Wednesday 9th January, 2013
Forgot to mention why I got so little sleep overnight into Tues morning... Apart from excitement of the Cape Horn rounding, that was followed by the need to keep an 'iceberg watch' - one was reported as being not too far away and with a S wind over the day, I felt it might have drifted onto our course... (Later turned out it had been deleted - it had disappeared - but I didn't get that info until later on Tuesday!)
Grey, cold and damp all day today, with almost no wind into and throughout the morning.... making around 3 kt downwind...
But still a variety of birds - a lovely Cape petrel, around us often over the day, similarly, a black-browed albatross... a pair of prions ... no shortage of interest every time I go to adjust Fred or trim the sails!! But still no decent photos - a bird comes really close... I dash down to get the camera ... they've either disappeared or moved into the distance .... grrr!!!
I re-organised the small pole lines - changed the leads and brought the pole uplift back to the cockpit so I could hoist it and move it around from there completely - nice! Also checked things on deck while so much calmer and decided to add some more 'Gorilla tape' to the wind generator mount on the pole while it was safe to climb up there in little wind or seas - I don't want that coming adrift again.
Midday, the wind increased slightly - we were making nearly 4kt!! ...and then it was foggy ... with light rain as well, laterl .. No sun all day and sea calmed right down - but oh-so-cooold...brrr!! Put on the cabin heater later in the evening to warm cabin up from its usual 11C - very welcome! Can't afford to do that too often - need to conserve fuel... with little wind and no sun, having to put generator on frequently to top up the batteries.
The next 'iceberg watch' turned out again to be needed overnight ... great! Wind was up more so we were making 5-6 kt. The berg had moved 20 miles SSE to just S of my course between its reported position on Monday to Tuesday - so , with W wind, it could have drifted back onto my course ... I diverted a bit to N and had to keep the radar on overnight for 5 hrs while I kept an eye out from the cockpit mostly.... (TG for my protective screen there!) Size was given as 300m or so - but was it very high? I wasn't certain if 'size' meant length or height but I felt pretty sure it was length. Clearly big enough to want to avoid, either way! I couldn't relax until we'd gone more than 20 miles east of its last reported position - fog came down again ao I just hoped radar would pick it up.... before that, I was able to see the horizon reasonably well in the Southern Ocean semi-darkness of night.
No more bergs until well into Atlantic now (nearest two ahead are grounded on Burdwood Bank, it seems) - but will keep an eye on positions of reported ones daily, just in case...
Back to my bunk for more sleep ... didn't get enough, again, last night!
24hr DMG at 7pm local time (Chile time!) (2300GMT ): 92 n.ml. Iceberg reported ahead to starboard: 20miles away... Cape Horn 204 n.ml. away (W by WNW) and my next waypoint, keeping well clear and to SE of the Burdwood Bank, is 240 n.ml. away. Isla de los Estados 145 n.ml. NW. E. Falkland: 269 n.ml. (NNE), S. Georgia: 804 n.ml. (ENE). Land is no longer showing on my AIS screen - the islands around Cape Horn, are now too far away.
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For my positions, see:
www.svnereida.com - 'Travels' - "Where is 'Nereida'?"
http://www.exactearth.com/media-centre/recent-ship-tracks/tracking-nereida/
http://oceantracker.net?event=nereida
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