Expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia,
Cape Horn, Falklands & Tierra Del Fuego

On this virtual tour you may see: Majestic mountains dipped in snow...
Crystalline waterways... Whales, seals, Soaring Andes condors...
Ice-blue Glaciers that shimmer like jewels..

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                       Seamaster Log 24

Tuesday 5th December.

Ships Time: 18 hours behind New Zealand 5 hours
behind UK

Location: 675 nautical miles to Cape Horn.

Air Temp: 7 deg C Sea Temp: 4 deg C

Wind: West 18 knots Sea State: Moderate

Barometer: 992

Course: 130 deg true

Present Speed: 6 knots

Noon Position: 53 deg 23 mins South Latitude 85
deg 54 mins West Longitude

Days Run: 188 nautical miles

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0915 hours: A fantastic scene this morning is 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 ñ 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 personís heartstrings and gets them
ashamed and upset as much as me.

And then I have been fortunate to have had
encounters with whales that have left me with no
uncertainties as to their intelligence and
understanding and value to us all. I have watched
a large female Fin Whale come up behind our race
yacht on a light-winded day in the cold of the
southern Atlantic Ocean. To look down from the
deck of our yacht was to seemingly see for miles
down the shafts of sunlight penetrating to great
depths through the crystal clear waters. The whale
closed in until it's very snout was only one meter
behind our yacht. We could see it looking at us
from under the surface with its enormous eyes. The
cream underbelly had a patch that extended over
its right eye. After a while, it turned belly-up
and swam under our yacht from stern-to-bow, the
great flukes of the tail wider than our boat. It
surfaced just in front of us and blew, whoosh.
Then it turned on the surface and came back behind
our yacht only one meter clear of the stern. It
did this a few times with the crew saying "go
away". Our yacht was 24.5 meters long. This whale
we estimated at approx. 23 meters long. A
magnificent giant of the oceans. Yet they are
being hunted for food. Whatever we are told by the
countries carrying out such inane slaughter, is
just not true. If we don't do something positive
to completely halt all whaling, they will all
disappear forever, nothing is more certain. I
don't think it right that my children might never
have the chance to see an albatross, or a whale,
or much other life that is so "endangered" by man

So, I decided that the best way to convince people
was education through entertainment; make the
environment fun and interesting, wrap it up in an
adventure involving ordinary but passionate people
and get in front of as many people as possible, as
regularly as possible, through the medium of
television and the Internet. I was then asked if I
would like to join the Cousteau Society- and
thought that this would be the best possible way
to be able to `make a difference'. However, three
years and much soul searching later, I am very
pleased to be heading Blakexpeditions, doing what
I feel is best surrounded and helped by
similar-minded individuals with a passion for the
same. We are just the same as everyone else,
ordinary people--except that we have already
fallen in love with the environment and are going
to do something about selling it as widely as
possible on a global scale.

We are fortunate to have the use of the polar
vessel Seamaster, to allow us to go to extreme
areas of the planet from the intense cold of the
Arctic and Antarctic, to the shallow waters and
intense heat of the Amazon Basin. She is big
enough, at 36 meters long and 10 meters beam, to
support our television crew, for all of our
expedition gear, our dive equipment, our food and
general supplies for many months away from
civilization. Seamaster may not be fast, but she
sure is rugged. She may not be pretty in the
conventional sense of the word, she is purely
functional, but she will appeal to many, of that I
am sure. An unpainted hull and `space-ship'
looking exterior make her stand out.

Seamaster sailed to New Zealand, arriving just
before the 2000 defence of the Americaís Cup.
After the racing was all over, we started on the
refit that would up-grade the vessel to a level
necessary for continued reliability. We replaced
much of the communications systems, added more,
stripped all the engines and rebuilt them,
replaced rigging, rebuilt the retractable rudders,
replaced the plumbing, installed new toilets and
sewage treatment systems, a new electric galley, a
complex waste storage system, and so on.

To do this took considerable sums of money, as you
might imagine. But by this time Omega, the Swiss
timing company that was behind our 1995 challenge
for the America's Cup, and then the defence in
Auckland, stepped up and offered to sponsor us.

Hence the name change to Seamaster, after the
rugged dive watch that I always wear.

Omega epitomizes what a good corporate should be
doing for the environment. They did not just get
involved because they only want to sell more
watches. They mainly signed on because we have, I
think, a good chance of making a difference to how
the environment is perceived, and why we must all
have a change of attitude.

The more global companies we can get to help us
with our mission, the better, because it will
spread the word faster than we can do on our own.

Omega helped fund the Rio Conference on the
Environment back in 1990, but they are concerned
that little seems to have happened since then.
They said they want to be where they can now do
some real good that will reach as many people as
possible, rather than just the scientific
community, or the politicians who almost always
have other agendas.

After the refit, we went to sea for a few weeks to
try out all of the new `bits and pieces', and to
shoot the first of our television documentaries.

Then it was time for final preparations before
this long haul through the Southern Ocean to
Tierra Del Fuego at the bottom of South America.
There is a television crew joining us after
Christmas for a southern summer of exploration and
of not knowing what we might find around the next
corner, mainly in the cold of the Antarctic
Peninsula. This will be developed into a 3 part
series.

At the end of April we will be heading north up
the east coast of South America to an island just
south of Rio de Janeiro where we plan to get
Seamaster ready for the other extreme of
climate,the heat and humidity and rain of the
Amazon River Basin. The crew will have a break
here, half on holiday at a time, leaving the rest
to carry on with the awnings and covers and
mosquito netting and rain-water collection devices
and hammocks and, maybe, if we can run to it, a
few cabin-sized air-conditioning units. We need to
increase airflow through our vessel, with the
ability to keep the air moving even in heavy rain.
Down in the cold here we don't want much
ventilation,in the Amazon we won't be able to get
enough.

Six months or so in the Amazon when we should get
more than 3,500 miles up one of the main rivers
right into Peru at the foot of the Andes
Mountains, with the same television crew, should
see a further 3 hours of television. And much
material for our web site, due to go on-line for
the first time this 22nd December.

After the Amazon adventure, we are heading north
for Greenland and Baffin Island to look at and
film the amazingly different wildlife to that of
the Antarctic and the Amazon. Beluga whales,
Narwhals, Walruses, Polar Bears, the Bow-Headed
whale, and some great bird life. Then there is the
attraction of the ice and the ice-bergs as well.

In all of our filming, we will not be making
`wildlife documentaries' in the traditional sense.
It will all be about the crew, and my children,
and their friends, and some of the amazing
`equipment' that we will use and show you. You
will fly with us under water, fly with us above
water; be with us in a gale at sea; and under the
ice of the North-West Passage. You will be able to
share our concerns, our fears, our excitement and
fun. It will be about adventure, but at the same
time getting the underlying but vital messages
across that are the whole reason for
Blakexpeditions.

Hopefully we will get you wanting to know more.

When linked with an Internet-based schools
program, we think we can make quite a
difference.

Following a refit in the UK, we return to a
Greenland to stand by to attempt the North-West
Passage in July of 2003,filming as we go. This
will take us across the top of Canada and Alaska
and onto Hawaii, before heading once more to
tropical waters, this time with Pacific coral
reefs as a destination and subject of huge
concern.

We also have a circumnavigation of the Antarctic
planned in the future, but will wait and see how
the programme develops thus far.

Education through entertainment is our aim. To
protect life in, on and around the waters of the
world. To show how important that all aspects of
the environment are to us all.

This is a 5 year series of explorations and
adventures that begins our project this is just
the beginning. We are already planning the first
of our new `concept' vessels-- so that they can be
stationed in different oceans and provide
understanding that is lacking at present.

Having the United Nations Environment Programme
backing us up makes me feel we are on the right
track. If we can also involve other like-minded
groups,even better.

It is going to be quite a task, but an enjoyable
one. If it was going to be easy, it probably
wouldn't be worthwhile

1230 hours: The wind is dying again so the sails
are being stowed and the motors are being warmed.
Cape Horn awaits. As does lunch.

All the best

Peter

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