55’10.1S 064’07.8W course 261′ speed 7.5kn
Today we spend most of the day in the fog. Sometimes so thick we could hardly see anything outside the boat and sometimes we felt we could almost see the horizon.. but only at 21:00h did it lift and make room for spotting land and later some stars! Our small little world felt cozy, no outside world on this first day of the year, just us. But then we weren’t completely alone, because we got so many new visitors! We saw whales in the morning, most likely Minke Whales, then we saw Hourglass dolphins, spectacular with their black bodies and bright white stripes. Our little bubble was visited by the Cape Petrel, or Cape pigeon, a very pretty sort of petrel!! We had many albatrosses around, big wanderer Albatrosses and slightly smaller black browed Albatrosses. There were giant Petrels, Prions and Wilsons Petrels! AND a pod of Pilot Whales!! Ach what a day!
We have been under engine all day though. No wind most of the day, even an hour or so where the water went completely flat, the surface was like a mirror with olie waves. So strange with the fog just resting on it. Right now we have a breeze, about 10 to 12 knots, we have a staysail set and a jib, but we are not wasting these hours of current with us, by starting to sail.. we could possibly do 5 or 6 knots.. but I still feel like we are on a clock to get there. A front is already building up in front of us. We can see the changing clouds come closer.. and we are heading straight for them… 8 knots right now…
If we can keep this up, we may even get to Puerto Williams before it gets dark again.. Which would be amazing!
Our little crew is doing well. We had some flue like symptoms on board, but are nearly done with those. Hot Cold rex is our new best friend.
During the watches we keep busy with some maintenance and as we are under engine, our off watch hours, are just sleep.
In the aft its nice and warm right now. The radar is on, with a range of 24 miles set. I can see land reflected on the radar, 18 miles out to our starboard side. The previous watch actually spotted land just before it got dusky. Staten Island. This is a special place we have come to! The Southern Ocean! The third ocean for our crew. Pretty special!
All is well on board,
Jet
