53’03.1S 47’15.5W
6,3 kn course 103′
Setting sail and spotting birds
This afternoon the wind picked up again, this time from the North West. We moved all the sails and booms to the starboard side, changed backstays and tommy hunter and up went the sails. At first a steady 5 knots and as we came on watch the wind had increased somewhat, so our speed was up to 7 knots. Since this afternoon we were stuck in a small current running against us. This may be a branch of the Antarctic current coming out. Latest temp measurement still had the water temperature at around 8 degrees. So we are not there yet.
During the night the radar is on for ice watch. And although the nights are cold, we have little time in full darkness. At watch hand-over at 00:00 the first signs of sunrise are already visible. Now at 01:30 the horizon has many pastel colors and although the sunrise will take very long, light is coming fast.
We have just over 360 mile to go to our first anchorage on South Georgia. Today the wind is predicted to increase to a strong wind, coming from the North West, so a broad reach for us. Once we get around Shag Island, we can even bear off a little further for a comfortable ride.
On the wildlife side: A pod of hourglass dolphins was spotted during the evening and during the day we had many many sea birds. There we albatrosses, giant petrels, two sorts of prion, a shearwater, a wilsons storm petrel that nearly sat on Simon and white chinned petrels without a white chin. There is so much to see out here!
