ISAF : Email From DJuice Dragons

<I>Yesterday, we tried to enter the roaring forties discretely: low speed, no noise except the sails flogging in the swell. We hoped to come there unnoticed. Of course, it has failed.</I>

We are in the “standard roaring forties”: westerlies 30 knots, tons of cold water on deck, albatross in the sky and on the top of it 2 icebergs this morning.

Down below, everything is tightly secured, nothing left unattended. When a crew is going on watch, he spends half an hour to be fully dressed: find those precious boots and keep them out of the water coming from the companionway (leaking of course), put on fleeces, foul weather gear, goggles, and harness. Four hours latter, the same in reverse.

Navigator has the privilege not to be exposed too much to weather. He spent time in his shack, struggling with Inmarsat B to get weather data, monitoring speed, tracking ice on the radar, and trying to win the war against insidious humidity. Office conditions are far from trade union standard…

We feel on board the concentration of racing in those lonely latitudes. That’s what the guys are looking for in the roaring forties.