Weeks 10-12
Sunday 21st Dec.r – cloudy weather with occasional showers. Very fresh and favourable breeze.
Monday 22d – morning – constant rain and foul wind – afternoon cloudy damp weather, and nearly a calm. Most miserable day we have yet had.
Tuesday 23d – heavy rain with calm all night. Fine weather all day. The calm continued till 1 P.M. when breeze sprung up from S & East.d being nearly favourable.
Wednesday 24th – wind here, there and every where – nothing settled – blowing strong at times with heavy cross sea – gloomy weather with tons of rain. At 6 P.M. wind more steady and fresh.
Thursday 25th – a very dull Christmas. Strange variable winds & weather – Cloudy with frequent showers,.
Friday 26th – cloudy weather. Fresh and favourable breeze, & very heavy swell from Eastward.
Saturday 27th – wind light, variable & fair in the morning – after heavy shower drew forward & foul. Weather in general fine.
Xth Hebdomade
Much was expected this week from the last quarter of the Moon – but we were all disappointed. We have had nothing but Easterly wind – calms – and when the wind has been Westerly, its duration has been very short. Our calculations from day to day have been false, and our Master an old seaman declared that he never remembered to have witnessed such weather. We have had heavy swells from all directions which have come to nothing. We have had fresh and favourable winds and these have vanished or disappeared in calm in less than half an hour. In short there seems to be a concurrence of two winds, the one from the West and the other from the East, neither of which have attained the decided mastery. We earnestly hope that Victory will be decided in favour of the West.
When foul wind and foul weather prevail together, it requires all the Philosophy you can muster to make head against the tide of ill humour & repining, which then flows in upon you. We have had our share of bad weather with rain & gloom & clouds – and even when the weather has been fine, the air is so keen & cold, that it penetrates thro & thro’ you, to your great discomfort.
11th Week
Sunday 28th Dec.r – very fine weather. Light and favourable breeze.
Monday 29th – dull gloomy weather with rain in the morning. Fresh and foul winds.
Tuesday 30th – miserable and cold weather. Gale of foul wind.
Wednesday 31st – tolerable weather. Gale of foul wind.
~ 1835 ~
Thursday 1st January – cloudy but fair weather. Fresh and foul Easterly wind.
Friday 2nd – wind variable in strength but foul till 5 P.M., when we had thick rain, followed by a calm. When the rain had ceased, a light wind sprung up from the Southward. Variable weather during the day.
Saturday 3rd – constant rain during the day – fair in the evening. Wind in puffs & flaws – & fluctuating, looking inclinable to Easterly again. Kept our course however – but have very heavy swell from SE.
XI Hebdomade
Unfortunately for us the contest between opposing winds was decided, at the change of the Moon (being then New) against us. Then the Easterly winds asserted their ascendancy and blew for two or three days a perfect Gale, and even when the tempest abated, the direction of the wind altered not but blew steadily from the Eastward till Friday when a constant heavy shower of rain brought it round to Southward which was nearly favourable for us. How long it may there continue, it remains for next week to decide, tho’ even now it seems inclinable to revert back to the East. Should as we hope the wind come round to SW & NW, we may still be in Falmouth within our prescribed time viz. Sat.y 10 Jan.ry
The weather this week has been so so – rather dull and particularly miserable. Rain & foul wind – Gloomy skies & rolling seas heaving you to leeward like winking are any thing but agreeable subjects of contemplation – & the less we have of them the better.
12th WEEK
Sunday 4th January – variable and foul wind – weather thick with drizzling rain & short intervals of clear weather.
Monday 5th – foul wind – Dull cloudy weather.
Tuesday 6th – foul, foul wind variable in direction – Weather cold & cloudy but fair with the exception of several slight showers.
Wednesday 7th – fresh and foul wind – fine weather with sundry slight showers.
Thursday 8th – foul and fresh winds. Cloudy but fair weather.
Friday 9th – fine weather – Fresh and favourable breeze.
Saturday 10th – fine weather – unusually so for the season. Very fresh and favourable breeze.
Sunday 11th – fine weather. Fresh and favourable breeze. At 6.30 P.M. made S.t Agnes light.
Monday 12th January – at 6 A.M. came to anchor in Falmouth Harbour, exactly twelve weeks after leaving it.
~ Finis ~
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