Cape Horn, here she comes!
Kirsten is making her final miles to Cape Horn in manageable conditions, positioning herself well south of the Diego Ramirez Islands with another 90 miles to go at 0800 UTC! Abhilash is under surveillance with an hourly tracker update due to the leeshore proximity and gale force winds today. He has regular weather updates and will helm quite a lot.
With a nice high east of Puerto Montt, Simon at anchor has to wait for a window in the southerly winds for a long upwind leg to the SW, away from the lee shore. Meanwhile, Gugg to the west of the same high pressure system is enjoying downwind conditions, 1° away from the screaming 50s, and back to his daily 125 miles being now 1250 miles from Cape Horn.
Further west, Ian has finally hit some NW wind which will strengthen during the day as it turns NNW, a point of sail that Puffin doesn’t usually enjoy but maybe a little bit more after several days of running away from the calm? It is the same high pressure that has finally reached Jeremy who is going to have a nice day of calm as he likes them (or not).
UPDATE – Abhilash Tomy
Abhilash called at 0852UTC to advise failure of his Wind Pilot self steering gear and that he had used up all his spare pendulum blades in previous failures. He confirmed he has lashed the tiller and is now considering all options. At 0405UTC GGR had given Abhilash his position and a weather forecast as he was sailing along a lee shore with increasing winds over the next 24 hours. The GGR tracker was set at hourly at that time. He has requested no assistance and is in control of the situation. GGR will update as more information becomes available.
At 1900, Abhilash called to say he has made a new servo rudder from his spare rudder and hopes it holds for a few days at least and will continue on, but is NOT making course at the moment in the strong winds. He has been given his position and latest weather. He had hit his head, but all ok and requires nothing. He just met an Indian ship who also give him his position. He plans to tack when the wind drops soon. Kirsten will round Cape Horn in the next hour and all looks good for her.
