| Greenwich |
| Tuesday, 15 March 2005 |
This morning we passed the longitude of Greenwich, the prime meridian, and entered the Eastern Hemisphere. We are in beautiful conditions now with full main and medium gennaker, 23 knots of wind. 1000 miles to the NE of us is Cape Town, and the turning mark of Mauritius is still 3100 miles distant. The sun is shining and we are in some smoother seas now after a few
rough days in the South Atlantic.
The water temperature overnight plummeted from 10 C to 6C and we were fast approaching the Antarctic Convergence zone, the area within which the majority of the bergs live out their last months. Just a few minutes ago we gybed towards the north at 45.5 degrees south, and we are waiting for the anticipated 30-degree veer in the wind, to take us on an easterly track for the next 1800 miles. This should keep us in water temps between 9 and 5 degrees, so there will be an iceberg risk, but to the north of us there is high pressure, so we are threading our way between the ice to the south and the calms to the north. The more direct route past Cape Town is blocked by strong headwinds and beating for 2000 miles is certainly the worst choice we could make at present. If we have to beat in a gale we could do it, but it’s not the best way to get to the finish in one piece.
All good on board, everyone is in good spirits and we are particularly happy to see that Daedalus is round Cape Horn and out of the deep south, deep freeze that they had entered for the last few days. They must be in shorts and t-shirts at the Falklands after getting acclimatized to the freezing spray of 61 south.
Brian
www.maxicatdoha.com
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