The hardest things never come easy.
Sunday again and we have arrived into
December! Where did November go?! It’s almost a month (tomorrow as it’s
currently the early hours of the 2nd) since we left Auckland on this adventure
and here we are, 175 miles to go watching the sun rise (even though it never
really went down or got dark this evening) in a beautiful clear sky and stars
shining around us. But, if we have learnt anything in this last 24 hours it’s
this…Do NOT trust the weather!!
So last nights logbook included the
mental image of Sam yelling SNOW whilst helming…little did we know whilst we
were tucked away in the dark aft cabin that he really, really meant it. It took
only 15 minutes before the next squally shower came, covering the entire sky in
a dark grey cloud and then we got our first Southern Ocean blizzard! Within
minutes there was snow settling on the sails, the masts, in the tea cups and all
over us! Jet has video evidence of this phenomenon which has continued to strike
all day – within short spaces of time the beautiful sunshine and blue clouds
become white-outs with everyone laughing in amazement whilst trying to avoid
freezing our noses off or getting snow flakes in our eyes. White watch even
managed to build two snowmen this afternoon, Charlie and Sophie, complete with
raisin eyes and matchstick arms…
Despite these pretty ‘adverse’ weather
conditions we are all in agreement – a heavy snow shower is much, much better
than rain! The snow, in all its novelty, doesn’t dampen our spirits or soak us
through so we’re ok with it, though in the words of Gijs ‘More than 4 snow
showers in one day is just taking things a bit too far’! The wind is also,
unfortunately, pretty sporadic. At times we’ll be cruising along nicely towards
the Cape at 6 knots, at others the sails are flapping as the boat rolls in the
swell and doesn’t get past 4. It can be a little frustrating but we all knew –
with less than 200 miles to go the Cape ‘Murphy’s Law’ is most certainly going
to be popping up now and then! Now we are all sails set (with reefs still, just
in case), the number 2 jib is up and thankfully the wind has returned for the
last little bit of our watch. Sunday has seen quite a lot of gybing action too
(we’re getting pretty slick at it now) as the direction of the wind shifts
around…however, we all know this lull won’t be lasting, the forecast is for it
to get pretty windy very soon.
With not much else to report we’ll leave
this slightly shorter log with some wise thoughts…1. Don’t trust the Southern
Ocean and 2. Like everything in life, the hardest challenges will never come
easy. Cape Horn is like the sailor’s Everest and we all know it’s not going to
make it too easy for us though we will face it with our bravest smiling faces!
Watch this space!
With wise love, the Red Watch
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