News from the Captain! Australia–Cape Horn Passage 2023

Compiled from the captain’s messages: 13 January Preparing for the headwind to strengthen overnight. Motoring without sails for now. Doing carpentry work on deck. 14 January Caught up on sleep after the night watch and took over the morning watch :) We’re motoring into a head sea, speed 3 knots. 15 January We’re a hundred miles from New Zealand. Once again, I’m passing it by. Under the mainsail staysail and engine, we’re trying to claw our way south, with mixed success so far. Our speed is low—4 knots—and we’re drifting towards NZ. We’re waiting for the wind to veer east. As usual, I’ve had the morning watch; I almost managed to catch up on sleep after the night one. Night of 17 January Sitting on watch on the bridge, drinking Thai tea. We’re passing New Zealand forty miles to starboard. Everyone on board is asleep except me, the autopilot and the stuffed dogs. 18 January Took over the night watch. We’re steering 150 east of NZ, carrying the mainsail staysail and jib staysail, plus the engine. The Roaring Forties! We’ve crossed 40 degrees. Back in the Roaring Forties 🙂 I hope the following winds settle in around 44–46 degrees and we’ll finally be making about 10 knots. So far, it’s mostly been close-hauled under engine and one of the staysails. 19 January We’re passing between Chatham Island and NZ. Still motoring, but our speed is now closer to 7 knots. I seem to have settled into the usual six-hour watch routine. There are 4,500 miles left to Ushuaia on the overall route. 20 January Approaching 46°S; fog. Plenty of ongoing deck work—stripping, sanding and painting the stanchions and rails, reassembling the binnacle (the pedestal for the compass in the cockpit), inspecting the heating system. And several thousand other little jobs. The forecast says the following winds should begin tomorrow. The main thing is not to stray into the black sectors 🙂 But so far, it looks as though we’ll slip through. On the night watch, I read the technical documentation for the heating systems and the vessel’s operating regulations. Raising my level of specialised education 🙂 A real pea-souper has set in. I tell the guys it could carry on like this for two or three weeks, even with strong winds. They shrug sceptically. Dan doesn’t shrug; he’s calm and rugged. It’s getting colder little by little, +15–17°C during the day. We’re sailing along 46° now. At last the wind is shifting, and we’ve turned east. Until now we’d been dropping farther and farther south while waiting for a following wind. 21 January We’re sailing along 46°S. Last night, towards the end of my watch, the wind finally arrived. We set the staysail and reefed jib. I was relieved at 5 a.m. and went to sleep until 10. At 10 I relieved Dan again. We’re giving it some engine power for stability and a little extra speed. The wind is coming from 110° on starboard tack. It’s blowing 25–30 knots. We’re making 8.5–9 knots. On sets of waves from astern, the autopilot sometimes gets confused, and we have to take over the helm. Helming watches on the bridge are becoming more demanding. ⛵ Friends, Nastya is forwarding your comments to Andrey and Dan, so send your regards and ask questions. Are you following our sailors on the tracker? https://www.iridium360.ru/guest/journey/8db92642 That’s where our brave satellite tracker Rockstar Iridium-360 from MVS Telecom plots our route.