News from the boat reported
daily by Jerzy Kolakowski and Michal Boguslawski
28 January 2004
Leelee,
We'll get hback to Peurto Williams. Storm yesterday and we headed
fo
r cover. We all needed the rest of a night at anchor after Drake
pas
sage. Winds 50 gusts of 75 but the boat is so heavy no problem.
We
did sail backwards in an orderly fashion for a few minutes. Finally,
go to see some stars last night. Southern Cross, Canopus,the
Magella
clouds. I'll get another message out at least from Ushaia.
Patrick
22 January 2004
Leelee,
We have added another continent to the list. We went ashore at
the tip of the Arctowski Peninsula--64 degrees 36 minutes roughly.
Not an easy landing, but we all got ashore in turn. Now we're
headed back north. Perhaps it might even warm up a bit. Something
tells me we'll be back. Cold, severe and gorgeous. There are,
however, too many t
our boats.
Patrick
20 January 2004
Unfortunatelly weather did
not cooperated yesterday, strong wind (up to 60 kts) prevented
them from sailing South. They spend all night sailing around Amdirality
Bay. This morning weather improved and they were planning to go
South.
Robert
KB2PNM
18-19 January 2004
Thay are visiting Polish Station
in King George Island. They should cast off today (19). They Are
planning to sail South and reach Davis Coast. Check the weather
maps where you will find latest maps with ice
Robert KB2PNM
17 January 2004
message from Patric Lee
Leelee Greetings. We visited
cape horn and have the $10 stampas to
prove it. We headed south. Now about 2 days later we have cleared
a
bit of a storm. We have been running under a small storm jib.
Today at the beginning of our watch Gerhard saw the first iceberg.
Now we're in the middle of them approaching Robert and Nelson
Islands. We'll go between them and then up to Admiralty Bay. We'd
like to go to Deception and then down the penninsula, perhaps
as far as Anvers Isl
and and the pass between it and the mainland. Words cannot do
justice to the beauty of the icebergs. The big ones are a piece
of cake; it's the little ones that cause the problems. One person
watches for
growlers and the other steers. Not a problem now; the newness
gets p
lenty of volunteers. We'll how it looks at midnight. Cold as heck;
even though it never gets dark. More later.
Patrick
Dear Robert, thanks for weather
reports. Everything is ok. Position:
59deg48.6S;063deg36.8W
Pressure:960 hPa. wind from
west, 20 kt
Michal
15 January 2004
Robert, everything is OK. We
are sailing in good direction. Sea is high, waves - few meters,
wind NNW - 7B. Position: 57 deg 49.08S, 64 deg 35.00W. Good humor
in spite of the cloudy weather and rain.
Best regards
Michal
Below - second message dated
15 of January
Thanks fo message. I have never
seen such a low atmospheric pressure: It is 969 hPa. It dropped
from 998 hPa today. I am just wondering what changes in the weather
it will bring? Everything is OK. Position: 58deg39min S, 64deg24minW
Michal
14 January 2004
Robert,
Positon: 56deg 09min South,
66deg 59min West. We visited Cape Horn today. We walked up in
3 groups. Now we are on the way to King George Island and Arctowski's
Station. Everything is OK. Best regards
Michal
13 January 2004
Leelee
We are finally underway. We
left Puerto Williams around 6 pm and now
just after midnight have about 10 or 11 hours to the Cape. We
are m
otoring as the wind is directly in our face. The wind is not bad
bu
t the visibility is terrible. Radar running as engine is generating
p
ower to supply it. The boat is quite comfortable on the small
waves.
It is 61 feet long and weighs about 40 tons. More later.
Patrick
Below is the first message from today
Thanks for weather report.
We are in Port Williams waiting for better weather. So far we
do not yet have permit to go. It is windy
Jerzy
12 January 2004
Robert, we will be leaving
soon, but we will stop in Port Williams waiting for your decision
when to go towards Drake. The spirit on the boat is fantastic,
but we are waiting for the Fax from Poland because some oficials
here have problem with the fact that we are on Polish boat but
we are not from Poland. Robert please remember that you are a
part of the team and like all of us you too have your duty and
a lot depens on you (Jurek is talking about weather reports
-KB2PNM)
Best Regards
Jerzy
11 January 2004
This morning we had big, tasty
and cheap breakfast, then we picked up main sail from repair and
went to visit Mr. Michal Zaprucki, the only Polish man in Ushuaia.
He has been living here since 1952. He's 92 y.old, but in very
good shape. First he told us the story about his way to Sybir
(1942), then story about his colorfull life. I recorded everything
of the tape for TV POlonia. Later surprise, his wife and lovely
doughters served the best lamb we have ever had. Great people.
Wife and doughters do not speak POlish and very little English.
Later Mr. Michal came to visit our boat. We are planning to visit
him on our way back from Antartica and talk more. He's very intelligent
man, and still has good memory. He remember Baranowicze (he was
born there), Syberia, Palestine, Angola, England, Argentina, Buenos
Aires and of curse Ushuaia. He has 4 sons and 4 doughters.
Later we chartered two little
planes and went to film bird view of Ushuaia, Beagle Canal, fiords,
lakes and Port Williams. It was beautiful, snow, mountains, valleys.
Later we visited Polish sailor from Warsaw, who's been sailing
for last 6 years. He told us where to go and what to see. We are
planning to cast off tomorrow AM. We got your e-mail via Inmarsat.
Kaz Maucy is the man responsible for communication. He checked
also all electronics. Everything works great. Weather was good
today, sunny, little wind, sometimes short shower. I will send
next message tomorrow before departure.
Best Regards
Jerzy
10 January 2004
Hi Robert, we arrived without
any problems. Everybody is fine and got all luggage. We were on
the boat at 3 PM, but very tired, so we decided to check the city
Ushuaia. It is small, very cozy little town. We ate dinner in
local restaurant and around modnight went to sleep. One more thing,
it's getting dark here at 11PM! Today in the morning after breakfast
we devided work between us. There is a lot of things that need
to be done, checking sails, riggings, washing etc. Few of us will
go to buy proviant. In spite of the fact that there is a lot of
work spirit is high and everybody has good humor. Graham is a
fine man we like him. I think he starts to like us as well.
Weather is changing every hour.
We have about 200 meters to internet caffe. I will check mail
frequently. It is cheap - 50 ichnich for 10 min.
We are planning to cast off
tomorrow in the afternoon, sailing towards Port Williams, but
we may delay it since we are very busy. We are waiting for you
weather report for next few days. Best regards.
Jerzy Kolakowski.
