The Voyage: Wednesday November 18

Position: 44°31'8.21"N 9° 0'57.03"W

The clocks went back an hour overnight. That's what happens when you take the slow boat. No sudden changes of time zones. One at a time.

It also gradually got warmer. You will notice how we all were less and less clothes as the days progress.

We had breakfast and listened to the other songs of the second round of sea shanties.
We worked out that if we played music on the outer deck, we wouldn't be bothering anyone, so that's what we did. It was quite noisy out there (wind, the engine and the waves crashing against the ship), but at least we could be as loud as we wanted.

This took us up to lunch.

After lunch we started the second round of story telling.
Tom's story caused some consternation. He told it in Liz and Margit's cabin (they're in what is called 'The Owner's Cabin', it's bigger than the other cabins), and in the middle of the story, the light behind him suddenly flickered on. No one was anywere near the switch, and the sea wasn't particularly rough.
Five minutes later the alarm sounded. We all got up and walked through the corridor towards the stairs, but then we heard the announcement that it was just a call for the crew to meet on the bridge for safety instruction.
It was a strange moment. You would have thought we'd all panic, but we didn't. We would have thought we'd all panic. But we didn't.

At 5pm we went up to the bow of the ship to watch the sunset. The bow of the ship is amazing. You can't hear the engine there, so all you hear is the wind and the sea. And all you see is the sea.
There is a small platform on the furthest point of the bow that has a small bench on it, big enough for three people. When you sit there, you almost feel like you're on a small sailboat.

Afterwards Kieran told a story of a boat that was found in the middle of the Atlantic in the early 20th century. All the crew were missing.

After dinner David read us a Sebald poem.
And then we watched the Thin Red Line.