Skippers log #16
48 04s 143 17w at 00:40 GMT with 2707 to the Horn
Outside it is grey, misty with drizzle and a northerly wind of 20-25 knots. The boat is around Cape Horn, and I still have weeks to go. The engine is running charging batteries which takes about 2 hours and I do this every second or third day. We are healing over and bouncing off waves. It is cold and I have the heater running. Yes, the Larry-eater is working again just like when Larry fixed it. I must send Winds of Change and Balance Bar a note on what they could do to get their heaters working again. It is cozy inside and I am reading a murder mystery paper back. A part of the story is set in the Irish countryside that I know as home. The weather out here, the cold and needing a heater is reminding me about Galway, the music and the friends. It was almost a decade ago that I ended up on its shores, met Brian Lynch and Enda O'Coineen who introduced me to John Killeen and the infamous radio-television journalist Jim Fahy, and in later times meeting Don Harris and Robin Deacy. All these people had an impact one way or the other on my life, but not as great an impact as Gwen. Out here I think about Gwen's family mountain home, its coziness nestled on the steep slopes with forests around the house. It was there that I wrote my best work. Oh, I can't wait for this summer to return to this country that is so special to me, to old friends. Out here I miss the green grass, the trees and the mountain, the music in the pubs. It is a world in total contrast to this environment where all I have for company is elusive Cockie.
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Skippers log #17
47 51s 138 49w at 15:00 GMT with Cape Horn 2,576 miles away.
We learn new things everyday, and it is amazing where we learn some of these new things. Today I learnt the origins of Cockie, my pet cockroach, from Julie Tindal's class at Midland Park Elementary school in Charleston, SC. I did not know that cockroaches originated in Madagascar, the huge island of East Africa. So Cockie is a seasoned traveler by history, as its kind left the island by ship for far away places since early seafarers stopped at the islands. Cockie also has an ancestorial history of being stowed-aways. Well, Cockie is keeping a low profile and we keep our distance. It will not become fish food, and who knows, it might stop off in Uruguay, or might continue on to Charleston. Today I took my Larry-eater apart again and still have to finish assembling it and hope that it will put out heat soon again. I keep saying that I will turn it on when it gets really cold and not turn it off till after the Horn. But the winds are up and down, and so are the temperatures. Its still grey and drizzling outside, but the winds are gusty, sometimes as low as 18 knots, other times right up to 35 knots. But everyday we are progressing steadily.
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Skippers log #18
47 45s 134 39w at 01:45 GMT with 2,447 miles to the Horn.
Travelling east and trying to reduce the lines of longitude as quickly as possible is very disorientating. It is getting darker earlier each day, and so is it getting lighter earlier each day. Ten days ago, the 04:00 radio sked was in daylight, and the 16:00 sked was early hours of morning. Now the 04:00 sked is in the evening, and I have to remember to eat my cooked meal before the sked so that I can have the galley cleared away before it gets dark. My sleeping routine is messed up too. At sunset I am still wide awake, but at sunrise I am only just getting comfortable in my sleeping bags and want to stay in it. I usually do until the 16:00 sked with Neil Hunter. We are also talking to Jesse on Lion Heart, the 17 year old who is attempting to circumnavigate non stop to become the youngest. He is about 4 days away from the Horn. Wish I was there already. IT has taken him over 2 months to get there since leaving Australia. His boat is not as fast as ours, and we will probably close the gap with him some before we get to port. I am looking forward to port, to a good steak dinner and maybe a long soak in a bath tub. Gwen's company is a given. I don't know how I have managed to survive without contact from her. It has been weeks, or so it feels. Maybe in a couple of days time she will get back to the Hacketts in Auckland. The Larry-eater is put back together, having taken it apart to clean the blockage. I have not tried it yet, hoping that when I need it, it will heat up.
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Skippers log #19
48 42s 125 56w at 00:20 GMT with 2,131 miles to the Horn
Last night I had a cross sea but the winds were only 20-25 knots. Could not get the windvane to steer a straight course. We kept surfing off a wave and then turning up into the wind, flogging the sails, then would fall off and surf again. I did manage a 191 mile 24-hour run. It is still raining and miserable, but so it will be I guess till after the Horn. I have the engine charging batteries. Since Glen in Aukland went over the charging system, it has worked brilliantly. He put on some heavier cables to cope with the voltage, and it regulates wonderfully. I went for a week of not needing to charge, as the Ampair wind generator put out good power in the breeze, but even though the batteries were half full and the wind generator holding up, I don't like leaving them like that for long. So the donkey is making noise for about 3 hours, but it is also warming up the cabin a bit. I have the canvass cover zipped closed which helps contain the heat. Today I will run the heater though.
