Day Twenty Five
Lat. 40° 45' S Long. 156° 2' W Dist. 161 miles
"We had peace until about 2.30 am and then we squared the yards. It was blowing a good breeze and we do some quick travelling. We finished scraping the mast and as it was beginning to blow harder we made the fore lower topga'n'sail fast at about 11.50 am.
We had some light rain squalls and the sea rising consequently water began to come aboard. During the afternoon Jock and Joe finished off the mast and painted it and we braced the yards a bit at 4.30 pm. I took no part in it as I had a job of reeving off a rope which necessitated my scrambling round and about the spanker boom.
Our concert was brought abruptly to a close by the cry of loose the fore topga'n'sail. There is an old song about a sailor who sealed a note in a bottle and threw it overboard. We know one line of it and it is the line that was written on the note. It is "Whoever finds this bottle finds the beer all gone". Very pathetic I assure you. We sing it after every song and before the next. It nearly makes the Australian weep every time he hears it.
We braced up the yards at 10.30 pm. A heated argument about Australia with the Australian but made no impression on him."