En Route from South Georgia to Falklands - 1 December 2007 - 4 December 2007
by Kate Laird

December 1
at sea, 53 : 47 South 037 : 58 West

Good afternoon ... we are finally making good progress after a very slow start and a slow night.

We had a bit of an epic leaving Husvik as in the last hour the wind shifted and our chain wrapped around a massive anchor lying on the bottom, left behind by some whaling ship years ago. A fluke was sticking up in the air and our chain took a couple of turns around it in the light winds. Of course, we had already dismantled the dinghy for the passage back to Stanley, so it took longer than it might have to retrieve our chain. Hamish's dry suit and diving kit paid for itself several times over. Everyone chipped in and helped, so we had many hands to tend the various lines ... we had to set a second anchor while paying out line on the first, so Hamish could do the dive from Seal instead of from the dinghy. Luckily, there was very little wind, which made things much easier.

This gave us a late start, so we didn't get in as much northing as hoped in the daylight hours, and there was a lot of ice around, so we hove to for the hours of darkness, which conveniently are two hours less than when we came here five weeks ago. This morning, we were able to tack and now are making quite good progress towards Stanley. Right now, the wind is about as perfect as one could wish for the return trip to the Falklands ... 20 knots from the NW ... but we are expecting it to back to the west later today ... but that will allow us to get our northing and get away from the ice, which is our other wish, as it is quite foggy and there is a lot of ice around.

December 2
at sea, 53 : 34 South 039 : 40 West

Good morning. We had a good leg down the coast of South Georgia yesterday ... the wind slowly backed on us, bending our track south, but we were far enough along to stay on that tack for quite a while, curving around the tip of South Georgia. We tacked north in a field of icebergs in pretty thick fog, but then, just at sunset, the fog cleared and we sailed past one iceberg quite close, with the sun setting behind it, and albatrosses backlit by the sunset. An absolutely beautiful sunset. We sailed on for another hour until it got dark and then hove to again for the night, jogging slowly NE at about 1 knot.

The wind went light in the night, allowing us to motor into it now, which we're doing, which is very encouraging as it is miles we can do right on course. We're expecting more wind later in the day.

Russell just came in with some great photographs of a wandering albatross right off the boat. I am tempted to wake up Hamish since he'd like to take some pictures, I'm sure, but I won't as it is his low sleep day. (He and I do our usual 2 person watch and everyone else is doing 2 on / 6 off at the helm and on ice lookout). Jimmy the wind pilot has been doing some great miles too, as some people are finding steering by the apparent wind quite difficult. We've discovered Bob's secret ... he may never have "sailed" before, but he is a former windsurfing instructor ... which explains why he is so good at helming.

December 3
at sea, 53:25 South 043:51 West

Similar sort of day today ... thick fog, quite a bit of ice on the radar (though less at the moment than yesterday). Jimmy the wind pilot is steering us straight for Stanley, which is great after all the beating we did over the last few days ... we're on a fetch 65 degrees apparent wind, so it feels pretty much the same on board, but it is very refreshing to look at the GPS and see that the VMG is high (VMG is Velocity Made Good, sometimes called Waypoint Closing Velocity ... it's a calculation of what percentage of boat speed is going to the waypoint you want to reach.)

We're still keeping an ice watch on deck, which is tough because the fog is so thick.

Tedious morning today as I was getting started again after a night of hove to, when the stove blew out. It doesn't like sudden changes in direction. Usually, as long as I remember to shut the door when maneuvering, it's fine, but not today ... it blew out and filled the cabin with horrible acrid smoke, and poor Hamish had to relight it. Our stove really deserves a name, as it certainly has a personality. This morning it was behaving like Smorg the dragon. It also seems to have a decided preference for Hamish. Fortunately it's been light enough weather to have the door open, and so the smell is cleared and its humming away nicely and I'm fond of it again. A lot of the boats down here aren't able to run their heaters when sailing, so I shouldn't complain.

Everyone is up and about now. Since we've been hove to for the past three nights, everyone is living a more or less normal schedule, except for Hamish and me, who continue in our watches at night. Hopefully tonight we'll be able to continue on at night.

December 4
at sea, 52 : 58 South 046 : 57 West

Motoring along again. Finally a clear sky and view to the horizon after three days of thick fog. We have had unbelievably good weather this trip really, as the winds have been quite light, if on the nose much of the time. No time for purism here...when the wind slackens enough to be remotely comfortable to motor into, we motor. There's a reason that quite a number of cruising boats take in South Georgia en route to Cape Town. The trip from South Georgia to Cape Town is twice as long as South Georgia back to Stanley, but it is usually down wind.

We haven't seen any ice bergs since last night, but we are still looking out. We've been surprised by the quantity of ice we are seeing. Being hove to every night has added a bit to our passage time.

Last June, I bought an IPOD for Helen and Anna, so that they could listen to Harry Potter and the Famous Five in our cabin, and not disturb the grownups in the raised saloon. For the first bit of the trip, they did just that, but now, by popular demand, the IPOD has been restored to the raised saloon, and everyone is listening to Harry Potter!

Yesterday we had a wonderful spell with Wandering Albatrosses flying around the boat. They generally don't seem as interested in yachts as some of the other boats, so we don't often have them by the boat for hours at a time. We might have seen their children on Prion Island ... our group didn't see any adults in their time on Prion (at this time of the year, the adults come in very infrequently to feed the full sized, but not yet fledged, chicks). It makes it even more special to see the wandering albatrosses when we've visited one of the few places where they breed.

For more about Seal see http://www.expeditionsail.com.