Wet and Wild

There we go, did i mention anytime over the past few days that this
freaking place is a bit windy? We are running under triple reefed mainsail
and staysail and earlier we got flattened on the side like a dinghy in a
gust that read 57.8 knots on the one surviving wind instrument… This
hopefully is not meant to last long, and it’d better not as we are sailing
at full speed towards the ice limit at 45S, if the wind does not drop soon
we are in trouble, i dont want to have to sail any higher in this sort of
winds but we are not allowed to sail south of 45S, we’ll have to make a
call if these conditions persist. It’s pitch black outside and i hope we
didnt damage anything earlier.

Today the conditions have given a new shade, a new facet to the word
“miserable”, dark, gray, cold, wet, daunting… the only hightlights are
when it’s your time to sleep and you hide under two sleeping bags
breathing into your hands trying to warm up a bit…

Oh dear, give me steak, chips, a nice beer, a hot shower and the warm
embrace of my girlfried, this is no place to be!!! Progress has however
been good and once this front goes through we should have reasonable
sailing conditions for a little while, we’ve somewhat closed the gap to
Campagne de France, we gained well over 100 miles on them in the last few
days and at present it would look like we’ll be sailing in better winds
for a some time… we’re only hoping to get closer, as a gap of 500 miles
with 2900 to go is clearly not something we can overcome but it’s nice to
know that we are not sailing an out of touch race from the pros.

Posted by: firstclass