Sailing expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia,
Cape Horn, Falklands & Tierra Del FuegoOn 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..
SOUTHERN OCEAN STORM:
WESTERLY GALE FORCE 9
The SEAMASTER heading for Cape Horn
"Seamaster "log
Monday 20th November 2000
Ships time: 22 hours behind New Zealand
9 hours behind UK
Air Temp: 4 degrees C
Sea temp: (about the same)
Wind: Westerly gale force 9 plus
Course: 065 True
Present Speed: 7 knots under reefed head sail only.
Noon Position: 49 deg 49 mins South Latitude
154 deg 28 mins West Longitude
Day's Run ( 24 hours ) 171 nautical miles.
Not far, but very ok under the circumstances.
It's now 0930 hrs.
I'm rather tired this morning after an "everything" night. And I am sure that the rest of the crew feel the same. The ship is quiet down below.
We are in the Southern Ocean down at 50 degrees south, and have been getting Southern Ocean conditions.
After a reasonably pleasant evening sail in still-rough seas, and a great dinner from Ollie ( Southern Ocean stew followed by apple flan-fantastic effort in the rough conditions ) the wind died completely around midnight, and it began to rain - Southern Ocean rain. We all came on deck to try and stop the sails banging and crashing, and started the motors when nothing much helped.
The barograph ( recording atmospheric pressure ) dropped alarmingly.
Back on course, under motor, with reefed mainsail and foresail and the tiny staysail to steady us we had little breeze.
But, by 0230 the wind was building.
By 0530
it was an all hands alert yet again and we needed to get the mainsail ( the back sail ) off in a hurry. . Down it came ( sheer will power ) and was properly stowed on the boom.
The early morning light showed the seas to be starting to streak with foam ahead of the squalls that developed very quickly. Then we needed to gybe (change course from south east to north east with the wind going from the starboard side of the yacht, to the port side)
This is a tricky manoeuvre at the best of times, but in a building near gale, it can be very character forming.
It went well, except many of the sliders securing the sail to the mast broke. We dropped the damaged sail in a hurry, leaving only the tiny stay sail.
By this time, this was enough anyway.
The wind went to 56 knots in gusts, with the surface of the sea turning white spume blowing down the faces of the huge breaking seas.
We are still running before these seas that have built up in size to be quite awe-inspiring.
Probably up to 10 meters high, but really hard to estimate with the crests breaking and rolling down their faces.
One wave came roaring aboard over the stern whilst we were working in the mid-part of the yacht tidying up the mess from the morning.
We have double-checked the dinghy lashings on the stern, and other items of deck-stowed equipment, and so far, so good.
The pilot house door has been closed much of the time to stop the spray driving inside. And to keep the noise of the fury of the gale, outside.
10 am:
Looking out through the pilot house windows, or harnessed to a strong point on the deck, one can still see the occasional albatross quite unconcernedly going about their morning business of looking for food.
The barograph has risen 20 mbs in the past 8 hours that's an extraordinary rise and makes the gale and vicious squalls easier to understand.
We have increased sail a little by dropping the stay sail and adding a half-sized head sail. The sky is now a clear, pale, Southern Ocean blue, with few clouds.
The sun is shining through the windows of the saloon and the communications room where Don and I are sitting writing this and getting ready to sort out the pictures we want to send out today.
Big waves and strong winds never show very well in a photograph, but believe me that they have made everyone on board realize what a fantastic vessel "Seamaster" is--to handle with ease these extreme conditions.
We have been thinking of the sailors of more than a century ago running down the eastings from New Zealand and Australia towards Cape Horn and then turning left up the Atlantic heading for Europe with grain or tea.
They didn't have the ability to send Email each day; to attach photos that can go around the world at the speed of light; to be in warm dry bunks after a watch on deck; to be dry and warm on deck even in the worst conditions due to the marvellous Musto, Line 7 and Icebreaker technical and thermal clothing that we are lucky enough to have in our inventory.
Our galley is all- electric and as long as the cook feels up to it, turns out the most excellent of meals that we all eat together gathered around the large saloon table.
We are well looked after in comparison to previous times.
But the Southern Ocean has a reputation named the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and the Screaming Sixties, as one drops further south to higher latitudes. They were named by those sailors of old. For all the right reasons.
Because this is a tough area of the planet.
All ocean. The nearest land to us at the moment is the Antarctic Continent, not too far south of our present position.
Even though the sea temperature is quite warm, we are now entering ice-berg country, and will need to keep a good lookout particularly at night. But the nights are quite short, particularly this far south.
Ice-bergs fascinating to look at.
In my racing days I have been becalmed next to them, raced past them at night, had near misses on a number of occasions, and have spent seeming days on lookout for them. The big ones are majestic. Towering at times maybe 130 meters above the surface of the sea, the are like giant ghost ships sailing the southern seas.
They might be only a hundred meters across or 20 kilometers long.
They drop vast amounts of broken ice into the sea that drifts away generally downwind but not always.
They sometimes turn upside down they capsize and such a berg unless very large can be difficult to see as it is often a pale greeny grey color.
We are not necessarily hoping for masses of bergs because we will be able to examine many of these when we get to the Antarctic Peninsula next year.
But to see a berg, a really big berg, at sea, sailing the winds and currents of the Southern Ocean, is a sight that never leaves oneís memory. It is indelibly etched there forever.
It is nature at her best.
To get to South America to places like Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, to the Antarctic Peninsula,-- it would be easier to travel by plane. But to do it our way on an exploration vessel, --where we really get to understand and appreciate our surroundings, certainly holds an attraction for me.
10:45.
Jeanno has been pumping out various bilges to make sure all is dry; Tracey has just finished baking the 2 loaves of bread for lunch today, and Sean is vacuuming the saloon. He still has a finger bandaged from where Trevor, the doctor, lanced a nasty infection that had suddenly come to a head.
Trevor is sitting reading in the saloon ñ in his carpet slippers.
Ollie and Alastair are on watch on deck but Ollie is from time to time back in the galley making coffee for all who want.
Michael and Roger are catching forty winks, and Don has obviously just come from the washroom and is looking spruced up having shaved and changed into clean clothes. As I share a cabin with him I approve of such rash behavior on such a windy day. He is now wearing his fur-lined boots and says they are not slippers.
Don and I watched a film ( The Scent of a Woman one of my favorite films, with Al Pacino ) on the computer screen in our cabin yesterday afternoon- lying in our bunks. Alastair brought us cups of tea from time to time.
Outside our aluminium and lexan cocoon, the wind is easing back to a very fresh breeze, the white horses on the surface of the sea are still dancing everywhere all rampaging eastwards with us and the very big waves are less frequent but still there.
12:00-Noon.
Alistair and Jeanno have begun the rather lengthy job of replacing the broken slider units on the sail it will take a few hours but sitting on the boom surrounded by such a wild southern scene is bliss for some.
We are gradually increasing sail, but as we think the wind will turn more north-westerly later today and increase again, we are happy to go slowly and enjoy it all, rather than worry about extra speed. It has taken a while to get the racing bug out of my system, I suppose, but I am slowly relaxing into exploration mode rather well with time to look and learn, rather than pass at the highest possible speed with little attention to the details of one's surroundings.
Seamaster Log
Friday 24th November 2000
Ships time: 21 hours behind New Zealand
8 hours behind UK
Location: 2,600 sailing miles to Cape Horn
2,400 from Auckland
200 miles north of normal iceberg zones.
Air Temp: 7.0 deg C
Sea temp: 5.5 deg C
Wind: NW 25 to 35 knots
Sea State: Moderate but very choppy
Barometer: 1008 mb
Course: 100 True
Present Speed: 10 knots
Noon Position: 47 deg 45 mins South Latitude
135 deg 53 mins West Longitude
Days Run (23 hours): 205 nautical miles.
We have moved our time zone forward by an hour as we travel eastwards towards the rising sun, every degree of longitude crossed means 4 minutes earlier sunrise. (But there isn't a sun to be seen today).
It's 1030
on our Friday morning and its been raining for a few hours.
The sky is bleak and misty; the sea is gray with gray horses; the waves are steeper and we are shipping the odd crest right across the cockpit area. This doesn't matter too much as it slops onboard over the windward side and is soon gone out the other.
Rain is pouring down the outside of the windows of the saloon, and the wind is fresh and gusty. It's a day to be at home beside the fire with one's feet up and a good book to read.
We are in the middle of a low pressure frontal system, a band of rain and squalls that is accompanying the nasty very intense low center that is presently passing a few hundred miles to our south. I am pleased that we had worked our way north a little over the past few days with this situation in mind.
But our speed is good, and we are enjoying the ride under full sail.
The radar is on continuously, just in case a big berg has made its way north of the Antarctic Convergence zone. It is also good for watching the approaching showers which are generally accompanied by stronger gusts of wind.
The saloon is like a gentlemen's club this morning: Michael, Trevor, Roger, Sean and Janot are all sitting comfortably with their various books or magazines. They (we) all have thermal tops on and long trousers, and Rabbit who is with me in the communications area, is again wearing his Tibetan yak boots (read fur-lined slippers) while he looks at weather map forecast times on a list on the bulkhead.
I know I do tend to mention the weather a lot but for us it is a vital ingredient that always influences our daily routine. If the wind is light we go slowly; if it's strong, we have to reef the sails; if there's no wind, we motor; if it comes from the wrong direction we sometimes have to stop and wait; if the seas developed by the wind are huge, we slow down for control; -- it makes cooking in the galley a breeze ( as it was for me yesterday ) or very difficult, with everything getting thrown from side to side. It makes sleeping easy, or quite trying if Seamaster is rolling a lot- or is over on an angle.
Using the toilets can be the same as at home if the seas are calmer a bit of an exercise if you first have to take off all of your foul weather clothing in a tiny cubicle that is jumping around, and then get it all back on again after you have done whatever it was you went there for in the first place. And the sea-water flushing system has a mind of it's own on rough days which entails a cry for help, a resetting of a thermal overload switch on the pump back aft in the generator space and then back in business again ( literally ). The males in the crew have to be careful to avoid missing when the boat rolls unexpectedly. Peeing from the deck over the side of our yacht is discouraged unless the weather is very fine for safety reasons.
I am doing some reading of my own at the moment and have the latest United Nations Environment Program book in front of me. Titled Global Environment Outlook it is an extraordinary piece of work full of information, facts and figures, about the place we all call home (OUR water planet)that will have direct impacts on each one of us in the years and decades ahead. It is fascinating reading not full of gobblygook but plain language that even I can understand.
It is not a book of statistics of doom and gloom but it does outline where we have been (all of us) and where we are headed (not so good reading).
It outlines the potential changes that will be necessary to keep our environment, our food supplies, and our lifestyles in place for the future.
Blakexpeditions is aligned with the United Nations Environment Program and carries their logo on the side of Seamaster's hull. Our endeavor is to help U.N.E.P get across the messages that are going to be so important to all of us long term but messages that require immediate action.
Our television documentaries and web site will have a U.N.E.P flavor they have offered us all their research data, as well as personnel to help dig deeper and provide us with the information we need on a regular and irregular basis.
Our messages will also be their messages much of the time but with the personal input of our expeditions, our adventures, the excitement, concerns, and fun.
Our anticipated schools programs will develop much along the same line using the day to day activities of this crew and exploration-yacht to educate through entertainment.
A few pertinent U.N.E.P facts and figures follow:
Climate Change:
In the late 1990s, annual emissions of carbon dioxide were almost 4 times the 1950 level, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide had reached their highest level in 160,000 years.
We humans influence the global climate.
FACT.
We are now about as powerful as the rain or the frosts in the influence we have on the global climate. We have the ability to ruin it or to recognize the problems and all do something about it. It is not too late but we are approaching the cliff pretty fast.
Expected results of this carbon dioxide build-up include a shifting of climatic zones, (wet to dry, dry to wet, cool to warm, warm to hot), changes in species composition and productivity of ecosystems, an increase in extreme weather events (more storms, more violent hurricanes, more droughts, more flooding ), and impacts on human health.
Marine and coastal areas:
Urban and industrial development, tourism, aqua culture, waste dumping and discharges into rivers, lakes and oceans are degrading coastal areas around the world and destroying ecosystems such as wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs.
Climatic changes also affect the quality of ocean water as well as sea levels. Low lying areas, including many small islands, risk inundation.-- ( going under ).
The global marine fish catch almost doubled between 1975 and 1995, and the state of the world's fisheries has now reached crisis point. About 60 per cent of the world's fisheries are at or near the point where yields decline i.e.; where there are fewer fish in the sea to be caught. But with the world's population increasing, and more than 1,000 million people presently depending on seafood products for their protein, the longer term outlook shows a requirement of 120 million tons a year within 10 years or so far more than the existing yearly take.
The fish won't be there because those taking the fish haven't worked out that fishing must only occur at a sustainable level.
The present take is not sustainable for many species. What is going to happen when the demand is for twice as much and there are fewer fish left.
These are just thought starters but very relevant ones indeed.
Man knows what is happening, knows what has to be done to correct the problems, but seems to hope it will all go away and we can carry on as we are. Sorry not possible.
------
One of our crew who has worked with us on ""Seamaster"" all through the refit, who has had an operation on his ears to allow him to dive properly, who is the fittest, strongest, youngest member of our team, with a degree in outdoor education, is Alistair Moore.
He is ever cheerful, always willing, and a good role model for young people who should have more at heart than a 9 to 5 office job.
For him, to explore the world and be able, perhaps, to make a difference is what life is all about. It is great not knowing what is around the next corner.
I also asked Alistair for his thoughts. They follow:
News From The Deck
My name is Alistair and I am lucky enough to be part of the crew aboard the good ship "Seamaster".
My position is deckhand / diver.
This is a very general job description and two days at work are seldom the same,-- one day I will help Sean in the engine room with an oil change, the next I will be up the mast with Janot sorting out the rigging.
It is a huge privilege for me to be working under Sir Peter Blake. I could not ask for a more knowledgeable and friendly boss, and I intend to be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as possible.
The task that Peter and the rest of us in the crew are about to undertake is not to be underestimated, even for a man of the caliber of Peter,-- to get the world's attention and give them the message that all is not well and it is all of us that have to do something about it. This will not be an easy task, but I know that with Peter's leadership and a lot of hard work from the crew we will be successful in delivering this message and will do it with optimism and style.
I myself am looking forward to having some great adventures in some of the most spectacular places on this planet. I hope to write again soon and will give you all the details on all the fun I am having.
Alistair.
Well, that's about it for today. Tracey has just popped her head around the corner to say that lunch is ready have gone for the corned beef hash toasted sandwiches. Yum.
After lunch scrabble again.!!!!!!
I hope you enjoy the photo of the whole crew. This was taken ( by me ) about an hour ago (in the middle of writing this) just after we had put a reef in the mainsail in the drizzle and rising winds of the (not so pleasant) Southern Ocean.
From left: Sean, Ollie, Don, Roger (at back), Janot, Tracey, Alistair, Michael and Trevor.
As you can see, it's not a great day but the crew are far from miserable.
Seamaster is a purpose built 130ft Aluminum hulled icebreaker...a
schooner rig with retractable centerboards and rudders and 30 ft beam.Kind regards
Peter
Log of SEAMASTER Continued
