Position 53:10.4 S 070:54.6 W

Yesterday was glorious with an eventual sighting of the sun, as until now it had been overcast.  Two of the crew joined us yesterday, so they are busy settling in.  Today is victualing day and so Jess and Ken have gone to supplement the ships supplies to get us to the Falklands.  Here in Punta you can get whatever you need, with plenty of supermarkets for us to choose from.  Prices are about the same here, or very slightly cheaper than the UK.

Over the last few days, I have been preparing for the RYA teaching that I will have to go through during the coming weeks, and have looked at how I can make it as interactive as possible.  The crew that are here are already talking about sextants and stars, but I think that “Course to Steer” and “heights of tide” may be new information to some of them, so I am not trying to promise the world at the moment.

Talking of stars, I saw the Southern Cross for the first time last night, unfortunately I was not able to get a picture due to the roll of the boat, so that will have to wait until we are in an anchorage away from the town lights, and with the use of a tripod.

In the down time while we are waiting for the Russians to arrive, I have become familiar with Pelagic.  Stewart has asked if I would like to run a watch from the Falklands to Cape Town, which is great.  By that time, I hope to have got all of the nav training sorted, so it will be more relaxed, perhaps getting a few sun and star sights in myself. 

Pelagic is an extremely interesting boat, having both a lifting keel and lifting rudder.  In shoal water the keel is left down, but loose, so that if we ground it will come up.  In many of the anchorages we will deliberately go in until we ground, then lift the keel and rudder a little, and then move in a bit more.  As I understand it the boat has too much leeway if the rudder and keel are lifted, and so being aground give more control.  Also, always have the ability to lift the keel another 2 meters, means that the boat doesn’t get stuck.  Anyway, I haven’t seen this in action yet, so I wait in anticipation for some serious learning.

The boat has been extremely busy over the Antarctic summer (British Winter), being fully sold out, mostly to Russians.  Adventure sailing to Antarctica is big business, with this boat generating nearly $750,000 during this time.  Apparently South Georgia has more to offer, except for whales, which have all been scared away by whalers, to such an extent that there migratory paths now avoid the area.  The area is rich in food for them though, so maybe they will one day return to South Georgia to enjoy the Krill in safety.

 
Ian on Pelagic signing out