Into the Furious Fifties
31 March 2016 | Roaring Fifties
Kim
'31st March 2016
If you'll be wanting tales of rough seas and Roaring Forties, we're afraid we can't deliver these just now, me hearties!
Moksha had a peaceful overnight passage under a clear starry night, with one reef in the main and the full headsail. We enjoyed a short burst of 18 knots of wind but generally sat with NW 7-13 on and aft or the beam in a 2 metre swell. In the morning we shook the reef out and continued to have mixed winds not reaching more than 13 knots from NW/NNW.
We spent our day nibbling on tasty snacks, drinking tea in the sun and becoming keen ornithologists. There's been a fine array of stunningly unique birds including the Buller's Albatross with his noble masked face, the Snares Cape Petrels with a screen-print of a spiral shell on each wing, and the Antarctic Prion, a dusky-blue petite and fast-flapping bird compared to the giant seabird entourage we've had following us throughout the day.
At 1700 we found ourselves in the midst of four fishing vessels of around 100 metres each, likely purse-seining; a big disappointment knowing we're witnessing some of the most awful environmental and ocean damage on our way to a place of beauty, conservation and isolation to escape these very elements of man-greed and negligence. We've been advised by DoC there will be no more boats down at the islands until November as the tour and research season is now over so it will be little old us and maybe some occasional fishing vessels sheltering from heavy weather.
We discuss the peculiar weather circumstances of of our trip which has been preceded with many intense discussions on how to protect the boat and the crew and the stowage of vulnerable items in heavy weather of the Furious Fifties, and here we are bobbing along with often less than 10 knots of wind and a bright and welcoming sky, and a fair forecast for the next few days.
As I write we have just turned the engine off as the sun is setting and Moksha is pleasantly sailing with full main and genoa with 90nm to go to the tip of Auckland Islands. We now have to plan our arrival time to be daylight hours to anchor, likely at the Southern end of the island group.
Until tomorrow
Night night world,
Moksha motley-crue'