Location: approx 1,400 sailing miles to Cape Horn Our day somewhat off course over the past 24 hours has meant that only 2/3 of the miles sailed were towards our target. The rest are for weather strategy reasons.
Day's Run: (23 hours) 185 miles
Wednesday November 29th, 2000
1115 hours. I’m running late today, and I’m not sure why. I can probably blame the change over to another communications satellite last night that caused a few headaches. We went from using the Pacific satellite to the Atlantic West satellite, which means working through different ground stations that receive our signals. Rather than routing through a ground station in Perth in Western Australia, all of our links now go through Goonhilly in southern England. So, instead of the signals from our gyro-controlled dish aerial, mounted inside the big white dome on the stern of Seamaster, being aimed at the satellite north of New Zealand high over the Pacific Ocean they are now aimed at a satellite in a geostationary orbit 35,680 kms over the Amazon Basin in Brazil. Our aerial has locked onto the satellite signal, and stays locked-on, no matter what the weather or how much Seamaster is rolling around or the course varies. Technology is a marvellous thing. When it works!
We are able to use a phone and fax machine just like in any normal office, and have the ability to send high speed data for transmitting the photos and text of the daily Log, and also for the crew to keep in touch with their families through regular emails.
To repeat my brief message sent overnight, for those of you in contact with us by phone or fax, our area code has changed from 872 to 874. We will likely remain on this satellite during our time in Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula.
We had a variable night last night, with not quite enough wind much of the time. Then the clouds would suddenly take over the crystal clear sky and in a matter of minutes we would have the pilot house door shut tight to keep out the rain. Soon after, it was stars again.
Our course over the past day or so hasn’t been in quite the right direction, more north in it than we want, but within the next 12 hours we are expecting conditions to change, with strong north-westerly winds building, veering towards being northerly in the next day or so – and 35 to 45 knots. This will drive us back south of course, so our overall track should even out nicely.
Sir Peter Blake
"Having vision is not enough. Change comes through realising the vision and turning it into a reality. It is easy to espouse worthy goals, values and policies; the hard part is implementation."
Learn about Sir Peter Blake and his journeys around the globe
