Log Entry No 1 - 25th Feb 08. (Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

After several days of necessary preparation, Discoverer and her crew for Leg 6, were finally ready to go to sea. Becky (Skipper) had hoped to have a training sail on the Sunday before departure, however with the dials showing 50kts in Port Ops, we decided against it. However we successfully set the orange storm sails whilst along side.

Red watch at Lyell Glacier.

We quietly slipped out of Mare Harbour on Wednesday 20 February for training sail. This was successfully completed the mandatory training which comprised of tacking, reefing and Man Overboard drills. After a day of lessons we put the boat to anchor and had an excellent meal cooked by Red Watch who were on mother duties.

The following morning we stowed the anchor away in the forepeak and once we had clearance we set off for South Georgia. A good breeze for the first 24 hours made fast sailing, but a punishing time was had with heads hanging overboard, suffering mal de mare. Zac and Mike suffered spending the majority of this period in bed. The headaches and up turned stomachs are now nearly behind us leaving only Chris ‘are we there yet’ Gregory wondering why he has deserved such a long spell of the harsh sickness. Life in straight line has been not helped by with hard handed Harry. Who revealed that, unsurprisingly, has yet to pass his driving test, as he smashed through the waves and barely held onto course.

Heads are still high. The Doc suffered on mother watch on his own, as the rest of blue watch ship mates were still down (Gary, Casey and Sherman). He did all the cooking, cleaning and healing, single handed whilst feeling the pressures of sea life himself. On Saturday, the very important First Mate Windy cheered up everybody by baking some bread, which all the crew happily chomped into. Meanwhile the cheerful skipper Becky was up to her elbows in diesel from a leaky tank (again), giving us the chance to use the engine in the calmer winds, which provided a relief for the lads who had been to ill to handle the boat under sail.

Shaun the leader of red watch has been keeping his fellow crew mates (Chris, Harry, and Glen) entertained by singing at all hours, but somehow this was quoshed by Steve’s watch (Luke, Danny, Alex and Scotty) who happily made the deck speakers work. On Saturday we passed through the Antartic Convergence Zone, with a marked drop in temperature of the air and the water, thus resulting in a very misty time for White Watch. We have been followed all the way from the Falklands by a few Albatross’, and are often surrounded by Hourglass Dolphins. Discoverer is hoping to be at anchor at Gritvken on South Georgia, by Monday evening.

As we draw closer to South Georgia, the desperation for cigarettes is critical and the eagerness for a good bit of kip is not to far away. So our journey continues through the sunny but cold days and brightly lit nights with our wild escorts of commerson dolphins and large albatross birds hundreds of miles from their homes on land, across the surprisingly calm Southern Atlantic Ocean.

Harry Pankhurst