FROM 1-8. Horn to Falkland Islands

Mar 09, 2005 - 1330hrs UTC

1330hrs 09 Mar 2005 UTC 55’35”S 075’17”W Map Ref 110

Here we still are, daylight, steady 40 – 50 going up to 70 under some of the blackest and nastiest rain squalls I’ve ever seen. Just tried to film one. Still just the storm jib and no real question of more – we thought about twin storm jibs but abandoned the idea.

Some feedback please – We have been asked by a well known sailing world website to allow them to publish what I assume would be edited excerpts from these logs on a daily basis, the incentive being that instead of the paltry 8000 hits we’ve had in the six or so weeks we’ve been out here, we’d get that many in the first hour of the first morning. I told them, politely, via Steve, to go away – we are not interested in hits as such. This website was set up to talk with you, our families and our friends and anyone else who wants to come along for the ride. My recent lament was about the shallowness of the marketing and sponsorship spectaculars and I refuse to be drawn into the soundbite game for other people’s commercial ends. Nor am I happy to give up control of my own words to an editor who is not out here with us. These updates are part of a unique stream of collective consciousness and each one is linked to incidents and emotions and your comments and responses and I don’t want that integrity tampered with. I invited the website to put up a link to this one on theirs and publicise it if they feel that there is genuine interest for what we are doing amongst their world wide breakfast hitters. Interesting to see what they do.

But what do all y’all think? Is this simply another dinosaur refusing to become extinct or am I right? I concede that there might be clear benefits from publicity but I don’t like the downside.

More on waves – these ones have a wavelength of about 150 – 200 metres and they are probably about 15 metres trough to crest. The waves themselves stretch for ever, but thankfully aren’t breaking along their full length. Quite steep, but Berri just rides up over them as they come in from the starboard quarter. If one happens to be breaking or breaks as a result of Berri’s presence, we get surrounded by about an acre of furious white water rushing away to the sides and ahead and the foamy wind streaks tail away and up over the front of the next one in line. Spectacular and exhilarating to sit in the cockpit amongst it all. Occasional bursts of sunlight add sparkle and deep colour to the water.

From Tim V.
It could be worse, you could be in the cyclone off Cooktown. On the other hand you would be warm. Good luck Tim & all (!) at 31 plus the bloody dog.

Tim, we feel really enormously encouraged by your helpful observation. Couldn’t possibly cope with being warm, as you say.

Comments are closed.