SailBlog

I crossed the Cape West of South New Zealand Just a bit ago... 166*E Soon, I will be beyond the banks and can take a turn to the NE to get warmer. We also passed a new Time Zone...!!!

Last night was a restful night of sleeping in between watches...I got up at times for some sail changes as the winds were light and varying from S to SSE.. I wanted to maintain my 49* S latitude to remain off the NZ Banks...with the sea state still high, the banks will make them worse as well as the current on the banks will change...As long as I am in the deep passage, the current is in my favor. but the night was bitter cold outside, so with each sail change, i had to warm my hands by the stove...my feet don't mind when I get up and I am moving... they get coldest when I am sitting..so the night changes aren't so bad.

I was reminded of the days as a child when my father would take us all ice fishing on Lake Desolation in way upstate NY... living with cold feet and wet soggy snow covered mittens, hats and scarves...it was just winter. My feet were always cold then too... but it wasn't a 'bad feeling'..it just was the way it was. I remember the mad dash to the car when all the "tip-ups', the fishing gear we would put over the holes we cut in the ice, were collected and we gathered our days catch from the 'ice pond' we would make in the 2foot deep ice on the lake.... Finally, Dad would get the heat going in the car...and we would thaw out... but we would be soaked through...and somehow managed to enjoy ice fishing none the less.

I was reading in the book on Single Handed sailors...and there too horrific tales told of MEN (not women) who managed to survive literal freezing cold sailing disasters of sinking and capsizes, Shackelton type survival stories... and I have to suggest that for men (and women) who live and work in the cold..that numb pain feeling of cold hands must just become part of the norm of life... it is not perceived as bad...it just is...and they somehow don't spend every minute wanting to be warm...like some spoiled, now Floirda blood, person I know.

In a recent email from Jeanne Socrates, she spoke of her gortex lined leather boots... with wool socks and her feet being, nice and warm... I am so jealous. In general, her description of her warm clothes revealed her Canadian heritage... It is such a shame that I didn't get a realistic idea of the temps...as I would be more inclined to investigate these islands...but I have a surprise planned. Bob McD and I are working on it.

By the morning the winds had settled into a pleasant 10-15kt breeze, quite steady, and the sky was showing some brightening...no sun, but not dark. I was reminded of Amstel Adams black and white photography... How, with the eyes of beauty, the black and white images carry so much depth and beauty...Where I am is an Amstel Adams heaven in the real..he perfect light iluminating the clouds in amazing arays...it is beautiful when I get past the cold and the light makes its way through the clouds.

So I have had a lovely day...I have lots of bird visitors. The Cape Petrel is here, the one with the big white blotches on its wings, it is so visible in the crowd of birds..they come right up to the boat when I am standing at the c ompanionway... There are a half to a dozen great and classic Albatross, my white diamond is here but other huge ones with lots of white features. the dark Albatross is here...solid dark grey. The other black petrels, stormy petrels.. and I didnt see the new bird today...the one that is a broader bodied bird with big white round areas on the ends o its wings... A much stockier bird. No mammels though... not yet...it is still light.

It occured to me today that the 'Seal' that I had seen over the past few days were probably really Sea Lions... I swam with Dolphins in Key Largo in Florida a few years back and they had a sea lion in the same swim area... I got to get very close...and now it came back to me..those whiskers and long eyelashes...the big black eyes... it is a sea lion... How wonderful.. I hope there are more. I haven't seen any today... I watch out my portholes for signs of them.

I am having dinner early as I am just hungry. If I get hungry later, I will make up some extra oatmeal. I took a nap to get warm...it works great. It is not really so cold but it is a bitting cold outside...strange. I am just not moving around enough,though I did my inside exercises. They do help.. Sort of like a jumping jack but different as the ceiling is too short and the boat is heeling...but I get a full range of motion to my back and legs and my arms have to hold on...

So... I hate to be below with the birds all flocking so I just go out for 10 or 15minutes at a time with my camera and try to get photos. I so miss my Olympus working..it just won't focus so all the photos come out blurry... I need to take it in when I get home and have it looked at. I have tried adjusting the setting for aperture and shutter times etc. but nothing seems to work.. so... I use my phone and Go pro...the Go pro is just too distant..It doesn't pick up the birds..the phone seems to have enough pixels that even though you can barely see the birds in the photo, I can crop it and they are still clear enough to see them.

So my surprise:

Bob McD is happy to aid me in being able to see the wildlife on Bounty Island. My Bob and i had talked about this island in earlier emails... He told the story of the Bounty...from the Book Mutiny on the Bounty... Bob McD also gave a fabulous rendition on the story and how bligh's log was turned into a book..

"Bounty Island- at 48S -indeed abounds in bird and have sea mammals, so let's get within sight-seeing distance of this site. My idea is that we go east along its northern side (there are 13 Islets and numerous rocks). It is a World Heritage Site. I read about the group when reading Bligh's log (turned into a book) BOUNTY cleared south of NZ, just like IS doing today,and set a course for Tahiti, using the weather available at the time. Just as well Bligh had a look out for the Bounty almost sailed directly into the Island...took them by surprise -- He marked it roughly on charts, and didn't stop-- apparently there is no good source of fresh water . Breeding ground for erect-crested penguins, Salvin's albatross, and Bounty Shags"

He also confirmed that there.are birds and 'sea mammals' ... We will go to the north of it and I can slip down a bit to get closer and have a look. He has looked at the weather...I may have to slow down so that I get there at a good viewing day... but he was hopeful that it would work out. So I am too. I am never good at stopping, but I am going to try...as it is such a shame to go by 'all' the islands..this one is really 'in the way'... Bob McD noted the 'unique varieties ' of wildlife there...each island seems to have their specialties.

So I am excited to be making a visit. Being in the Beagle channel, my last trip, was very cool as I was able to get close to the beauty of it all..there were huge seals (these were seals) and some huge black and white dolphins..I think may have been killer whales,...but maybe just huge dolphins..The Cormorants were all over the small ledges..but no real penguins there or sea lions or such..

So, hopefully, once past Bounty Island, I will get north enough to warm up...Bob McD has promised me so and he actually does have that information available. The temps were warming nicely until this last cold front went through so I have hope that it will be manageable for January and until I get nearer to Cape Horn.

I am past the last time zone before the date line... so 16 hours ahead of EST... 11 ahead of UTC... AFter the dateline, I will be 7 hours behind EST, only 4 behind my son who lives in Washington state.. Wild. Same time of day just the day before....Hard to get my head around it now, but I will get used to it.

Well, All, ... lots of nonsense to read... but at least some nonsense...nothing urgent or more than the usual ... cold and galing... Truth is that I wont see more than 30kts in the next few days and it is in longer troughs...the 30kt flags are intermittent...not a real 'front' where it escalates..It is going to be blowing 25kts for long periods with gusts and periods to 30kt in the midst. And the following gale winds I saw for New Years are not there today..on the Grib... the storm is moving farther East it looks like so will miss me..thus the potential of a 'viewing' of Bounty...

Winds tonight are light S winds...10kts or so... and around midnight, on the Grib...they will come up 25kts out of the SW and start to blow...so It will be a busy night later...so I will go to bed early. Hopefully the winds won't becalm completely or it will be a rolly no sleep time... shoot..I can feel it now... well..we'll see what happens.

I don't know that I can do anything with the light winds.. we are holding a course... the seas are just different all of a sudden...real confused and wallowing..maybe I am just a tad closer to the bank here so the change in sea floor is effecting the motion... strange... totally different all of a sudden.

After a check on deck..the winds are actually inceasing now...so.. I am going to get some early rest as It may be a busy night furling the main and deciding on a sail plan. I am going to be on an ENE course at this point, so the SW winds may require the pole unless there is enough wind to drop the main and just fly the Genny... I found that worked quite well over the last gale winds..but I did sacrifice speed. Wing on Wing we tend to make those really big mile days. so..that will mean putting the pole up in the night. Maybe it will shift earllier or maybe it will hold until morning at this point of sail.

Then there is a quick W wind shift then to NW... so again... getting the pole all rigged for a few hours may not be the right plan. Once the wind goes to NW...being I am going on a ENE heading...I may not need the pole...I may be able to fly the genny lose. so... We will see how it goes...I may sacrifice some speed for ease of sail plan...I am doing that more and more...

Oh... I haven't done any reading today... I could use some words of wisdom to calm my day's events so I can rest...

"As faraway light yields its harvest of colours when it passes through a prism, beauty opens out its radiance when it shines through the human heart. The heart is where beauty arrives , here is where it can be felt, recognized and shared...through the heart beauty can pervade every cell of the body and fill us... compassion and attention keep the prism clear so that beauty may illuminate our life. Prayer ( meditation) is the supreme way we lift our limtited selves toward the light and ask it to shine into us..." John O'Donohue Keepin On Sailin On Caring... it is as if the light of beauty can make a dreary day seem brightened as it sheds light on the vastness of space and time to reveal spiritual eternity... in our present..before our eyes,.. in our communion with Llife in the precious visitations of the birds and sea creatures...the sea lions!...

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

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