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Don’t forget the war between Egypt and Israel shortly before the pandemic broke out. The canal might even have been partially filled in for all we know. We could sail down the whole length of the Mediterranean and then be forced to sail all the way back to Gibraltar. At least if we head down to the Cape of Good Hope we know we’ll be able to get home.’
    Reluctantly, Steven had to concede his father was right.
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    â€˜Good idea,’ Adam said enthusiastically when, in the saloon over lunch, Mark announced his decision to introduce the watch system. But his attitude changed as soon as Mark stated the composition of each watch, his face betraying the fact that, as a member of the older generation, he felt he should have been the third watch captain. Robert’s scowling face suggested he resented the decision too.
    â€˜Each watch will also take it in turns, one day in three, to be in charge of cooking and cleaning ship,’ Mark continued.
    â€˜Lucky old you,’ Luke quipped to Penny. ‘I hope you can cook.’
    â€˜Who do you think you’re handing out duties to?’ Steven shouted from the cockpit, from where he’d been steering the yacht and following the conversation. ‘I’ll be deciding who does what on my watch. That includes cleaning the heads.’
    â€˜We’re going to have to be careful with water,’ Mark continued. ‘No more running taps. And one shower each a week.’
    â€˜What?’ Jessica exclaimed. Dark, pretty and, like the rest of her family, petite, the strength of her voice belied her size.
    â€˜You can have as many saltwater showers as you like.’
    â€˜Seawater just makes you sticky.’
    Mark ignored the complaint. The sooner everyone realised this was no pleasure cruise the better. ‘My other concern is food.’
    Before Mark and Steven had sailed for England from NewZealand, they had crammed Archangel ’s lockers and bilges with bottled food and some of the precious stocks of tinned food they had manage to accumulate in the wake of the pandemic, as well as bulk supplies of vinegar and preserving syrup. They had saved the empty jars, expecting to replenish their food stocks before leaving England on the return voyage, but having escaped from Haver by the skin of their teeth that had not happened. ‘We’ll continue to troll fishing lines of course, but our experience on the voyage from New Zealand to England suggests there aren’t many fish out here in deep water. We’ve only got enough bottled food left from the outward journey to last a month — and then only if we’re careful. If necessary, we’ll stop at Cape Town and see what we can pick up there.’
    â€˜Only if we don’t catch enough fish,’ insisted Steven.
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    With the watch system in place, life aboard Archangel fell into a steady routine. But tensions increased. Mark wasn’t sure whether it was because of the cramped living conditions, the personalities of those aboard or simply the tedium of blue-water sailing. He did his best to keep everyone’s spirits up, but the sense of unease remained.
    His own mood was not improved by his lack of success with the single-sideband radio. Every day at noon New Zealand time, he would turn it on and twiddle the dials, trying to raise the Gulf Harbour community on the receiver Steven had installed there before they left. Jane had promised him that whatever happened, she would faithfully listen out for him for a few minutes at noon every day. While theoretically the system could bounce signals off the troposphere to anywhere in the world, in reality before the pandemic it had mostly relied on networks of operators relaying messages over shorter distances. Of course, now those networks no longer existed.
    On the voyage from New Zealand, Archangel had lost contact with Gulf Harbour before reaching Cape Horn. Despite still being in the northern hemisphere, Mark would