Dougal Robertson

So it was the 15th.

On the 15th of June, we were still headed west in the southeastern trade winds.

And, you know, we were preparing for a long voyage.

It was going to take 45 days to get to Marquesas.

It was a 2,000-mile trip.

across the pacific ocean it's the world's biggest geographical feature the pacific ocean it's just uh you know it's a massive ocean so that's what we were prepared for but there were other there were other plans afoot you know for the robinson family

It was discussed in the Galapagos Islands.

because we met a young lady who was doing a PhD in biological sciences, and she was on a field trip in the Galapagos.

I mean, like Darwin, she was studying Darwinism and the origin of species.

And she, being an academic achiever,

said that whales would never attack yachts and that yachtsmen had no no reasonable belief to believe there was danger from whales at sea and of course Dougal was a right sucker for academia you know he bought right into that story you know which of course we know is not true so

we had discussed it right there in the that's quite that's kind of that's a little bit spooky really but you'd actually literally had the conversation a little bit spooky you know what and on the on the night of the 12th we all have these very vivid dreams

My mother had a dream of the Lisette sinking.

We'd had these odd dreams, you know, being endangered from the Lisette sinking.

That was the day before.

But, I mean, you can't attach anything to that.

Because, you know, they were just dreams.

And nobody was more surprised than us about what happened, you know.

Dougal had taken the site, put the sections away, written down the altitude and the time, and he was thinking about having a cup of coffee.

And he put the coffee percolator on.