Singapore strikes South and hits colder winder weather 20–9-2011

Posted at 8:47am on 20th September, 2011 • No comments yet

With the weather getting colder and the wind increasing here is a candid diary note from Jonathan.

“Dear All

Here I am still in the South Atlantic. We are heading south to pick up the
westerlies which should shoot us to Cape Town. It’s likely to cause us to fall
back in the placings which we hope will be temporary. We have been making some
good easting and today put our clocks forward for the second time since leaving
Rio.

Conditions are calmer then 48 hours ago which is better generally and especially
for sleeping. I found the slamming as we fell of the waves threw me around my
bunk too much and so I’d hsd very little sleep for several days. Also the
design of the boat down below is not user-friendly and so we had not enough time
for eating and dressing (you can imagine we’ve been in full oilskins), and
everyone has been working hard and not sleeping so morale went down. Today was
quite pleasant and things are better.

Yesterday an albatross flew into the sail and bounced off it onto a shroud
(chunky metal thing). Alby seemed to be OK and I think self-inflicted death
won’t cause a problem for us – let’s hope not.

I’ve been working pretty hard on deck and behind the wheel, and yesterday
(Sunday here now) on mother. The advantages of mother are meant to be sleep
(from c2230 to 0445) and a shower: I managed a shave but almost no sleep which
was not ideal. But we rustled up the meals on time and they were eaten which is
what matters. And we did some cleaning. IAll I’ll say is I fell much better
now than 48 hours ago.

It’s getting colder as we head south and I’ve been in thermals for a few days
now. Managing one’s body temperature is hard as you need lots of clothes but as
soon as you do something physical you get quite hot. For nights we split the
watch in half and do 30 min up on deck and 30 down below, Luke and I helming for
each 30 min. I have helming gloves which are good, so far: otherwise I keep up
my core temperature and my hands either keep warm or get warm when they dry out.
But this environment is not good for them!

Sherlyn is making a video of the excitement over the weekend which I hope will
be published. We have an automatic CCTV which she downloaded from which will
give a sense of how it was. Our casualties are improving, and Tim who cut his
head was on deck today which was good. As Cath here says, “All is well on the
good ship Lollipop”!

Best

Jonathan”

This update is brought to you by FlexiSail. Jonathan is a FlexiSail member and living out his burning ambition to undertake the Clipper Round the World race from start to finish.

www.flexisail.com