16.12.06 – Post Chathams
As expected, the wind increased this afternoon so it’ll be back to lurching and crashing tonight. At least the knickers are clean, the colon metamucilated and the toilet working. We are romping along in 43S.…
As expected, the wind increased this afternoon so it’ll be back to lurching and crashing tonight. At least the knickers are clean, the colon metamucilated and the toilet working. We are romping along in 43S.…
We were becalmed all last night in the Southern Ocean. Seems incredible! It was not peaceful at all, because the sloppy seas had us lurching about like a WC Fields drunk. Extremely frustrating, the absence…
We’re in the roaring forties about 400 miles east of the Chatham Islands loping along at about 6 knots. It’s been quite rough until now, but today the sun came out for a while and…
Our Monday position at 0325UTC is 4326S/16655W. A front has just passed over and the sun has come out. In 20 kts of westerly, 038M is our best course, although the rhumbline is 066M. The…
22.12.06 I just baked the 2 best loaves of bread in the known world. Photos have been taken. I’ve been sitting in the cockpit, well rugged up, fixing a pair of pliers and watching gadfly…
We had a very near miss last night. A vital steel pin in the Aries came out. This meant that effectively the upper half of the vane gear was dismantled in situ, and suspended 4…
Today is Xmas day and 3 wonderful things happened – the sun came out, I stopped vomiting, and we opened Alex’s fruit pudding. What a trinity. What a feast – such unbelievable schmeck. We’ve been crashing…
Sunny. The wretched ESE headwind persists and the barometer is rising again. DMG yesterday was 110 miles! This is unbelievable. Still, we’re on course now. I am rediscovering Apollon Musagete. Call me old-fashioned, but I…
Now 17 days out of NZ, we’re and about half way to Chile (3827s/13511w). Tainui is being her generous self – always coddling, forgiving our mistakes. No problems other than a snapped steering cable and…
The breeze came back today and we’ve been sliding quietly along. A gentle rhythm has been restored. Spirits have soared also, because we this morning we passed the halfway mark. I’m tinkering in the navigatorium…
18 days at sea and no sign of madness. And today no sign of wind either. The barometer needle has been dabbed with araldite. We’re now between widely spaced isobars, edging up toward the horse…
We did 180 miles yesterday with 1 reef, in a very steady 20 knot NNE breeze. Our best 24 hour run for a while. The wind is still ahead of the beam after 3 weeks.…
Today I baked bread. By dint of circumstance my last 2 loaves were a success – light and well-risen. Dave on the other hand, had produced an inedible cinder block (my crew mate Dave –…
Ribs? – now there’s something other than haemorrhoids to talk about! You can’t cough, laugh or move freely. Sit still and it doesn’t hurt, but just try fluttering an eyelid – blam! Rib ends grate…
The speed with which weather systems roll past is remarkable. Weather comes rushing through, we get tossed about, get wet taking in sails, go below and dry off, take seasick pills, sleep, get up reluctantly…
28 days ex Cook Strait. 1,298 miles to go. The first month was OK, but now it’s getting quite hard. We’re both over it. fresh food’s finished apart from a few spuds. Still, we should…
27 days out from NZ. An essential timelessness prevails, events confronting us in disjointed, oddly isolated fashion. Events familiar, predicted even, but each with no real relation to what went before, what comes after. Oddly,…
What do we do? I sleep a lot, read a bit, write some, and make excellent bread. The best alarm clock is a full bladder. Dave sleeps a lot, reads much more, cleans fastidiously (usually…
10.01.07 Dave thinks it’s Wednesday. We’re about 6 days from our landfall in Chile. 830 miles to go. I’m starting to get little frissants of excitement, like a child with Xmas approaching. It’s the biggest…
How to write an email in the Southern Ocean? So little is really happening. What is memorable for David and me certainly isn’t, for the readership. And vice versa. Take Chris for example – working…
Today I read Banville’s book (“The Sea”) at one sitting. How could I not? After Faulks, he comes like spring after winter. Every page had me thinking of Chris, us, and wishing she were here…
In this warm horizontal environment, there is very little motion, but last night at the computer I felt a bit queasy as we rose and fell on a big, lazy southerly swell. As Martin Luther…
It is windy again today. 2 reefs and staysail. The opening paragraph of the Alexandria Quartet comes to mind and I wonder whether Durrell would survive re-reading after all these years. At 6.30 am, bang!…
Nothing now can dampen my spirits. Such is the power of our growing anticipation. At 4am I filmed our fast progress into the cloudless sunrise, knowing there is likely only to be one more sleep…
We’re 30 miles off Punta Corona. Close reaching in 25-30 kts of SSE breeze on a lumpy sea. The visibility is poor. It is fast, wet and uncomfortable. We’re often over-canvassed and with a beam…
A fast, wet and quite uncomfortable arrival at dusk in a 30kt beam wind, awkward seas and dense fog. The landfall was a slightly apprehensive one for timid old me. Looking ghostly, forbidding and quite…
Deepest coma. Up at 6 to a misty cold morning. Nothing moves, nothing gets spilt; I don’t have to hang on. Around the boat, like an Imax movie, we see green fields, cows, a lovely…
With 4-5 knots of current we roared through Canal Chacao. There were occasional benign whirlpools but none of the terrors I had been led to expect (the Pilot says at springs wind against tide can…
I’m now well adjusted to the cruising mode. Dave has gone off trekking with his esposa, and lovely Christine has finally arrived. She is settling in on board – this does not surprise me. We’re here…
After that endless, grey and windy crossing from NZ I do feel a sort of accomplishment, but is it enough to justify the broken rib, the burn, the damp and the tedium? Now that we’re…
We entered this secure little bay after a lovely crossing of Golfo Corcovado. A crisp southwest breeze gave us 7 sunny knots and a fast trip despite having to buck some tide. When blue whales…
We had a long day traversing Canale Perez Norte. The canales down here are a real contrast to Chiloe’s gentle pasturelands – rainforest to the water’s edge, mists, swirling tide races, craggy peaks and…
We continue down Canale Perez Sur. Narrower, less exposed and more interesting than Canale Moraleda, this channel seemed always to be generating contrary wind and tide. Much motoring. Today’s highlight was the sea lion colony…
Happy birthday Chris! It is grey and raining, with poor visibility. A snug anchorage in the mountains with Rousseau’s rainforest all around. Breakfast in bed, but the promised glacier gift will be a day or…
This part of Chile is wild, bold and beautiful beyond measure. Tainui is anchored in Bahia Sesquelan, waiting for good weather before going down into Laguna san Rafael. There is thick rainforest right to the…
I’m lost for words. See the photos. Overwhelmed, we motored back to Romilio’s after an unforgettable day. At 47 south it is much colder. We spent an hour looking…
A fine spinnaker run up Estero Elephantes in 20 kts of steady breeze took us north, back to Ensenda los Mogotes. A sparkling sunny day and a calm evening. After a gorgeous morning with best…
Leaving Aguirre we turned north into the broad canal. Cheerful little fishing boats everywhere. With one of them we exchanged 4 beers for a big, slimy pink congrillo which made for a rubbery meal. Hobby-horsed…
Beautiful Puerto Santo Domingo. All alone in this wide flat bay, Machu Pichu peaks, constantly changing light and rushing waterfalls all around. And the usual glacier (ho hum) appearing only intermittently through the clouds. As…
Back across Golfo Corcovado. Motoring between distant pods of blue whales I have intermittent, end-of-journey flat feelings. Not nice, because with the end of the journey will come the end of the intense intimacies we…
Hector clambered aboard uninvited at a most inopportune time. but we will never forget his leathery features and his exuberant conversation. He offered a bag of tiny, sour apples in exchange for vino, wiskie, birre.…
At 0830 we upped anchor, through reams of diaphenous green weed. It is fresh, crisp and cold, with uncharacteristically harsh light. I didn’t know there was sun at this end of the day. Puerto Montt…
Tainui came to terms with her abandonment in Puerto Montt. She sat on the hard through a wet cold winter with injured dignity but little to show for it other than dead batteries and a…
“We’ve had a great sail across the bay from that fjord where the battleship Dresden hid. We passed Puerto Bonito with that lovely house on the point and it occurred to me you should buy…
Suddenly we were back in Quellon, with its gorgeous yellow fishing boats and that spectacular volcano backdrop. It is such a frontier town. Martin was impressed, Dave was appalled and I just love it. At…
After his protracted bout of pneumonia poor Dave has at last stopped sleeping all day. He is still lumpen and non-contributory but he’s on the mend I think. Martin is a real asset – a…
We are now in Chacabuco, whose main claim to fame is that it is a bit bigger than Puerto Aguirre. The anchorage is secure however, surrounded by rocky, steep hills with emerald patchwork. And close…
After a grand fast reach down Canal Errazuriz. we stopped over for the night at a secure little spot, stern tied in to the trees. The usual mossy rocks and sodden rain forest 10 feet…
We ran square at 8-11 knots, rolling and lurching sickeningly in steep seas coming from every which way. I had about 40 sq ft of yankee unrolled and pulled in hard with both sheets. I…
We romped south down Canal Messier at 10-12 knots, with poled out yankee and full main and 25 knots of wind across the deck. It is cold and intermittently showery, but all-in-all very nice. The…