The concluding fifteen minutes of my watch welcomed in the 15th of December and saw us cross the same line of Longitude as Newlyn. For us this is a big mile stone for it means, after 56 days of effort, we have only just started to make easting for Australia.

It is as if the vague proximity to home waters has heralded good old channel weather for the night saw us reefing down the big lug and changing the mizzen. The pressure had been falling and we strapped down to await a blow. As it turned out the night was lively but fast as we forged our way into a dark and forbidding horizon.

The sail changes went like clockwork and it struck me how we have settled into this new way of life that has denied us any sight of land for the last forty seven days. Our routines come naturally and allow the freedom to take in the wider picture while details are nailed with routine drills and quiet discipline. Half way through reefing the big lug Eliot found another squid tucked away by the bulwark. It was bigger than the last one and was determined not to let go of the sheet as I tried to return it to the sea.

Sundays are always a good day for it is in the evening that we have our brief weekly call home. Christmas parties are being had, bags are being packed and final travel details are being squared away for their flight to Cape Town. We have a family house sitting and the young boys are desperate to be shown how to feed the chickens and take Mindy for her daily walk. To say Tracey, Gina and the kids are getting excited would be an understatement.

Although distant, Christmas day still holds a glimmer of hope and we in turn are working our socks off for it. So it was with satisfaction this morning that we measured off the latest daily run of 165NM in the right direction. Well above the required average so we have put some distance in the bank to help cover the odd bad day.

Cheers Pete

Last night was a rather trying night with light airs, a choppy sea and having to work really hard for every inch of the way. Not quite the mileage we were after but not too bad at 90miles, so we need to make up the shortfall to maintain our average of 116Nm a day to arrive on Christmas day. It is all starting to get real with Tracey, Gina and the kids flying out in a week's time.

We seem to be seeing a lot more life about us at the moment with a couple of new sea birds, big clumps of kelp and of all things a squid on the deck this morning. How it got there is a bit of a mystery as we have had dry decks. One idea is that it was dropped by a bird for Eliot says that Albatross feed off squid. In fact he saw one swoop down at speed this morning to grab something out of the water.

These Albatross are mesmerizing as they glide about the boat as if propelled by some force field for they never seem to flap their wings unless it is really calm. We have a huge swell rolling in from the SW so I guess there is proper old ding dong going on down there somewhere. But what they offer up here is the Albatross an opportunity to surf on the uplift of the leading face. They surf in at what must be about thirty miles an hour to break off in a sweeping turn up over and around the boat to pick up the face of the next wave and tear off into the distance. Our very own air show.

This morning saw the wind shift into the NW so we have gybed and are now making just south of east to try and tuck under this high pressure. We definitely have some current underneath us and I wonder if we are on some point of convergence for we are seeing a lot of rubbish floating about. In fact yesterday we caught a large piece of old fishing net on the propeller and had to stop the boat to clear it. We also see a lot of net buoys, about the size of a football, with lengths of rope trailing off them. Pollution is always rather sad to see but in many ways it seems even worse down here for there is a kind of purity about the place.

The taste of nature is starting to become a craving and Cape Town evokes all sorts of meals and tastes as it gets closer. I for one am really looking forward to a Cape Peach; one of those peaches that are so juicy that it runs down your chin on the first bite. I can taste it even as I type and I am sure that the craving will only get worse for today is Pancake Day and we finished the last lime. We are now out of fresh food.

Cheers Pete

Naughty, naughty; two days without a blog and no excuse apart from the fact that the last couple of days has seen us all holding our breath during this pregnant period as we wait for the wind.

Well it has come, could be better, but it is definitely moving in the right direction and this is reflected in the miles. 129NM were knocked off our distance to Cape Town in the last 24hrs and the daily chunk out of the chart looks like a pleasing bite rather than the nibble we have been reduced to by this high pressure. The high is still about but being further south we are starting to get the winds off its lower quarter.

Life, during this quite period, has been great for the weather has been kind and we have been able to really relax with very pleasant periods on the helm followed by good sleeping and an easy atmosphere. Lots of baking, exotic meals of an evening, clothes washing and showers all round. Dolphins have visited us and although they never cease to thrill, our first big Albatross managed to steal the show with its effortless grace.

They are a contradiction in that with a wind span of up to fifteen feet they look, from a distance, the epitome of slender efficiency, and yet when they sweep past the boat they look quite brutal. The bulky body of a turkey with wings designed by British Aerospace, and the head of a primary school dinosaur project stuck on the front. It's their size that takes the breath away though, Eliot's first words on seeing one was to say that it is like a Pterodactyl.

Its size is such that it challenges everything about birds that we take for granted. The old wives tale that a bird depositing on you means good luck sounds even more ridiculous. A well aimed Albatross dropping, even the word dropping seems inappropriate, would give a cricked neck and have you cursing good luck.

Cheers Pete

'Talisker Time', might not look it from the outside given that we have only managed 210NM in the last three days, whereas the previous three knocked off a heartening 510nm. What you can't see or sense of course is many little things that have come together today. If I was a bone thrower, today would be a good day, for there is enough signs to give Gordon Brown a good sleep.

First and foremost, for it is the most visible and it is something that we have been working towards, is that we have finally crossed the last crease in our South Atlantic Chart. We are on the last quarter which in a visual sense puts us on the home straight and I can tell you it looks good. Building on this theme we are now closer to Africa than South America. By the end of today's run we will have reached the same latitude as Cape Town. We will tick off a waypoint that we have had in our sights for the last week. We will make 1600NM from Cape Town. The wind is now in the Northern sector; damn it if that isn't portentous of better things then we will just have to ignore them all and keep grinding at it. Good reason for a cheeky Talisker at sundown though.

Having started I couldn't finish this theme of deviation from an ordered world where everything is straight, true and up and down without mentioning variation. We are in an area of maximum compass variation for this leg, with 25 degrees to be taken into consideration. If we want a true course of 090 we have to steer 115 degrees on our compass. With it, partly because our compasses are for the Northern Hemisphere, comes some sluggishness to their movement and a touch of laziness. We have two compasses and some days they can differ by ten degree's and others they will agree with each other.

We of course have the benefit of an up-to-date Admiralty chart which has lines of variation running across it, much like contour lines. Without it we would have to use a sunrise or sunset to check the compass as did Capt Richard Nicholls from his log entry of 15th of Jan: "By the setting of the sun found the variation of the compass to be 2¾ points west". I wonder how they read it at night? I guess they will have had a little brass oil lamp or candle.

If you have the time to really look at a chart it is staggering the amount of information that they hold. One of my favorites is looking at the seamounts and imagining how majestic they would look on dry land. One, Vema Mount, is 5km high and pretty much has vertical sides. Their names make me chuckle for they have obviously been discovered by different nationalities. The straight laced British ones come with names such as Crawford, Mallory and even Dave, whereas the German ones sound rather harsh with Schmitt - Ott or Engelbrecht. My favorite and I can only assume that it is Italian is Panzarini for it rolls off the tongue in such a pleasing manner.

Cheers Pete