Location: 852 nautical miles to Cape Horn
Day's Run: 175 nautical miles
Saturday December 2nd, 2000
0950 hours: Grey sky, grey sea, persistent drizzle, little wind, motoring. I have had a rather large breakfast of porridge, scrambled eggs, toast, sausages and fried-up potatoes from last night with Alistair providing non-stop cups of tea with honey to the pilot house.
The strong westerly wind of yesterday afternoon that was ripping the tops off the waves and hurling them at us has gone - all of a sudden during the night we were left flopping around with the sails banging and crashing in the big left-over swell. So, on with both engines at 0445, all sails down or rolled away and we are heading to the south-east at about 8 knots, with Cape Horn directly on the bow, less than 900 miles away. It makes a change from the rough and tumble of yesterday with both our steering pumps working full time, along with the generator to supply the continuous power and the helmsman having to give the auto-pilot a hand from time to time down the face of some very big and uneven seas in more wind than we really wanted. The pilot-house water-tight door was closed tight for most of the day. At least we were going in the right direction.
The following Chilean map of wave heights was received yesterday when conditions became a little rough. We were at the centre of the roughest area. Not extreme by any means, but not particularly pleasant, either. They show 6 metres. We estimated 10. At least.
Puerto Williams in Chile is likely to be our first port of call a few days there clearing in and arranging our cruising permit for the waters of the Beagle Canal, then across the Canal to the Argentine town of Ushuaia to pick up James, Nick, Maureen and Robyn on the 17th. Then the 30 miles back to Puerto Williams to clear into Chile for a second time before heading west down the Beagle Canal for some remote bays and fiords where glaciers abound. We will be looking for somewhere memorable to spend Christmas.
Which is all in direct contrast to the weeks leading up to our departure from Auckland. In October we took onboard a television team and headed out to test all of our systems, the new dive equipment, underwater communications, dive techniques, crew familiarity, filming techniques and underwater “toys”, and to get used to this exploration vessel of ours before setting of on the next leg – this trip to Cape Horn. We wanted to make a television documentary outlining who we are, what we will be endeavouring to achieve, and why. We wanted to explain blakexpeditions’ philosophy. We also wanted to do this in a way that was fun and leaves the viewer wanting to know more.
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
