At this rate, we are about 9 days from Kerguelen which equates to about 3 major changes in the weather system. There's no stability in it – the wind goes from north to south via west on a daily basis with little localised nasties arriving unannounced by the grib. Tricky. The plan: we will work our way SE to 45 S – about the same latitude as Tasman Island and with broadly similar conditions and have a look over our shoulders to see what's coming and make a decision to continue or bale out. Kerguelen starts at 48 south. It's all manageable but we do need to be careful. Would be a huge shame to go past but the boat comes before tourism!
It's been a slow day. rolling and pirouetting violently – water warm again and blue – what's happening? We crossed 40 S this afternoon – the Roaring Forties.
I've just started to read, for the severalth time, Gerald Durrell's 'My Family and Other Animals'- lovely book that works for me but perhaps not for everyone. His opening quotation from 'As You Like It':
It is a melancholy of mine own, compounded
of many simples, extracted from many objects,
and indeed the sundry contemplation of my
travels, which, by often rumination wraps
me in a most humorous sadness.
Mmm!
The tatty old albatross is still with us. Caught up with it earlier sitting on the water working at a big semi submerged plastic bag and not having much luck. It lumbered into the air and quite by luck I got it on video. Couldn't see the screen and no idea where the thing was pointing. But probably out of focus. They look so dumpy on the water and almost lopsided with their huge beaks and much smaller than in their soaring magnificence.
Thinking about some kind of gunsight viewfinder for the video cam. Screen absolutely useless in daylight – do the people who design these things ever actually use them?
Carol G – remind me – I've got a little artifact from B1 for your collection.
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: