We have fast sailing today with 25 to 30 knots of breee from the WNW. We are travelling comfortably at about 8 knots. The film crew are getting some heavy weather shots although I suspect they will be able to do much better by the end of the voyage.

We have had a few more birds around the boat this morning, notable new ones for the voyage were a 'light mantled sooty albatross' and 'antarctic petrels'.

Yesterday gave us the first loo mishap of the voyage when somebody managed to block up the pump. It fell to me to clear it as I don't think the perpetrator of the blockage was feeling well enought to tackle such a nasty job and I didn't want to push him over the edge to sea sickness.

We had a really nice moonlit night's sailing last night. There was some cloud around but the stars, and planets, were crisp and clear.

We expect to cross the Antarctic Convergence tonight, or at least we expect to cross the line that marks it on the chart. The convergence being a natural phenomenon doesn't obey mans rules and may not be anywhere near where it is supposed to be. We'll know when we cross it though as we'll feel the drop in temperature.

I have been reading "The Voyage of the Scotia" an account of the expedition that was such an important part of the life of William Spiers Bruce who's life and work is the subject of the documentary that our crew are making. The beauty of the Antarctic scenery obviously had quite an impact on the writers. Here is one passage from the book.

"There is, I feel sure, no region in the world more grand in its scenery then the Antarctic, and no place more transcendent in its beauty. It is a vast wonderland laid out on a giant scale, in which littleness has no place; but its very vastness, no less than its beauty, while it quickens the travellers daily wonder and deepens his reverence, forces him to feel that it is a world he can never conquer, a world in which the forces of nature are too tremendous to overcome, and must resignedly be bowed before in the hope that they will suffer him to come and pass again unscathed"

I feel that it is that same beauty and grand scale of nature that brings us back across these seas time and again to visit Antarctica. Some things never change.