Blog Day 46
Latitude 55 12.08S
Longitude 59 12.22
Barometer 1014
Air Temp 4c
Local Time 0200 UTC -5
LIVE TRACKER
Hi All,
What a whirl wind it has been with all the emotions of rounding Cape Horn. There are several tactical decisions to consider for the next few days. The first one is, do I pass between Argentina sailing on the outside of the Isla de Los Estado and the Brudwood Bank, or sail around.
Reference Note - Malvinas Island is the Falkland Islands
The Burdwood bank is a very large area of shallow water that is roughly 100nm long and 50 nm wide. It sits around 150 nm below the Falkland Islands. It is a place that I would rather not sail over because the depth of the ocean changes from 3000 to 4000 meters deep to 100 meters deep, and even as shallow as 40 meters in areas. Because of the dramatic depth changes you can get some really rough seas there, and super strong ocean currents. Last time, in 2017, as I was making this decision, I was still in a 6-meter southerly swell and storm conditions, so that forced my hand, and sent me between Argentina and the Burdwood bank. This time I am sailing in easing conditions, the swell is less than 3 meters and easing fast as I sail north-east and into the shelter of South American coastline. If I went north, between the two, I would be sailing directly into a large area of no wind. By going around, I am getting the chance to retain some wind and we can use the currents to our advantage, and hopefully slingshot my way past, before then trying to get some northerly ground to get clean of ice areas.
So for this project it makes more sense to sail around the Burdwood bank, so I held a 050 T course on a NE heading until I reached 55 South where I altered my course. We are now sailing at 100 T or East to pass below the Burdwood Bank and get clear. The squalls have also started to settle down, and while the skies are heavy with dense grey clouds the winds held steady at under 20 knots for most of the morning, so before nightfall,l I went on deck and shook out the final reef and hoisted up the full mainsail. I was still sailing with the storm jib up as I haven’t had a moment to drop it and I already had the no 2 jib out. The winds were still just outside the range of the No 1 (extra-large) jib at this stage. It has been over 10 days since I have had conditions light enough to put the whole of the mainsail up. I have been mostly living in a state of constant gales and large seas.
The rest of the day was uneventful. Our speed dropped off with the easing conditions, a bulk carrier ship was slowly over taking me, but they were still over 20 nm away and I only saw them on my instruments. The exhaustion started to creep up to me. I had only gone to bed at 10 am that morning and slept until 3.30 because I was chatting with Australian Geographic for a podcast that will be released soon. My intention had been to go back to bed and get another sleep, but I just laid in bed and couldn't sleep. I think I was still too wired from Rounding Cape Horn, and today was another epic milestone.
Today its official, as I sail past degree 62 West, that we have officially sailed past the halfway point of this record, and I am now finally sailing towards home, back towards Australia. It is just over 6000 nm away but for this section, I will need to navigate Iceberg Alley, cross the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, face down many storms and pass the position where last record, I dis-masted. That dismasting almost cost me everything, so while I have now successfully sailed halfway solo, non-stop and unassisted around Antarctica, the challenges that I will face out here will only get more difficult. I always say to people that the Pacific Ocean, while its massive and the largest ocean in the world, for me down here, in these latitudes, it was the easier ocean. There were actual calms between the storms, and the temperatures were on average much higher as well. Also, the fact that we were on the beginning of this Odyssey and so all my gear and equipment is new and unworn, allowing me to use it to its full potential without breakages, but as I am now in the South Atlantic all of this is about to get a whole lot harder.
So tonight I am going to keep the blog a little short so I can try to catch some zzz's in these easing conditions, but before I go, I would thank the following degree sponsors.
Thank you to:
062 West - Jenny Rickerby, she also leaves me with the comment of 'Big Hugs for the 1/2 way mark". Thanks, Jenny, for your unrelenting and amazing support of my project. Jenny is a local volunteer in Albany who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help me with so, so, many things. So thank you Jenny, you are so incredibly amazing, and I am really proud to call you a friend.
059 West - 59' North Sailing, Bound Away Around the World - Thank you to Andy and your amazing crew for your support - 59 North sailing run epic adventure ocean charters and also have a great podcast called 'On the Wind' They have been a great supporter of my sailing so thank you for your amazing support. We will have to do another podcast soon.
And so for now I will say goodnight.
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