We have had the oddest twenty four hours for they haven't delivered what we expected. Indeed it has been a period of conflicting signals and little substance. We went into a very dark night with the pressure easing and the oily calm being broken by a wind from the NE. I had the evening watch and as day was swallowed up by night the cloud level dropped and the darkness was such that even the feeble compass light was able to cast its influence as far as the deck at my feet.

On glancing up I saw an area of about ten acres of light on the water ahead and my flash assumption was that the moon had broken through the clouds. This of course could not be the case for moon up is late at the moment and glancing aloft the cloud was as thick as ever. The next surprise was the sea around Spirit of Mystery lit up; literally, it was as if an underwater light show had just been turned on. It had a green hue, was quite beautiful and really very bright, enough to put the boat into silhouette. It's something that I have never seen before but the phosphorescence which was milky in nature had been agitated by the surface action of the wind. I'll never forget it.

Eliot took over as the wind rose so I spent his hour working on the deck until Andy came up for his watch. By now it was really quite windy and we spent another hour setting her up for the expected blow. On coming below the pressure was plummeting and everything was doing what it should be doing. I turned in to try and grab some sleep before we were overrun by the big NE blow that we had spent the day waiting for. Sleep was elusive but a doze is better than nothing.

My next watch was weird for Mark shook me to say that the wind had died right off and we were wallowing about in a confused sea with torrential rain, the type of rain that has the intensity to bounce back up off the deck. The pressure was still falling steeply, had been for a few hours and yet we had not a breath of wind. The rain passed, stars started to show their face, a pod of big whales circled the boat venting in the darkness. There was a large swell and yet after two hours on watch there was still no wind and it was starting to fray. The pressure had bottomed out.

Come the morning we had an oily swell and bright sunshine between showers and still no wind. I have to say it's been one of the oddest twenty four hours I have had at sea. Come lunch time the wind started to pick up from the south and we now have about 25knts which is due to rise up to gale force through the night. What's been interesting is to see the effect of a southerly wind on a large northerly swell, the conflict making for a very agitated surface. Somehow we completely missed the nasty NE gale and things seem to have settled back to the patterns we are used too. Mark has filled us up with a dirty great pot mess and we are hunkering down for a long night.

Cheers Pete

We have had a really busy morning this morning as we drift about waiting for this blow that is on the way. The forecast is for 40knts with gusts of 50knts thanks to a depression that is going to pass very close to us. This means that not only will it be blowing from the wrong sector but it will also have considerable change in direction to throw up chaotic seas. Just the sort of thing to make your blood run cold and to fray ones spirits during this pregnant period in the waiting room.

The reality is that we feel in good spirits thanks to the experience that we have built up as a crew and the confidence that we have in Spirit of Mystery. It is also because we have spent five hours with all four of us working flat out to prepare everything down to the smallest detail. All the floor boards have been secured, the book shelves cleared, the sea anchor set up, batteries charged, spars lashed to the deck and emergency equipment checked out. The amount of work is incredible but the feeling of being prepared is worth every bit of expended energy. There is nothing below that has not been secured, stowed, prodded or thought about.

The forecast should see the wind starting to come in this afternoon from the NE and we will tack on this to make some ground to the N/NW. The hope is that this will make life a little easier once the depression has moved on. By midnight tonight it will be climbing from 25knts with gusts through to a full on 'ding dong' by dawn. Our aim is to keep plodding away until it gets dangerous to remain beam on to the seas. At that point we will reduce sail to just the storm jib out on the bow sprit, deploy the sea anchor in a bid to not lose too much ground in the wrong direction and retire below. In other words we will put the hand break on and wait for it to blow over.

This will be something that I have never done in my sailing career and it is with interest that I await the experience. I have always been racing light weight flyers that are better kept at speed down wind and able to beat to windward if it's from the wrong direction. I have read about lashing the tiller and going to bed as the boat rides it out and now here we are in the Southern Ocean with the conditions and the boat for the job. That's not to say I would have wished for the experience for nothing could be further from the truth. No sane man wishes for bad weather and the attendant risks.

The other aspect of all this, and it's very frustrating, is that in the final reckoning I suspect that coupled with the last two days of calm we will have lost a good five hundred miles or five days of progress. Painful enough as it is but particularly so as we have only just set out on what is a long leg for any boat, let alone a 37ft Mounts Bay Lugger from the 1850's. So cross your fingers for us during the blow, keep them crossed to bring fairer winds in its wake and I will get back to you once we have pulled through what is going to be a testing experience.

Cheers Pete

Well I never thought I would be in shorts and flat becalmed a week out of Simons Town but that is the state of play this afternoon. Poor old Spirit of Mystery is wallowing about in a confused and lumpy sea as we wait for the weather to sort itself out. It would appear that we are to have a further day of calm followed, of all things, by blow from the easterly sector so progress is on hold for a few days. Indeed we may well go backwards for a bit.

It's a bit of a shocker really as we had hoped, indeed, expected to be reeling the miles off for Melbourne. Still that's the lot of a sailor and there is nothing we can do about it but keep spirits up and deal with things as they come along. In the meantime we have been working through the job list and making good for some rough weather.

Now to Cape Town; a big thank you goes to Gavin and Denise Levy who I met during the British Steel Challenge. They are a lovely couple, indeed family now and it was their house that Tracey and I stayed in with the kids. Unfortunately we didn't manage to organize a family get together as Gavin and Denise were away up the coast at their beach house but I did get to see Gavin just before we left. We would also like to thank Stubbles and Mel for becoming such good friends and being so supportive. Stubbles runs the water taxi in Fowey so we will be seeing them on our return home. One of Stubbles hobbies is making lucky necklaces with million year old sharks teeth from his beach rambles. We are all wearing them. Tip of the day - whistle on his taxi and see what happens!

Today Eliot and I did an interview with BBCSW and Eliot managed to get completely tongue tied and has been squirming with embarrassment ever since. They are visiting his class to do an interview and his mates have been on his mind ever since. So to Miss Bell and Class 10BL he has asked me to send his best through the blog and that he is looking forward to seeing you all in May.

Cheers Pete

Whilst Pete and the crew were in Cape Town over Christmas they met a very interesting person - Andy Nixon. Andy is a photographer and graphic designer and we had been playing email-tennis with one another as she had taken pictures of Spirit of Mystery when she departed Cape Town to commence the second leg of the voyage to Australia - (http://pixoftheweek.blogspot.com). After we had passed a couple of messages to one another, Andy came back with the following information which I asked if I could share with you. Like myself, I am sure you will find it a very interesting read:

"It was really great meeting the boys - they are a lovely, entertaining and genuine bunch - and it was an honour being invited on board Spirit of Mystery; she really is a beautiful boat and I am grateful for the opportunity to photograph her, and wave them off on their second leg. It was my Dad who told me about their adventure - he was excited about it because our great, great, great grandfather was a brewer who owned the Star Inn where the idea for original voyage was conceived, and I believe he financed part of the decking. My Dad's great aunt was Cordelia Downing who lived at Vine Cottage until she died a few years ago at 103, and evidently the dining table around which the Mystery's voyage was planned is still there. And we know that at least one nugget of gold made it back from Australia - my grandmother had it mounted on a broach."

"Oh yes, after waving them off, we went and had a beer at the club, where my sister noticed that the beer labels show a rather abbreviated version of the story of Mystery: from the origins involving beer, a little boat with red sails going around South Africa, to get to the gold! We had a laugh about that!" The picture above is of the beer bottle label.

Amazing isn't it, how you can travel half way round the World and meet someone who for whatever reason is involved with the original voyage i.e. relative to the crew, or as in this case a decedent to the owner of the Star Inn at the actual time the idea was conceived? Excellent!


Mandy :-)