He said, "Go into your room, paint all the walls blue, put a rocking chain in the middle of the room, sit in it and rock back and forth for three weeks! That is what it is like being at seas for 20 days". He was so correct, except for one thing -- it actually felt as though we were in a giant agitating washing machine rather than a rocking chair.
   Wednesday, June 25th -- Last night we had decided to have an early morning radio schedule with our friends as well as the one at 7 pm. Chautauqua came on and told us of the terrible night they had had with 40 kt squalls. Don then remembered that the night before, after giving him his weather forecast, Herb had said to him, "Have a safe watch!" when he usually says, "Have a good watch". For us the wind had moderated down to 18 to 20 kts and the seas were a little more comfortable. However, when talking with Herb that afternoon, he said that we could expect squalls in our area Wednesday night with gusts over 30 kts. Oh, great! Oh well, before retiring for the night, even though it was still blowing only 18 kts, we triple reefed the main and rolled in some jib to prepare the boat for the possible squalls. Sure enough, at midnight, just as I was about to fall asleep with Kitty coming on watch, the first squall hit with pelting rain and gusts to 35 kts. Thanks to Herb,

we were prepared and TAMURE just picked up her skirts and scudded along at 6-1/2 to 7 kts.
   Thursday, June 26th -- Even though the squalls had passed by morning, it was still blowing out of the south a steady 20 to 25 kts with big cross swells from the west. In spite of the still rough conditions, I awoke from my early morning sleep to a breakfast of two slices of toast covered with tomato, eggs and a couple slices of cheese. Kitty had coffee and I had

freshly made Tang. I did the dishes.
   The only place either Kitty or I could get any rest for the past five days had been in the port settee berth packed in with pillows. Kitty had her pillows and I had mine. At each change of watch, we had to switch the pillows from one bunk to the other, depending who was going to try and get some rest. That afternoon, when it was her time to hit the rack, Kitty said, "It seems as though I spend my day shuffling pillows!" Sometime in the afternoon, Kitty turned to me and with her nose scrunched up said, "Boy, you smell!" I went to into the head and sprayed some RightGuard under my arms. As I returned to the salon, Kitty looked at me and said, just before she gagged, "That's worse!" OK, so in spite of the motion, I had to go back into the head, shed my clothes and take a shower while bouncing off the walls. By the time I had finished taking my shower and cleaning up the head, Kitty was already asleep, wedged in with her pillows.
   By mid-day, the wind had backed to the west southwest and we polled out the jib to port and went downwind wing and wing. We have two spinnaker poles that are permanently mounted to the mast. The inboard end of each pole is fixed to a car that runs up and down a track on the mast so that when not in use, I merely pull a line that goes through a pulley at the top of the track and back to the car and the inboard end of the pole goes to the top

of the spreaders, while the outboard end falls down and bounces off the lifelines. Then I secure the outboard end by clipping it to the lifeline between the lower shrouds. When I want to set the pole, I merely unhook it from the lifeline, bring it in front of the shrouds, hook the jib sheet in its jaws, make fast a foreguy and an afterguy (topping lift is always fixed to the outboard end at exactly the right length) and pull down on the car. Boom, the pole slides right into position secured by the topping lift and the fore and after guys to prevent it from swinging wildly around. Then all I have to do is to take in on the jib sheet rolling the clew of the jib out to the end of the pole.
   The only reason I went through that description is to illustrate how well we have TAMURE set up for ease of sailing by one person, if need be. Reefing the main is even simpler with all halyards and reefing lines led back to the cockpit. After 20 years of sailing TAMURE over 50,000 miles, we have her set up just the way we want. There are times when I stand on the companionway steps, poking my head out to look around for ships, and as I survey TAMURE, I notice all the little things we have done and pat her on the cabin top, telling her what a great little ship she is. I can feel her smile and pick up the pace just to please me.

   Friday, June 27th -- We ran out of ice yesterday (remember we were not running the fridge because of a rattle from the compressor) and I had to have warm powdered milk on my breakfast cereal. Up until today, we had nice cold milk even though the ice was running low, because before we left, Kitty had the grocery store freeze four half gallon cardboard containers of milk. With the loss of the ice, we had also run out of fresh things to have for dinner. Being

the creative cook that she is, that night Kitty made dinner of fried Spam with a homemade honey mustard sauce and macaroni and cheese. Even that tasted great with a little help from a lot of ketchup on the mac and cheese.
   On our first circumnavigation, we were friends with a German couple, Bobby and Karla Schank. They invited us over to their boat for dinner one night and when it was served, Bobby grabbed for the ketchup squeezing all over his food declaring, "Ketchup makes everything taste good!" When we got back to our boat, Kitty shook her head and said, "I wonder what Bobby's remark says about Karla's cooking?"
   Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Kitty also baked a pecan swirl coffee cake to have while on watch. Did I also forget to mention that she is a saint?
   Finally, the wind had moderated to a steady 15 kts off our quarter. We were back to wing and wing and with the seas significantly lower, it was actually pleasant sailing for a change. I broke out the computer and proceeded to get our email from sailmail, the system we use to send and receive email over our SSB radio on the boat. It is great, but it does take a long time to download so all messages are kept short and to the point.
   While I had the computer on, I re-read an email Spencer had sent to us last year from the Azores, describing his trip from Bermuda as crew with