26/2/08 13:00

Wind has veeered NW and we have just tacked, now on a perfect course to return to The Falklands.  In a few hours it will veer West and we will nip back on course.

The questionable universal joint connection is repeated in both helms which have relative easy access, so when we get back to Ushuaia Steve will swap one of the helm fittings for the one which gave us grief..

17:00

Ah the joys of beating into a Force 7 gusting Force 8 (40 knots) in the grey cold.   At least it’s stopped raining.  Nik and I are on watch sailing with a reefed main and a deeply reefed yankee when bang goes the yankee sheet and breaks at the clew.  We quickly furl the sail so no damage done, but  the lazy sheet has wrapped itself  around the staysail stay. Steve surfaces and gives Nik a lesson tangled  lazy sheet management.  We set the staysail and continue on our way.  It’s probably the better choice for these conditions anyway.

20:00

The wind has gone West and we’re now going North only 10-15 degrees off course. We’re now pointing more at Rio than at The Falklands. Supper will be a precooked shepards pie, f we can keep it on our plates.

27/2/08 08:00

The strong wind lasted most of the night.   A Pyrex dish in the micro shattered, one of the heavy galley drawers came out but was rescued before any damage was done.  We had to slow the boat right down to 5 knots to avoid the crashing and pounding of the waves. Lying in my bunk I could feel the while boat vibrating with shock waves as we crashed through the sea.  By 4 AM when I came on watch it had gone SW and was much more comfortable and soon we were sailing at better speed.   The dawn insinuated its way into our consciousness  with a symphony of grey…more shades of grey than you can imagine…but at least without the rain filter.

The other day the heater that does the towel rails and the forward cabins took a break and was joined yesterday by the hot air heater which does my cabin and the saloon.  They don’t like it when it’s too rough.  The second unit rejoined us early this morning and the first briefly before conking out again. It’s not really practical to service them underway. 

This morning one of the pad eyes that connects the dinghy to the davits worked its way loose and the dinghy was dangling.  Fortunately this was spotted almost immediately and we hove to for half an hour while the pad eye was reaffixed and the dinghy re-davited.

A while ago we came very close to a small South African Yacht and exchanged pleasantries on the radio.  They are called Vlacvlak (I think) which means Warthog in South African.

12:00 Noon

The wind has dropped down to SW 4 and we are gliding along at nearly 7 knots. The sea has eased; maybe we’ve seen off the worst of it.  It will turn against us again but hopefully without so much ferocity.  We sailed the last 24 hours with no engine and have logged 161 miles which is not at all bad under these conditions. We have 247 miles to go and should be in Puerto Williams tomorrow night or at worst early Friday morning.