Log Entry No 2 - 3rd Dec 07. (Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

The Main Body arrived on Tuesday, giving us 13 of the 16 crew in theatre.  They set too immediately, providing useful additional hands to prepare Discoverer for her journey south. 

Andy Mills putting battons in the main sail.

It has remained phenomenally windy.  We had 50 knot gusts on the jetty in Mare Harbour on Wednesday, whilst out at sea the forecast was, at 70 knots gusts, nudging into hurricane territory.  One poor yacht, Antarctica bound, has just arrived back in Port Stanley minus her mast. The conditions serve to remind us all that we must not slip until the yacht is fully prepared and the stores and equipment are properly secured.

We spent this morning re-fitting the newly repaired main sail, which involved fitting and tensioning up the battens, before taking advantage of a lull in the wind to hoist it onto the boom.  At least Discoverer now looks like a yacht again. 

Jamie preparing the main sail to be re fitted to the yacht.

Now that our Captain of Engineers, Rob Duke, has re-built the plumbing and bilge arrangement (I hope the jubilee clips are as tight as they look!), and the canned and bagged rations are loaded, we’ve done most of the tasks that can be usefully tackled by willing amateurs. So now we’re waiting: For the Port Stanley resident experts, Mario, to coax our instruments back to life – depth, speed, and wind information are “must have’s” where we’re going; and for Craig the shipwright to extract the broken studs from the Main Track so that we can re-install a new track end piece.

Inflatable boat training.

Meanwhile the climbers continue to shake out the climbing and skiing equipment, Steve Ayres assembles the gear that was so generously provided by our sponsors,  and our two commando gunners roar around the harbour apparently “testing out” the inflatable boats whilst admiring the spectacular marine and bird life.

Finally and somewhat reluctantly, we’ve taken off our big light wind sails (the two spinnakers and the genoa), on the grounds that it’ll be far too windy to use them and we need the space for ‘more useful’ items.

Prepairing to hoist an inflatable boat into the water.

So, when are we going? I ain’t saying yet – there’s still a lot to do, but we’re making a useful progress each day.

Some of the local wildlife playing around the inflatable boats.