January 4th, 1832 4:00 PM

     As soon as I woke up from my long nap, I saw the blue, shining sky before me. The view was magnificent, excepting a curved, roiling jet-black mass on the horizon. My thoughts were interrupted by a cry of "Land Ho!" I snapped out of my daze and shot to look. On the distant horizon was a lush green series of dots that seemed to appear extremely inviting. I hear a frantic barking from Lucky as he sights the ship's cat trying to sight a mouse. The cat moves with surprising speed and is dashing towards the mast. I go into a rushing sprint and, when I reach the mast, make my way up it with ease. The cat, already up there, startled a sailor, who jumped onto the slack sails to slide down. I notice this and grab a rope to send the sails into a 'parachute' to catch the sailor. Before I can dive off myself, I hear a thoom!!! from the heavy clouds that overtook us while I lazed and see a brilliant bolt of white brimstone go zooming past the port side of the ship and sizzling the water around it--this all happened not millimeters from the Beagle itself. I dash to my cabins, grabbing a crew member in the path of a flying, rusty nail from another crewmember working on the rails when the bolt narrowly missed.