[1]For reproduction of log book see page 305.
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Have you tried to write in the dark? I remember sitting up in bed at school composing themes after lights. During those night hours on the Friendship the log was written with the help of my good left thumb. I would not turn on the electric light in the after cabin lest it blind Bill at the controls. And so I pencilled my way across the page of the diary thankful for that early training with those better-late-than-never themes. The thumb of my left hand was used to mark the starting point of one line. The problem of this kind of blind stenography is knowing where to start the next line. It didn’t always work. Too often lines piled up one on the other and legibility suffered.
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Log Book:
The sea was only a respite. Fog has followed us since. We are above it now. A night of stars. North the horizon is clear cut. To the south it is a smudge.
The exhausts send out glowing meteors.
How marvellous is a machine and the mind that made it. I am thoroughly occidental in this worship.
Bill sits up alone. Every muscle and nerve alert. Many hours to go. Marvellous also. I’ve driven all day and all night and know what staying alert means.
We have to climb to get over fog and roughness.