Location: 675 nautical miles to Cape Horn
Day's Run: 188 nautical miles
Sunday December 3rd, 2000
0915 hours: A fantastic scene this morning – cold and crisp with a bright blue sky and very deep blue sea, flecked with white horses as far as the eye can sea. Gone is the continuous drizzle and poor visibility of yesterday. It is ever amazing how quickly the weather changes in this part of the world. Black-Browed Albatross, Wandering Albatross, Preons, Giant Petrels, Cape Pigeons and Wilsons Petrels all wheel on the uplifts off the moderate westerly swells that forever march past through this seascape. The birds are very inquisitive today and we expect their numbers to increase as we close the land.
The miles are ticking down. Even though the wind is not strong enough to push us along as fast as we would like, we have decided to stop the engines and enjoy the scene. The sun really has some strength in it today and reflects a shimmering path of gold directly at us across the surface of the sea. Burn time 6 minutes. Our weather forecast for today is for winds becoming lighter so we may be motoring again by noon. Further north by only 100 miles the forecast is for winds of 35 to 45 knots with squalls of 60 knots and very big seas. We are just in the clear. Hopefully!
Today I thought I would revisit Blakexpeditions – where we have been and where we are heading over the next few years. And why?
It started with an idea I had to do something about influencing young minds – to help better educate them about the ocean environment that I have had a close association with for most of my life. I put a proposal together to use my own yacht to go adventuring on a small scale and make a number of documentaries – hopefully showing young people some of the sights and involving them in some of the experiences that I have had – but that I have never seen on television. In my racing days around the world, I have seen major changes taking place, that on reflection signify a real downward trend in how much we all comprehend what is happening around us. In my first couple of Round the World races, our yachts, when in the Southern Ocean, would be surrounded by large albatross day after day, in all weathers. As the years went by (I raced every four years or so through the same waters), I noticed there were fewer and fewer of these great birds. The last time through the Indian Ocean in 1994, we were lucky to see one large albatross a week. Their numbers have been decimated – mainly by indiscriminate fishing techniques. And they are being killed at a faster and faster rate. So it seemed important, no vital, that someone do something about it. Not at a scientific level necessarily, but at a level that tugs at the ordinary person’s heartstrings and gets them ashamed and upset as much as me.
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
