The Swirl of the Pallids

Pallid silvery sky, delicately textured in darker fluffs. Occasional loom of the sun in halo of luminous cloud – TurnerTurner, John Mallord William (1775 - 1851); one of the founders of English watercolour painting renowned for his studies of sea and sky in every weather would have exaggerated it to get the effect. Sea deep almost milky blue – odd when it seems it ought to be grey too. Prions, slightly darker but their shaded greys in between the blue of the sea and the angels' wings in the cloud. Lumpy, vicious sea – big swells from the north with spiky dragon skin surface from the local wind. Brilliant breaking crests with flying cascades of pearls and diamonds. Violent rolling passage, moving around inside a continual blind trapeze act. Easier on deck because there's a horizon and so a frame of reference.

Excitement and some apprehension at the approach of an unfamiliar, alien coastline with beartraps everywhere for the unwary. The same shiver as we approached AmchitkaAmchitka Pass:a strait in the Aleutian Islands, between the Rat Islands group to the west and the Delarof Islands to the east. Amchitka Island was the site of the Cannikin nuclear test – the biggest underground explosion ever conducted by the USA (as far as we know). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amchitka in the Aleutians and Cape Horn and the Falklands and the Greenland fiords – and especially Point BarrowPoint Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States. More on wikipedia and our first ice and then at the other end, the M'Clintock Channel. Trying to think of all the possibilities – lee shore, rocks, kelpTypes of brown algae, which hold on to the rocky sea bottom with root-like structures. Floats in huge mats close to land and potentially capable of fouling a propeller or a rudder. More here (Wikipedia), surge, how to anchor with Berri's various bits of gear, bolt holes, magnetic anomalies, instant williwaws…it all churns around and won't rest till we get there and can have a look. I remember a conversation in Falmouth with a venerable and hugely respected sailor about age, experience and the increments in apprehension each time you prepare do something out of the ordinary – extending even to things that are normally easy. Maybe it's a characteristic of the cautious. Or the geriatric! Helps me to wonder how CookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. would have dealt with it – with extreme caution and minimal risk, I think. He stood off rather than risk going between the islands in poor visibility.

About 200 miles till we can expect to see the islands to the NW of Cap d'Estaing. I see from the Admiralty chart that BlighWilliam Bligh – Sailed with Cook and later given command of HMS Bounty. Most famous for his 1200 mile open boat voyage after his crew mutinied.'s Cap is actually called Ilot du Rendez-Vous not Reunion as I wrote yesterday. All of you will be able to see more – and almost certainly more detail – on google earth than we will on the spot. You may be able to see the huge kelpTypes of brown algae, which hold on to the rocky sea bottom with root-like structures. Floats in huge mats close to land and potentially capable of fouling a propeller or a rudder. More here (Wikipedia) patches all along the north and east coasts.

Malcom, can you see a jetty at P o F? I seem to remember something like a concrete quay. And a big SW swell running into the little bay by the church.