Nov 07, 2005 - 0545hrs UTC

We have just spent an hour or so doing the biggest sail change ever – from the triA tiny storm sail that is set on the mast instead of the mainsail. Full explanation here and the 4 with a tired old main on the boom to the newer main and the 2 – new battens, re-run the reefing lines, the lot but we’re now pointing at Kerguelen and looking those penguins in the eye.

Great stuff-  except that the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks. is still poncing around in her hot pinks. We’ve only got about 10 knots of breeze. Our time will come!

And in the big sort out up front to dredge out the new main – guess what! – we found a dozen bottles of tonic. WOOOOOHOOOOO!

So we had a couple of measures of the DoctorGuinness for breakfast and the game is on. Watch this space!

Under my silly hat again, yes. it’s possible to make the start line but dodgy. Practically, it’s not sensible to try to go much further that about 45 south and that’s hugely risky for a day or so saved. We’ll play it as it comes – go with Destiny and the Vortex. We’ll need as much sunlight as we can get and we will need to be wise in our use of diesel and sail combinations in the inevitable stinky bits if we are to keep moving, as we must.

From Chris, Helen & Lindsay in Canberra, Australia

Fascinated by your log. It makes fantastic reading. Very powerful indeed; very direct, straight from the heart and the gut; and then these fabulous passages of analytical and technical information, such as the description of the dissection / diagnosis of the solar panel. Leaves one feeling awe-struck and humble, wanting to be there and share in it and see what you’re seeing, but also conscious I would never survive what you are going through, and actually glad I’m not there at all. But so amazed and proud to know you for doing it… Here’s something to think about… I’m trying to write something about wisdom; it’s become a bit of a trendy buzz-word in the management world, and most people who write about it don’t seem to know what they’re talking about. Which is one reason why I’m re-reading Confucius and for the first time Plato, the Book of Proverbs and lots of other stuff. One thing that seems to be common is the idea that ‘wisdom’ differs from ‘knowledge’ by virtue of being something one can only attain through long experience and reflection… Getting ‘wisdom’ is a process characterised by  perseverence as well as by insight. So you two probably know a thing or two about it – perhaps things you don’t even know that you know. What is wisdom? Is it the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks.? Is it outwitting the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks.? Is it doing what the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks. wants? Is it doing something totally unexpected, but so well that the ExaminerShe who asks awkward questions of the crew and tests them with difficult tasks. gives you the credit for it anyway? And is it a ‘doing’ sort of thing or more of a ‘being’ sort of thing? Who has it? How do you know that they have it? Something for the stormy nights.

Chris – I’d love to see the final version – to me, the difference between knowledge and wisdom is profound – the tricky part for me has always been to sort out the element of the definition of wisdom that includes getting it right – have you been wise if you fail to achieve? And,if so, how and why? If you think, for instance, that wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge based on experience, then there is the problem of the subjective element introduced by ‘judicious’. Lots of fun. Does an MBA give you wisdom?? Nah! Technique, maybe, knowledge, maybe, but wisdom? If you learn from it that there is a lot that you don’t know, then the application of that knowledge might require all the wisdom you can muster. Didn’t Bertrand Russell do this rather better somewhere? Goat, come hither and ruminate upon this codswallop.

It’s very soft out there – I think this means that the wind will back from the south around to the north for the front of the next low and eventually to the west and round we go again. I hope it is reasonably benign.