day 30, Christmas day and rounding the Horn

Day 30. We had a couple of reasonable days of wind which hastened our progress to the Horn. We rounded the Horn on Christmas day at 1015. Conditions at the Horn were pretty grim, 60 to 80 kts of SW wind and a horrendous swell. The visibility wasn't good in the horizontal sleet. we kept well south and outside of the rise of the continental shelf. Unfortunately we blew out the topsail and lost the mainmast. The loss of the mast, whilst significant, turned out to be a blessing as it lessened the ice accretion on deck, and thus prevented our capsize.

The reality of our rounding, after several weeks of very calm conditions, was actually quite different. We sat on deck in the sun drinking bubbly and all chatting as we motored round n flat calm conditions. Lovely social and stunning backdrop for christmas.

We continue on 'towards' Port Stanley in the Falklands. We do have a bit of northerly wind due so we may skip the Falklands (which are to our north) and head straight to Cape Town about 3000 miles away.

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