The speed picked up and I furled the yankee. We raced ahead through the night with just the staysail and double reefed main. It was blowing gale force now and we were going too fast. My illness had returned again. I was in a bad way, sleeping on the cockpit seats. I just had to let the boat go, Mickey was doing a great job of steering and I seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. At one stage we took a wave into the cockpit, I was washed off the seat into the cockpit well, sloshing around in the water with a bucket and a bunch of ropes. I just climbed back on the seat and went back to sleep, soaking wet. Truce could look after herself.
COASTING SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND, SOLOMONS
I noticed I was being followed so stopped to see what was going on. The gentlemen approached me and introduced himself, he was a policemen. Would I like to come to the station for a chat? I had nothing else to do and this seemed interesting so I tagged along. It transpired that the novelty of a non local white man wandering around has aroused their curiosity – that was all. We had a good chat. I was happy to take my time as the room was air conditioned and it was hot outside. Soon I was on my way again and did a bit of shopping with the last of my cash at a local store before returning to the boat.