BT Global Challenge - LG Flatron Leg 3 Update

Back in second position LG FLATRON have worked seriously hard in the last 48 hours. Having travelled 183 miles at an average speed of 7.6 knots, LG FLATRON are only 17 miles behind the leading boat Olympic. At time of writing estimated time of arrival is Tuesday 16 January - Wellington is in sight - only 90 miles to go. We wait with anticipation.

We have been at sea for 5 weeks now and have about 1day to go before we arrive in Wellington, New Zealand. We have had some terrific sailing that included going round Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America, and sailing across part of the Southern Ocean.

We set off from Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 10th and then sailed 200miles down the muddy waters of the River Plate, to the sea. It was very strange because apart from a channel for big ships the River Plate is not very deep - at times we only had 1metre or less of water under the bottom of the boat which was quite disconcerting.

From the River Plate our next milestone was the Straits de le Maire, off the southern tip of South America, which lie between Staten Island and Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego is a large island separated from the bottom end of Chile and Argentina by the Magellan Straits. Around the southern half of Tierra del Fuego are a series of islands; “an archipelago”, which includes both Staten Island to the south-east and Cape Horn Island to the south. On the southern tip of Cape Horn island is a small mountain 400metres high called Cape Horn,

Cape Horn is notorious amongst sailors for rough weather and big seas, particularly from the days of large wooden sailing ships. Between Cape Horn and Antarctica (in particular Elephant Island made famous by Shackleton) is Drakes Passage that is 600miles wide. A huge body of water is pushed through this passage by strong winds and the ocean currents from the west. As well the mountains to the north (Andes) act as a partial barrier to weather systems which are also funnelled through Drakes Passage. This produces big waves, particularly around Cape Horn, where the waters are relatively shallow, around 100metres or less, because of the Continental shelf. Off the edge of the Continental Shelf to the south the waters are 4000metres deep.

We were not disappointed because we had strong winds and big seas off Cape Horn however we were too far away to see its mighty rockface. I have visited the island in calmer weather 4years ago and on it is a Chilean guardhouse, a chapel, a small lighthouse and a huge metal silhouette of an albatross. During our time in the Southern Ocean we have seen many birds, in particular Albatrosses, with their large wingspan, gracefully gliding around. Also we have seen different types of Petrel and in the water yesterday chasing our bow (front of the boat) were what looked like dolphins - they were black and white.

Christmas at sea was a little different to Christmas at home but we still managed to celebrate the occasion and give and receive presents. Rather than bring gifts on board (or get a visit from Santa) we each picked a name from a hat and made a gift for one of our crew-mates. We had to find things from the boat - bits of string, paper, food old clothes etc! and come up with a suitable gift - it was fun trying to think of what to make. I made a paper bird (origami) and I (Amanda) received a small anchor made from wire. Other gifts included embroidering a name on a hat, a drawing of all the team members and making a ‘beany baby’ from a duster and some rice. We also received before the start an Advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree with the numbered pockets filled with jokes, from Daneswood School and friends from Nottingham.

We managed to make a special Christmas dinner - we had rehydrated chicken and pear with real roast potatoes, stuffing and gravy. Everyone enjoyed it as it was a change from the usual pasta meals. We even had Christmas pudding (thank you Amanda’s Mum) and Christmas cake (thank you Andrew’s Mum) which helped us remember Christmas at home. I think we shall all remember Christmas 2000 at sea, it was very special for all of us.

The weather has been quite kind to us and we have had very strong winds on a few occasions in fact today the sun is shinning and we have even had days of no wind - usually unheard of for the notorious Southern Ocean. However at times it is bitterly cold when we have winds from the south from Antarctica. We have not seen any icebergs on this leg but we might between Sydney and Cape Town. The skies have generally been cloudy and yesterday it rained all day - a drizzle just like in the English Channel. As a result we have seen very few stars at night unlike the last leg when the skies were very clear and full of bright stars.

Several days ago we had our stronger winds which resulted in a damaged staysail, the second sail back from the front of the boat. The following day after it happened, mid-afternoon we completed a 28hour (100man hours) sail repair on the staysail which tore from leech to luff (one edge to the other edge) during a tack when the wind shot up from 30 to 40knots, causing excessive flapping of the sail - we had to sew everything by hand as we are not allowed a sewing machine on board. I was quite involved in this repair although Conrad the skipper supervised, as he has in the past worked for a sailmaker.

You may ask what we wear on deck to keep warm and dry whilst we sail? This leg we have dry suits similar to what Scuba divers wear, except ours are made of a breathable gortex material and have a high fleece lined collar and hood. Under them we wear thermals and a mid-layer consisting of salopettes and a long top which has a fleece lining with an outer windproof shell. For our feet we have sailing boots, our heads we also wear hats or full face balaclavas which cover everything but our eyes and on our hands we wear gloves - normally either divers’ wet suit gloves or divers’ dry gloves which keep your hands dry and are fleece lined.

It has certainly been very close in the last several days and during most of the leg the top 5 or 6 boats have been very close such that in the Straits de le Maire we saw 4 other boats and off Cape Horn we saw Quadstone and Compaq and have since then seen Compaq twice - incredible considering the distance (over 5000miles so far), duration (29days) and the size of the Southern Ocean.

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com BT Global Challenge Page
• BT Challenge Website