On the 6th, at noon, we lost the trade-wind, and were suddenly taken aback, with the wind from the N.N.W. At this time our latitude was 29° 50', and our longitude 170° l'. As the old running ropes were constantly breaking in the late gales, we reeved what new ones we had left, and made such other preparations as were necessary for the very different climate with which we were now shortly to encounter. The fine weather we met with between the tropics had not been idly spent. The carpenters found sufficient employment in repairing the boats. The best bower-cable had been so much damaged by the foul ground in Karakakooa Bay, and whilst we were at anchor off Oneeheow, that we were obliged to cut forty fathoms from it; in converting of which, with other old cordage into spunyarn, and applying it to different uses, a considerable part of the people were kept constantly employed by the boatswain. The airing of sails and other stores, which, from the leakiness of the decks and sides of the ships, were perpetually subject to be wet, had now become a frequent as well as a laborious and troublesome part of our duty.
Besides these cares, which had regard only to the ships themselves, there were others, which had for their object the preservation of the health of the crews, that furnished a constant occupation to a great number of our hands. The standing orders, established by Captain Cook, of airing the bedding, placing fires between deck, washing them with vinegar, and smoking them with gunpowder, were observed without any intermission. For some time past, even the operation of mending the sailors' old jackets had risen into a duty both of difficulty and importance. It may be necessary to inform those who are unacquainted with the disposition and habits of seamen, that they are so accustomed in ships of war to be directed in the care of themselves by their officers, that they lose the very idea of foresight, and contract the thoughtlessness of infants. I am sure, that if our people had been left to their own discretion alone, we should have had the whole crew naked, before the voyage had been half finished. It was natural to expect, that their experience, during our voyage to the north last year, would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to these matters; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, their impression was so transitory, that upon our return to the tropical climates, their fur-jackets, and the rest of their cold country clothes, were kicked about the decks as things of no value; though it was generally known in both ships, that we were to make another voyage toward the Pole. They were of course picked up by the officers; and being put into casks, restored about this time to the owners.