Location: 485 nautical miles to Cape Horn
Day's Run: (23 hours) 188 nautical miles
Monday December 4th, 2000
0930 hours: Grey and cold with passing showers. Not much to recommend this as a summer holiday area today. The sky is totally overcast and the maximum outside temperature is 5 deg C so the pilot-house door is closed much of the time. Inside Seamaster we are warm and dry and are happy to view the ocean scene through the windows.
Three and a half weeks at sea now on what will be one of the longest non-stop runs that Seamaster will do in the next few years. But there is no other way of getting here than this. The effort has to be made. This is very much part of the deal. We now know our vessel very well. This trip will have prepared us like no other for the times ahead.
1115: Back to sunshine and sparkling blue seas - another perfect day, and we are sailing once more, rolling ever eastwards.
The bird life is increasing as we approach land – still a long way off but we feel it is only just below the horizon. There is a Giant Petrel with us right now – getting closer with each pass. This is probably a Southern Giant Petrel, but it is hard to distinguish between the Southern and the Northern Giant Petrel at different ages. “A General History of Birds” by J. A. Latham, 1824, states: “often seen sailing, with expanded wings, close to the surface of the water, without appearing to move them; like others of the Genus, said to be most active and in the greatest numbers, either in storms or at the approach of them; hence their appearance is unwelcome to mariners”.
Well, there is only one with us, and whilst we expect stronger winds tonight, this should only be 25 or 30 knots from the south from the Antarctic ice, no doubt really chilling the air.
We have started sorting out the stores and equipment onboard so that we will be ready to film/dive/explore once we “get in”.
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
