Last night was a very long night on the helm for all of us seem to be inordinately tired and I am not quite sure why. A combination of not much sleep in South Africa thanks to hard work and play, feeling a bit ill and trying to settle into the watch system I suspect. There is also the mental side of squaring away the scale of the next leg; 5,500NM in the Southern Ocean takes a couple of days to put into context such that it is broken down into the daily routine of here and now, bit by bit.

This morning, our second at sea, was the morning that I felt I had started to settle back into ships routine. For a start I didn't feel ill when I woke up. Two cups of coffee, four slices of toast and a morning constitutional before relieving Mark had me feeling human again. I was able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean again rather than grind through the watch with a dull eyed fixation on the compass and my ever so slow watch. You have no idea of how long two hours can drag unless you have been ill and tired on the helm.

Suddenly it was lovely to be at sea again and as the influence of the land recedes over the horizon so the pleasure of the ocean and its simple routines takes over. The fresh milk has gone off; some of the bananas have had to be ditched despite being green when they came on board. The solar panels went up this morning to allow the sun to do its magic on our batteries. We are starting to be at one with nature and its rhythms again.

Progress is slow due to fickle winds which will be with us for a while as we struggle south in search of the westerly's that the Southern Ocean is renowned for. Once we have found them we will turn left and hopefully start to tick off the miles for Melbourne. One can but wonder how the original crew felt on setting out on this leg. My sense is that it was business as usual for it is much the same on board Spirit of Mystery. Eliot was saying as much over the dishes this morning. Leaving Newlyn was pretty mind blowing whereas this departure does not feel so alien to him. Just another indication of how far we have come as a crew.

In many ways it feels like a period in no-man's land as we work our way down to the front line of the Southern Ocean. That's when the business of Australia will be dealt with and we will start to earn our keep.

Cheers Pete



Picture courtesy of Paul Moody

Sorry about the lack of a blog yesterday evening but we had a lumpy old sea once we cleared False Bay and the dreaded Mal de Mer came to visit! Not like the night we left Newlyn I am delighted to say; we just felt ill but we were all able to keep everything down. As ever it meant that we spent the night either in bed or on watch and tried to keep everything in between to a minimum. Supper was biscuits, breakfast a handful of Jelly Babies and lunch a fantastic bowl of porridge thanks to Mark. A sure sign that we are getting there as a crew but not I am afraid to say as a boat! I made a bad call last night and we tacked too early which coupled with what must have been an unseen northerly current, wasted about eight hours of sailing. Very frustrating and although it is not much when you consider we have 5,500NM to go, it hurts when you think of how long and draggy the watches were last night. Still we are off, the sun is out and we have albatrosses in abundance and I am sure we will be able to manage a nice supper tonight.

Cheers Pete



Picture courtesy of Chris Lee

AUSTRALIA HERE THEY COME!

Hi All

A quick message to let you know that Spirit of Mystery has now officially left South Africa. Pete, Mark, Andy and Eliot were all very excited as they left Simons Town on a beautiful sunny day. With the Cape of Good Hope off starboard to them, they hoisted Spirit of Mystery's sails to continue on their journey to their final destination - Australia.

Pete had the first watch whilst the rest of the crew were below snoring away. As Pete said: "It never takes long to get back into the routine of things." Chris Lee who waved the crew off from another boat with other supporters and friends emailed in to say that the crew had left in a fresh Westerly breeze with big smiles on their faces!

Keep checking the blog for further updates from Pete.

Cheers Mandy

Photo courtesy of Chris Lee

'Gooday Gooday' this blog comes from Simons Town which is of course the reason for the switch from 'Good Morning' for we have sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and have entered the Indian Ocean with Australia in our sites.

As with most things in life the divide between the Atlantic and Indian Ocean seems to have a number of claims on it. Speaking to locals in Simons Town it soon becomes apparent that those who live by Cape Agulhas feel the great divide lies in their patch. The reality of course is that nature doesn't conform to man's need for clearly defined borders that allow either ownership or the illusory comfort that definition gives some kind of control over that which is beyond us. The divide moves up and down the coast as one ocean takes precedence over the other and the cycles of seasons play their part.

For those of us on Spirit of Mystery yesterday the divide was without doubt Cape of Good Hope for one could sense that we were trespassing in an area of great confluence. As we sailed across what at times felt a disturbed and fretful surface the colour of the sea seemed to keep changing as did its smell. This great ocean goulash was obviously a tasty and nutritious meal for it was teeming with life both above and below the surface. Seals were in abundance as they frolicked about the ocean, popping up for a quick glance at the passing of Spirit of Mystery before getting back to what seals do best. Above them birds were circling as they waited for a free side order from whatever the seals were feeding on. That is between the seals dozing on their backs with flippers drying in the air or leaping out with a summersault for the hell of it. We saw albatross, sharks and dolphins to name but few others who were feeding off the rich menu that nature has served up for the taking. And take we do as trawler after trawler passed us on the way back to a huge great canning factory in Houts Bay where we stopped for the night on the way round from Cape Town.

The Headland that has Cape of Good Hope on it is a headland to remember but the actual Cape of Good Hope is a rather disappointing offshoot that lies just to the west of the lighthouse. In keeping with its reputation the wind rose as we closed the lighthouse and we were forced to drop the jib and consider a reef in the working lug. Once we had turned north into the bay and the sea had eased we put the jib back up and settled into a pleasant beat to Simons Town. The coast is dramatic and Simons Town itself is a delightful spot with the lovely False Bay yacht club and marina that lies under the great walls of the Naval Dockyard.

As with Cape Town we could not have been made any more welcome and I just don't know where to start when it comes to giving you a sense of our time and the great people that we have met both here and in Cape Town. I think the best thing to do is to drip feed it over the next leg which at the moment looks like starting on Tuesday. This is due to a small weather window and a job list that thanks to a lot of effort last week is pretty small but at the same time important. The main thing is that coming round yesterday we found a few more deck seams that have opened up in the harsh South African sun and a dry wind coming off the continent. The foredeck really suffered and so we spent a couple of busy days digging out all the caulking and making good in Cape Town. One of our mainstays has been Paul Moody who flew out from Falmouth to help out and help out he has so it was great to have him join us for the sail round Cape of Good Hope.

Other than the deck and a few other odd jobs we are ready to go in that Andy has the boat fully stored apart from water and fresh fruit which we will do on Monday. Logistics have been made so much easier thanks to the generosity of Bernhard Diebold who loaned us his van in Cape Town. In fact he even took the time to drop it off in Simons Town where he was on the pontoon to meet us with a friendly smile and the keys. He is a man of many adventures of his own and we spent a lovely evening at his home where we met some real characters from the world of sailing and mountaineering. Indeed, we had the good fortune to meet Roy who has visited the remote Island of St Paul which lays half way between Cape Town and Australia.

The original crew on Mystery might not have stopped there but to sail past without a look on our voyage would seem to be the waste of a once in a life time opportunity. It is two miles across and is the remains of a volcano that has been breached to make a perfect anchorage. It has a rare albatross colony, a penguin colony and is a haven for seals so his local knowledge is priceless and we are all very excited. It will make a fantastic break in what I sure will at times be a long and testing voyage.

Whilst I might not be looking forward to leaving, thanks to having had such a good time here, I am certainly looking forward to going for we have so much ahead of us and new horizons are calling. It's time to go and put some more miles under the good ship Spirit of Mystery and carry on paying our respects to the original voyage and those giants that preceded us all those years ago.

Cheers Pete