Day 5. Escaping the bureaucracy

So, there we were; reams of paper duly stamped, signed and stuck into
various passports, log books etc and we were off down towards Cape Horn.
Turning our backs on the last "town" in South America represented a
significant milestone for us all. We were truly on our way.

Our target destination was Calate Marchialle, on Isla Herschel, just a
short hop to Cape Horn, where we were eagerly anticipating an
opportunity to land and have our passports stamped. This is becoming a
rare chance as the Chileans are likely to stop this practice in the next
summer season.

During this transition, we all took turns to take the helm, or to do the
rope thing (My understanding of the correct terminology is a bit "ropey"
at the moment, as you can see). An amazing team stew made earlier in
the day was completely demolished as various shifts reported in to the
galley after their respective shifts.

It is interesting how you adjust to disturbed sleep when summonsed to
take the 2 am shift. There is nothing like a blast of cold air to wake
yourself up, and we are not even into the cold stuff yet.

Sailing in the Cape Horn region is interesting! Especially when you
turn the wheel "left hand down a bit", when Captain Darryl actually
asked for "right hand down a bit". Still, there is nothing like a bit
of a mistake like that to focus the mind at 3 am.

Our last bit of navigation was to pass through a tricky little narrows
called Paso Brava. So named because the locals reckon you need steel
balls to do so. All done at about 1:30 am. This amazing piece of
shipmanship was achieved by Mary and myself under careful tutelage from
Ben and Darryl. We are now legends in our own minds. Helm orders were
being regularly issued, which seemingly had me driving the yacht
straight onto the rocks, a thing that I did not want to be associated
with.

Never mind, Captain Darryl and first Mate Ben had it all under control
and at about 2:30 we awoke the rest of the team as we dropped anchor for
the night, about 2 hours before hurricane force winds were forecasted to
hit.

We all slept well for the rest of the evening (or what was left of it)
and awoke to some pretty strong winds and some rain. So, in the best
TTC traditions, we turned our attentions to preparing and eating food
all day. By 3pm, the weather was showing no signs of easing and the
details of the trip to Cape Horn remain a bit foggy.

Chris