350 nm to Cabo de Hornos for djuice dragons

by Mikael Lundh djuice dragons on 10 Feb 2002 With Cape Horn no longer far away, we anticipate lots of troubles. Despite
all the bad weather, breakdowns, suffering and hard work we still believe
Mother Nature will have something installed for us before we pass the
Falklands and the warm weather comes to the fleet. We are on our toes and
very often we get extra people on deck just to ensure a good and safe
manoeuvre.

Currently we are in a north-westerly breeze of 27 knots, running the
repaired code 4 spinnaker hard. We have just gone down below after the
first watch without gloves in a very long time. I hope we keep this
weather for a few days and don't have a major change in the pattern just
ahead of the cape.

Onboard spirits are pretty high since we have quite a few crewmembers that
haven't been around the Horn before. They all want to see it. I just want
to get around it and start sailing towards home (Europe).

We have (touch wood) had no serious accidents so far but everybody is
complaining about aches and stiffness and so on. The massage/physio list
for Rio will be long.

Other topics onboard when Nocka [Anthony Nossiter] is going nude up for
the first time on this leg. (There is nothing like a good nude up...
according to Nocka). Spike’s [Peter Doriean] repair job on the code 4 is
working beautiful and despite our very good onshore sail makers, I believe
they should consult with the miracle man a bit more often in the future.

Knut [Frostad] has been busy driving and pushing us around and about, it's
hard to keep the speed on and up when your alone and he is the speed
police, sometimes it's hard to take it on but the massive stacks that are
moved around the boat make a difference...

Grant [Wharington] has proven to be a force and his driving, while under
spinnaker is very good.

Jacques [Vincent] is rounding the Horn for the sixth’ time and some of us
wonder if we will do the same one day. His experience and constant seek
for excellence is sometimes tiring but invaluable and I wish people would
take what he has to say more seriously more often. (Including myself.)

We all want to eat real food and I wonder, when the food program really is
going to take a turn towards the real food, at least myself is used to.

Icebergs haven't been on the menu for a few days and that relaxes
everybody a little, there might have to be some work done to stop the
global warming in a more extreme way.

Winter Olympics are starting tomorrow and we want all the news we can get,
especially hockey and skiing news. There are off course no real rivalry
between the Norwegians and the Swedes on the issue of winning the most
important medal of the Olympics. The gold in the ice hockey will go to
Sweden. We have never lost to Norway in ice hockey, ever...

To all of you a happy 9th of February to my wife and family a really
serious I love you all and I’m thinking about you all constantly.

Inga I miss you.

Written with pleasure for all of you who love this sport by,