We’ve passed 40 degrees South! All the shorts are gone and the oilskins are on. The sea has turned from bright blue to slate grey. After not much sealife the past week, a few petrels have swooped past but keep their distance. After much deliberation with the seabirds book, the consensus is that they are Stejneger petrels which breed on the Juan Fernandez Archipelago to the east. There was also a very brief encounter with a sooty albatross, its smooth arcs with its massive wings immediately distinguished it from the more erratic behavior of the petrels. This morning began with a thick drizzle and an easing westerly wind. By 0900 the wind had dropped off to 15 knots but the 2.5m swell continued to roll us as usual. So we’ve come up to keep the sails happy and the crew from rolling out of their bunks, steering SSE. After a week at sea, morale is high despite the blue watch having resorted to pirate jokes and puns for entertainment. We are making good progress towards the Horn.
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