21/1/08 Noon

Yesterday the wind built and built until we had Force 10 in the harbour, the highest gust I noticed was 54 knots. As I was getting off the boat, a gust of wind ripped my bifocal sunglasses, which I’ve had for years, from from face and duly delivered them to Poseidon or whatever god was lurking  below the boat. This morning we saw a vulture lurking near the rubbish skip.

The anchor windlass has a circuit board problem and  I am trying to  organize a spare to be sent from England to Venice in time for Paolo to bring it with him when he joins us in Ushuaia. This is the third time we’ve had a similar problem with this unit.

The shipyard people here are very helpful and have gotten us the long lines we need for mooring in Antarctica and Chile.  We took on 1370 litres of fuel this morning which has been especially treated against waxing up in the cold.  They added enough extra “Artic Express” to treat the fuel we already have.

This mooring will cost us 13 pence per meter per day, including electricity!  They’re not sand blasting but with all the wind the boat is filthy.

Lewmar have just agreed to courier the Control Box to Paolo tomorrow and they’re doing in under guarantee. The extremes of yesterday have blown through and it’s much warmer and even sunny today.