Rolling, heeling and pitching

Yesterday and half of today. She rolls, she pitches, she heels. Her decks are often swept by the waves that bash against her hull. She runs fast under reduced canvas in the harsh conditions we come across in the South Pacific. 

Rain, hail, gusts that climb over the 50kn, with peaks between 52 to 57kn as what seems to be an endless stream of squalls hit us. 

But it hasn’t been a continuous battering in bad weather, the morning brought clearer skies as well, sun shining on partially cloudy conditions. Though the swell is there, and the main deck is still washed by the breaking waves. 

35kn of wind showing in the wind meter in the late morning, it says something that we now consider this as easy and better sailing conditions. And as the hours pass, it keeps dropping. And when the wind comes down, more canvas comes up. In the afternoon we set sail again. To start, hands are called on deck to sheet down and hoist Main Couse, both Top Gallants, Fore Top Mast Staysail and the larger Desmond replaces Aap over the Main deck. 

Europa finds herself in a relatively quieter area in-between two large Low Pressure Systems that seem to chase each other while other depression centres keep growing south of us. A situation that maybe will bring a day of relatively easier weather. 

Riding Eastwards at the northern back part of the train of Low Pressures, we have sailed a total of 1486 nautical miles already. In a straight line plotted on the chart, there are 3485 more to get to Cape Horn. And during the last 24 hours, pitching, heeling and rolling, Europa has sailed a good 172 nautical miles, of which 169 were done if we count a straight line from yesterday’s position at 20:00h.

And when the wind blows and the swell grows, it is usually a good day for observation of seabirds enjoying the ride. 

One of the species sighted often during those last days is the White headed petrels, a circumpolar species in colder subantarctic waters, in contrast with the New Zealand endemic Grey-faced petrels, common here but a sort of bird that soon will probably get more scarce as we sail east, as they are mostly flying around in the Tasman Sea. Another endemic breeder in this area is the Campbell albatross, restricted to Campbell Island though it disperses widely on those subantarctic waters. Although similar to the much more widespread Black-browed, those show a striking yellow coloured eye. At the same time, one of its larger cousins show up around us as well, an elegant and huge Southern Royal albatross pay us a visit for a while.