Evening star., 1954-11-11
lis Days ut SEQ
|Constont Toll and Little Sleep.
Marks voyogers Typical Day

/ , ypNu 1Uy
.Istaple In my diet, win see I have
no flying fish and win shun ny
hook.
4 Cat Is Fishing Fan. 3
i Meekie. my black cat, comes
out Of her hiding place beneath
/ the winch to watch the food
gathering ceremonies, She lives
almost entirely on f7sh and since
she's a particular beast, any
thing less than q dolphin filet
mignon brings hard looks in my
| direction. Eekie, my green par
rot. also shows interest enough
/ to stop eating his corn and enlits
/ a squawk whenever ! catch q
fish.
This time I catch q bonito
which must have been under the
hook, as 1t beat the ravenous
dolphins to the bait. The bonito
came aboard without its tail,
Long Tom having taken this
much. Sometimes he leaves me
only the head.
I wash the deck with a few
buckets of salt water and put
two tablespoons of canihua, the
cereal of the high Andes. into a
/ cup, adding water to make q
| thick paste. This is breakfast; /
relish it. along with a little in
stant coffee. The pastelike sugar
4 the Pervuvians call chancaca ]
will eat in the afternoon. with a
fish fry--as much as three
pounds of fish-in the evening.
/ have concluded that the nour-
ishing fish have much to do with
keeping me going.
Now, as the morning moves
on, the rigging needs repair.
There Is new doWnhauler--a
line I use for hauling down the
mainsail quickly when the wind
gets too strong-to be reeved, a
block to be fastened more Sc
curely-typical raftsman's and
seaman's chores. But must
also constantly check the COM
pass to make sure I am getting
the most mileage, for, with the
hurricane season coming on. all
possible speed Is vital.
Maps Beside Wheel.
More Immediately, there is the
need to prevent the raft swinging
enough to let the wind take the
mainsail aback and beat it to
pieces against the mast. So, each
task must be done in little spurts
of work, with dashes across the
deck to the compass in between.
During some simple jobs that
should take only 10 minutes or
so. had to make this maneuver
10 or 20 times and the tasks
aften were lenthened to several
hours.
For few instants ! sink be-
side the wheel and nap-but the
Tapping of the mainsail brings
me up again, my hands on the
wheel SpokeS before I am aware
what I am doing. My wife had
bought me an alarm clock in
Callao, but I have never used it.
My subconscious mind is trained
to stand watch for me.
It is noon. I get out the sex
tant and take a sight for lati-
tude. It is not easy. The raft
rolls rapidly and the swells blot
out my view time after time. I
take some more canihua and
coffee and try to get a few min
utes more sleep beside the wheel.
Arising, I eat my raw sugar-a
quarter pound today. for I feel
snort OF energy.
Now I will check the lashings
that secure the RATS balsa logs
to guard against any undetected
damage that might have oc-
CURED during my illness. find
everything shipShape, but the
| job-like all the raft voyage it.
self-is a constant test of my
stamina.
Takes Afternoon Sights.
I move forward to look at the
lashings on the main logs. Sud-
denly the raft begins to move
into the wind. I dash across the
deck and just catch her in time.
Again I edge back to the busi-
ness, at hand. The wind is
generally from the southeast, but
keeps swinging to the east and
the north. If the raft swings
into the wind or badly off course,
I will have to lower the mizzen,
put the wheel over and swing
the mainsail yard around-a lot
of work.
Three pm. has come and gone.
At that hour I took my AFTER
noon sun sights. Oddly, al