We are now officially in the Southern ocean. The one sailors call the
southern ocean that is. Apparantly there is a difference in opinion
between sailors and scientists where the southern ocean starts. I like
the other name for the place we are in now which is the Roaring Forties.
Our current position is 40 deg 26 min south anbd 38 deg 18min East, 385
miles north of Marion Island which ios part of the Prince Edward
islands, 3770 miles to AAustralia...
The last few days have been fantastic sailing. Down wind in 30 plus
knots of wind (force 8)no spinaker up but with a poled out headsail:
foolproof. I managed top do some aerobatics in the climbing harness the
last few days: I found myself at the end of the spinaker pole in the
dark, some 4m above the sea looking over my shoulder at the boat as I
was tripping the spinaker off the pole to takle it down due to increased
windspeeds. A great place to be because while you trip the kite the rest
of the crew have to take it in and oput it down below and noone has time
to let you come down on the deck. So I could really relax (as far as
that goes) and look at how the crew work on deck while I was watching it
from a distance. A great feeling. The other acrobatic trick was dangling
on the leeward side in 30 knots of wind attaching a second shgeet to our
yankee. It was quite a trick to reach there without losing touch of the
boat and getting back down without spinning round the shrouds. This
definitely beats the best deals and biggest projects I have done :-)
While we were in big winds I had the absolute best surf so far: 21.1
knots of boat speed with 35 tonnes is absolutely exhilarating. I could
not help it and a big YIHAAA escaped from my mouth: what a sensation! My
lungs almost hurt with exitement! This is a better cure than any anti
depressant in the world.
Last night we had our first draw backs: a massive windhole! In 6 hours
we lost 30 miles and our second place became a very tight 4th with
Singapore right behind us. It was a beautiful night though but cold.
I thought at some point that I was seeing martians: there was a
strange red light hovering above the boat. Really strange. Turned out
to be a bird that was lit up by our port tricolor light. It tried for
about ten minutes to land on the top of our mast: without succes. The
sunrise this morning was fantastic. We were surrounded by low hanging
clouds and because the waves had calmned down the birds (yet another
kind has joined the group, a small grey one) cicle the boat quite
closely, including the albatrosses that have been with us again for
several days. These birds are really magnificent. The size of flying
turkeys but absolutely stunning.
Life is great in the Southern Ocean!
