0500hrs 27 Nov 2005 UTC 46’06”S 101’37”E Ref 590
life’s fascinating moments #47: we are flolloping along down here trying to hook ourselves into the top of the gale that we hope blows all the time to the south and will help this little piggy cry whee whee whee all the way home. received the satcom egc gale warning ‘ south of 46 degrees with embedded cold front…30 – 40 kts…’ and thought, most satisfactory – we’re at 4607. should be just about right. sure enough, little line of cloud astern develops into long sharp pointed tongue with its tip a minipooptillionth to the north of us and curving away to the south and getting roily and angry and thick and ugly. the little tip of the tongue passed over us with a tiny pretend lash of wind in all of five minutes and here we are back in bright sunlight and about 25 – 30. mathematically elegant. you’d have been able to see us on the satellite image – long switchback of foamy water with a tiny blob on the end just under the northern tip of the front.
still big breaking following sea and prudence remains in the ascendant. we are passing big clumps of seaweed too – some kelpy, some more bubble leaved. must be getting close to the shelf. don’t have instruments or sob to conserve power, so can’t check.
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: