that the new crew see me doing it and do likewise – need to set a good example.

Sit in the plastic garden furniture that serves as our helmsman chair tiller in hand mainsheet in another relieve on deck crew. Just about awake now… Ipod in ear – thanks Scott, Adam and Guillemette. Beautiful night moon has created a yellow brick road. Wack – damn it – another flying fish why do they insist on hitting me all the time. Nice peaceful music on shuffle. Wow – what the hell is that – Myles and his sense of humor – good thing it is a really nice watch otherwise I would lose my sense of humor with that hard core dance music blaring out of my earphones – quick change track.

Only an hour left of watch – don’t think about him – there is no need to put yourself through it all over again every time you wake up.He isn’t worth it. Think about things you want to do when you get back to land. Baseball game, diving, national parks, dinner with friends, Friday night sail… good thoughts. Time to hand over to the next watch!

This part of the trip isn’t so bad…. my kit is dry, my bunk is dry, I have no monkey butt, it is sunny out, the wind is relatively steady, the contents of the head aren’t threatening to end up in my shorts, the boat has an easy motion, we are getting north and east quickly…. all is well.