Cape Horn far away comes into sight with the dawn. It's a flat sea and a light wind as we ghost in under full main and genoa, the scene slowly unfolding on our approach. A school of dancing Peale's Dolphins welcomes us, weaving in and out at the bow, keeping pace a while, speeding aside, leaping in the sheer joy of accompanying us. Wandering and Black Browed albatross wheel over the waves. They are so engineered that they seldom flap a wing, using them instead to tilt and shift just so, to allow shifting wave-induced air turbulence to keep them continuously aloft, swooping and soaring over the surface of the moving sea. And then we are upon the craggy cliffs of the cape in full sunlight, hailed over the VHF by the military outpost on it just as the champagne is axe-opened in the Seal tradition. We are now anchored once more in Caleta Martial next to the only sandy beach we've seen.

On our over-four-day crossing, perception of time falters as watch follows watch at four- and three-hour rotations, superimposed on and overwhelming our sense of the daylight cycle. We are used to thinking of a day as about 18 hours, with definable components: morning, afternoon, evening; the night an unconscious transition. The sleep-wake-watch cycle blurs that perception and increases a day's measure to the full 24 hours. All the while, the sea mountains outside roll on, the yacht slices and rides them; rushing along propelled by often gale-force winds, yet paradoxically moving at its fastest at about the speed of a Saturday marathon runner. It's quite a thought that if it were land and we had the stamina we could have walked and run the distance in the same time.

The crossing was also that of the Antarctic Convergence or Polar Front, which separates the Southern Ocean from the tail ends of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. This somewhat mobile and often foggy line marks a distinct change in sea water temperature and salinity. It acts as a kind of barrier to warmer waters. It has been much reduced in recent years, which may explain the warmer water temperatures which so surprised Kate and Hamish in the south. The record at Rothera research station show an average increase of 2 degrees Celcius over the last forty years. This in an astounding statistic given that fears of severe climate change are in the 1-2 degree range. The lapse in the Polar Front may explain the missing sea ice and diminished snow cover we encountered, the lack of which could drastically affect the breeding ability and current abundance of krill which ominously is the prime source of food for whales, penguins, seals, and indirectly for just about every visible Antarctic creature. About the shortest food chain for a large animal (oddly enough the largest) is diatom to krill to whale.

All in all, the gods dealt kindly with us. On our way south we had north and northwest winds behind us and all the while we were in Antarctica the winds were in our direction. Coming back north, the planned course held true. The winds obligingly turned to the southwest and west and finally northwest, giving us a close reach for most of the trip. (posted by Roger)

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