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.
