Day 7, pre-sunrise

My watch buzzed, waking me up after twenty minutes. I stood up out of the chair and stretched. Clouds partially obscured the stars. I observed my course was set to somewhere in the north, a north westerly course heading outbound from Bermuda. My estimation was that I was close to a week out from the island. I rubbed my eyes and winced.

"Ouch!" I hissed as my face seized up in pain. There were cuts and bruises all over my face. When had that happened?

I didn’t bother with the satnav. If I was outbound from Bermuda, this was clearly the past. Strange I was nowhere near the portal. I must be running cargo to Canada. If my memory didn’t return soon I’d go check the hold to see what I was hauling.

Three hours and I’d get to sleep again. I hummed to myself and went to check on the sails. Another oddity, the lantern was lit by the helm. When I was this far out on open water, I usually just went with running lights. I let the lantern be, the firelight was calming. I hummed an old song to myself, a favorite one about a man and a sheep. My notebook lay near the wheel. Maybe I’d left myself some reminders. I did that when I had a few long gaps between waking up and the return of my memories. I found the right page and read.

“Son of a bitch!” I gasped as the notes and the memories crashed around my ears.

You just left Bermuda 1649

Don’t think about Andrews

Izzy is on board

Lady Catherine, Bessie, and a baby are aboard. These are not intruders.

Izzy has seen your scars

You are going to Greenland.

Helene beat the shit out of you.

Get your shit together

Izzy wants all kinds of answers

Learn the baby’s name

Bessie is asleep in the hammock

No technology

I sprinted to the hammock and looked in to see that, yes, Bessie was asleep there -- or at least she was until I’d yanked at the sides of the hammock and woke her with my shouting. She screamed and rolled out of the hammock onto the deck. She backed away from me as I shouted demands at her that she explain her presence here on my ship. Izzy and a girl who must be this "Catherine", ran up the stairs and on deck to see what all the shouting was about.

My heart slammed in my chest. I needed to sit down. I was exhausted and had a bad feeling of deja vu.

“Captain, please stop doing that,” Bessie begged.

Shit. How many times had I woken that poor girl?

“Catherine, perhaps I could sleep the remainder of the night in your bunk?” Bessie asked the young blonde girl.

“What the hell is going on Anne?” Izzy screamed.

“Just got startled. I’m not used to people on the ship with me.” I felt sick.

“You are freaking everyone out,” she kept screaming.

“I’ll stop. I will,” I tried to promise. My head was killing me.

“Anne, I don't know what's going on with you, but we are all going through an ordeal. We all need rest. Stop making everyone scream, please. Can you manage not to freak everyone out for just a couple hours?"

Izzy didn't wait for an answer and went off to bed.

Alone on deck, I yawned and settled in for the rest of my three hour shift. I picked up the notebook and wrote another line.

"Stop freaking everyone out." I wrote as I spoke it.

When it was time to sleep I tied the notebook to the wheel so it would be right in front of my face when I woke up.