05 Feb 2016

Stormy Southern Weather

The past two days have been stormy and as I write my mouse is being well exercised by rolling along the desk and back again. We are tacking to the weather to minimise the rolling and pitching as best we can but there is no escape from the elements in the great Southern Ocean. Yesterday as we pitched into 4-5mtr head seas with 35kt head winds there were quite a few books being read in between expeditions to the dining room. The weather systems were moving through faster than predicted, so we struck the worst conditions late yesterday and at 0100 this morning we tacked across to starboard to get the wind further aft in order to stop pitching. This manoeuvre meant we started rolling instead. At least it was a change. Fortunately most aboard are enjoying the spectacular ride as we speed at 12.5 knts down some of the seas. Everyone is taking pictures so there will be plenty of stories to tell in the months ahead. The wind speed is dropping now and is predicted to be back to around 15knts tomorrow morning. Those not enjoying this part of the adventure were happy to hear our new Campbell Island ETA is around 1300hrs tomorrow, well ahead of schedule.