XPLORE EXPEDITIONS

Blokes on Boats

2012-01-14T07:39:00.001-08:00

AJ, GJ, PJ and SJ what a mixtured team !

Nothing could be better than a summer cruise back up the Tasmanian coast
with a buch of blokes who just love the water.

AJ is Andrew John, GJ is Gary John, PJ is Peter John and Skipper Stephen
John, I dont think I have ever had a crew who have all been "J ed" in their
middle name, but here we are.

Summer in Tasmania has been summer, warm long days where dawn starts at
4.30am and doesnt get dark untill 10pm, day time temperatures in the high
20's and low 30's ensures a toasty tan to those working out side or on
boats.

Xplore layed up for winter, but then slowly emerged for sailing with the
Launceston to Hobart yacht race, a small team of good friends joined forces
for an enjoyable and not too serious race down to Hobart, we even startled
the fleet with showing great turns of speed, not bad for a 38 ton ocean
sailer !

But this evening we are smootly slipping up the Tasmanian coast, just 4
happy sailing blokes and a smooth sea.

Hobart showed us a great welcome with four key Australian races all arriving
in time for new years eve and a spectacular fire works display. A great
festive enviroment with the best of Tasmanian foods, wines and entertainment
along the docks.

The new year in colourful flair also meant it was time to work again, on the
boat that is, and Xplore was slung in her hips and dried out on shore for
her bi-annual scrub a dub dub.

New cutlass bearings, propellor shaft checked, sonar changed and checked,
and of course a new years bottom paint job, clean as a whistle and ready to
roll the ocean waves.

Its been a busy time in Tasmania for me, not the easiest times for a sailing
chap, land issues can really take it out of a sailor, but some things need
to be done.

Dawn came yesterday with a favorable forecast to depart the southern coast
and to head north, fresh winds, a new No 2 yankee and a slippery bottom
meant we have enjoyed amazing pace around the coast, 10's and 11's all day,
with even the auto pilot winning the fastest with top speed of 12.9 knots.

We expect to arrive back to Beauty Point in the Tamar river some time late
tomorrow, with these fair winds and some luck from above, may the voyage
home continus so blissful.

Stephen

Morning has broken

2011-07-01T12:49:00.001-07:00

There are times in ones life that you will always remember, good ones, sad ones and bad ones.

But today, the dawn light is just creeping over the eastern horizon as we pass Ninth Island close on the northern coast of Tasmania, the seas are flat, the winds are calm, the stars are still shining brightly as they have all night showing us the final way home to my country and home.

We all could not have had a more enjoyable and relaxing "Second Half" to the crossing from New Zealand, the first 675 nautical miles were a tad on the demanding side and a reminder of what heavy weather sailing is all about.

The second half has been a joy, the type of ocean travel that you dream about, and which reminds us why we come out into the seas to visit distant lands, over come adversities and test ourselves, just for these delicious magical moments.

We have 26 nautical miles to travel until we enter the river system of the Tamar, this leads to Launceston, but more importantly to Beauty Point, my loved home and place where I have some of my best friends.

We left Punta Arenas in Chile on the 16th of April and we arrive here on the 2nd of July, just over 9,200 nautical miles, and once again in true Xplore style these miles have been filled with adventure and challenges.

As Skipper I have tried to always write about where we have been going, whats been happening so that readers of these blogs can briefly transport themselves into our very different world in the extreme and remote parts of the world that can only be visited by sea.

My greatest thanks though, and thanks that can never be said enough goes to my crew, Audrey first mate, Julie and all the other fine people who have helped me sail Xplore in such a professional manner which has safely delivered everyone to their dreams and back again.

This winter Xplore will remain in Tasmania for a well earnt break and some normal maintenance, and after that only god knows ?

Stephen Wilkins A proud skipper, and a happy Australian

Great Balls of Fire

2011-06-23T16:29:00.001-07:00

Sailing into electrical storms at night is something that land lubbers will never understand, and quite understandably, and you would have to ask the question of reason and sanity about why silly old sailors would do such a thing ?

Wellllllll, you see there are weather systems that you want to be on the right side of and there's the other side that just isn't going in the right direction, so you have to pick one or the other, sounds quite simple.

So last night we picked the right side of the system, but there is a down side to that, lightning, thunder, very strong gusty winds and heavy rain ! hmm you ask, doesn't sound very smart at all.

Every weather system is fed by external and upper atmosphere air masses which have different characteristics, and some times these don't mix that well or get along nicely, a bit like putting some guys from the Hells Angels in with a bunch of gay ballet dancers, you just know that there is going to be a fight.

The fight didn't last that long, and I am not sure who won, but it was spectacular. There we were sailing along and I was watching the winds start to creep back from the North, I just said to Jane that we would put the last (4th) reef in as it was feeling more unsettled and there was another, even darker cloud mass coming, and as we went to do this, ga boom !

Within seconds the winds went from mid 20's into the 30's and then 40's, we banged on the auto pilot buttons for 50 degrees course change as I ran back to the helm to tak it manually, Jane was dumping the main sheet and the winds peaked, and the torrential rain came bucketing down, we had to get off the wind to ease the pressure.

All hands on deck, as Audrey felt the sudden change from her bunk, tearing away down wind the girls fought with the main and brought it down and under control.

The lightening bolts and thunderous booms from the electrical storm directly above us was incredible, it was all happening very fast and there wasn't even a moment to shut the computer systems down, to do up your jacket or to even consider whether we would be hit by the lightening.

The crack of the whip noises, and the great balls of fire as the white fists from heaven came sparkling down left everyone awe struck and totally sodden with rain and perspiration, job done, boat fine, everyone safe.

Postion 37 03 S 167 42 E speed 7.2 knots course 242 true 1003nm to the Tamar River and Tasmania

Bug City

2011-06-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

Your skin crawls with tingling shudders. You scratch so hard that the pain is nearly enjoyable. The nights are so long because sleep never comes, only the insects that silently drill holes into your skin. In day light the horror of the nights animal feasting becomes apparent. The lumps, welds and scars cover any, and every part of your body. Tucking into bed is no longer a pleasure, just the start of yet another execution session.

New Zealand, and its stunning Bay of Islands is a delightful place. One of the most important part of that delight is the incredibly warm, friendly and helpful people.

We have now spent a week in the harbor town of Opua, and the weather gods have tugged at our mooring lines stronger today, just to remind us of our plan and dream to finally sail Xplore into Beauty Point there in Tasmania for winter.

We leave the Bay of Islands and Bug City with smooth seas and a sunny sky, still scratching from the onslaught from the sand flies that they call "Midges"

Stephen

Thered be sheep in them hills

2011-06-13T01:05:00.001-07:00

The feelings of making land fall to any sailor are always very strong, the longer the voyage the stronger the feelings.

We left Punta Arenas Chile on the 16th of April and we are now just about to enter the port of Opua in the Bay of Islands New Zealand, it will be the 14th of June, a smidge under two months and 7,500 nautrical miles later.

The land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand) is also reknowned for their sheep, millions of them, more sheep than the total population !

Many of the Xplore team have been to these shores before, but for each and everyone of us this marks end of the Pacific crossing. Many of the team will continue through to Tasmania, but some will depart here in New Zealand.

For most people the thought of traveling such as distance by sea is far too daunting, and the thought of being together on one relatively small boat with 8 people is inconceivable. But those who have sailed long ocean miles will always tell you that the days slip by much faster than you think, and that there is always something to do, to look at and to think about.

More news to come as we wash the salt from our clothes, put on some street gear and taste the foods and beverages of the Long White Cloud.

Stephen

Sweet Sister Sue, I fell in love today

2011-06-01T16:15:00.001-07:00

Oh dear sister Sue, what can I tell you, I dont know how it happened but I fell in love today.

She's such an incredible woman, with curves and hips that send me quite wild, she moves so sweet and being with her everyone turns their eyes to stare at our grace.

I feel so good being by her side, I feel like a man when she is tucked under my arm.

She purr's and sings in such a sweet way, I now know how a woman can be when she's content and at ease with me.

For years I have looked for this woman, and for so long I didnt realise that she was there right next to me.

As friends in the past we have taken great paths, rough and extreme, much of the world that we have seen.

But today she has opened my eyes, and let me be the person that I have always wanted to be, the smile that rises on my face is the proof that true love is really in place.

Stephen and Xplore South Pacific 12 knots true wind, 38 apparent, 8.2 knots boat speed, 1/2 meter smooth swell

High There

2011-05-31T08:49:00.001-07:00

The South Pacific Ocean, like all of the major ocean have a dominant "High" pressure cell located within these areas, they give regular and constant winds in a generally set direction which are call "Trade Winds"

Sailing the Trades, as they are often fondly called, means for relaxing, and relatively easy sailing (as long as you are going with them and not against them)

And like all good things in life, nothing lasts or stays forever, and that also can be said about the Trades.

We have again for the last 30 hours had wonderful sailing, power broad reaching with the asymetrical spinnaker up logging a constant 8.5 to 10 knots. Everyone has beem helming (steering the boat) and the grins on faces as the speed climbs over 10 knots is always infectious.

BUT, it stopped !! Bugger, Dam, put some more money in the wind slot machine! Please

Hmm, cant do much about that I suppose, so we have to continue at a slower pace under engine and what ever sails will stay up and not flap and flog themselfs to bits.

The South pacific High is a littler bit similar to the North Atlantic high, in that it is a split system, it starts in the west and pushes into the east, as it increases in size it dominates the whole area untill it gets pushed further to the east, then weakens as the next new high pressure cell forms again out in the west. Between these two High's is often a dividing low presure cell to keep it all mixing up, and making sure that sailors dont relax for too long.

We now have only 1,163 nautical miles untill we get to our most western waypoint, then we will head down towards New Zealand which is another 1,100 miles.

So, see you soon, well that depends on the Trades ?

Stephen

Xplore Medivac Up Date, Pitcairn to Gambier Island

2011-05-22T02:25:00.001-07:00

There is deep sadness on board Xplore at the present time as we continue through to Gambier Island, I have attached 3 emails to the Mayor of Pitcairn and officials of what has transpired in the last nine hours.

Stephen Wilkins

I am so sad to have to inform all concerned with the Medivac of Terry Young that at 1638 local Pitcairn time on the 21st of May that he passed away whilst on board Xplore Expeditions on route to the Gambier islands Mangareva.

Melva Evans the paramedic nurse and all of the crew on board Xplore work hard for 35 minutes to try to resusitate Terry but were not able to.

During this time we sort additional medical information and advice to assist us from Pitcairn doctor Peter Cardon .

We will continue through to Gambier island with an expected ETA of the morning of the 22nd of May.

Stephen Wilkins Xplore Expeditions

Dear Stephen,

I understand from Dr Peter that Terry has passed away.

I wish to pass onto you and your crew my deepest gratitude for what you have done and what you continue to do for us. I didnt expect this to happen but I know you did all you can. We're all grieving the loss and i know you're grieving with us too. Could you please pass this message on to everyone on board and know that even in times of grief one can find love and peace. I know this event will affect you all for the rest of you lives, but know this, that we have reserved in all of our hearts a special place for all of you guys.

Thank you guys and gals...one and all

Could you also pass on to Melva the following message...."You did good sis...proud of you girl! I know you're feeling devastated right now but know this...."Naked I come from my mothers womb, And naked shall I return there The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord" Job 1:21 Hang in there and we'll see you soon.

Mike Warren Mayor of Pitcairn

Dear Mike, we all here on Xplore have been touched in a very special way with this whole experience, with Terry, Pitcairn and life.

You are very true with what you wrote, that this is an experience which has and will touch all of our lifes for ever.

Personally I feel sadness and grief that I wasnt able to get to know Terry better than what I was able to in this very short time, we did talk whilst he was with us and I felt that there was a very warm and kind man there, maybe one day you all there in the island will help us to understand more about what and who that man really was.

The whole team on board thank you for your kind words, and we all know that there is now a connection with Pitcairn which no one ever can take away from us all.

None of us ever, for even one moment considered any other option than what we chose and that is to help our brothers in need, for that we stand proud as humans with empathy and love in our hearts.

Please do pass this one with our deapest sympathies to all of the family and such kind folk there at Pitcairn.

Stephen Wilkins, Audrey, George, Julie, Mike, Bob, Lyn, Catalina and Melva

Friday on my mind

2011-05-20T23:16:00.001-07:00

Well some stories just have to be told as it happened and as it is.

We arrived in the early dark to the mystical dark shape that loomed out of the ocean called Pitcairn Island.

I have read and dreamt about this place since I was a child and was shocked by the news stories in early 2000's about the family crisis and crime that happened in this fabled and historic island.

Inhabited but the mutineers of the Bounty in 1790, Fletcher Christian and his followers certainly found an amazing remote Pacific island, that originally was charted as being in a different location, hence why they knew that they wouldn't be found for quite some time.

We chatted with the locals on the radio (Brian with a warm welcome and the offer for the next day of a good cup of tea on shore) and to get inside advice for last nights anchorage, we needed a place ideally close to Bounty bay, but with light to some time moderate winds from the North East we knew it would be a rocky rolly night. But to anchor on the other side of the island would dearly eat into shore time today, and we had only calculated a day or two here at best and the weather is still changeable, so we cant muck around.

Shortly after anchoring the heavens opened up once again and a deluge of rain coated Xplore with thousands of gallons of water (something that we are getting used to again here in the tropics)We had agreed to call the island some time between 7 and 8am to arrange for our visit and there wasn't anyone on board how wasn't champing at the bit to get to meet what these amazingly friendly people in the very special spot.

Dawn broke and I quietly sat on a damp deck marveling at the eastern side of the island as dawn broke through the distant skies, looks like not a bad day of weather for us, even if the wind was meant to pick up a tad during the day.

7.30am seemed like a good compromise to see if the island was awake, and what unfolded after that was an act of god.

Now god does move in mysterious ways, ways that I cant begin to understand, but Friday the 20th of May 2011 was meant to happen, to us on Xplore and there at Pitcairn.

With the volume not turned up too high as most of the crew were still sleeping after doing anchor watch, I called up the island and was greeted promptly by another voice on the radio, and this was Simon one of the island officials and welcoming committee, boy what I welcome we had walked into !

Simon asked when we would like to come ashore and for how long we would be there, just the day I replied as we are heading through to Tasmania. Simon then asked me to stand by as one of the other islanders had a question which we may be able to help with, to which I of course said that we would be delighted to if we can.

We changed channels to VHF 14 after there was a mix up with Peter who was trying to contact us but was calling for a yacht called Discovery, we though there must be another yacht around, but found it very strange that there would be 2 yachts called Xplore and Discovery at Pitcairn island both at the same time and day ? it wasn't, though he just had his metaphors all a bit screwed up, we laughed a lot.

Peter turns out to be the resident doctor on the island with a practice that is responsible for the 52 people who live there, not too taxing one would say, especially as the Pitcairnese have a great reputation of being very healthy. Hmm today wasn't one of those days though, Peter was calling me for something a tad more serious.

I agreed that we could talk as soon as we were on shore, and that if we could help them we would, but a sneaky part of me knew that something more serious was brewing.

The locals here don't muck around, because at 8.20am they had their fishing work boat / dories out through the surf and alongside Xplore which was rolling a bit like a fat pig on roller skates.

Myself and three others were the first in, and whisked onto shore where I had all the ships papers and passports to do the usual and necessary clearance in, what a fantastic ride in to their tiny protected boat ramp entrance, sitting on the back of a booming wave we surfed in with Brenda one of the boat drivers going for it like Juan Fangio. Hard to port we swerved at the last minute behind the break water and full astern she rammed the out board motor, whew, we were there, great ride, dont need coffee this morning.

There at the break water dock were quite a few people and they quickly asked who was Stephen the Skipper ? I raised a happy hand and on this I was asked to jump on the back of a quad bike with a stocky strong bloke, and told that we would sort out customs and immigrations later (all very casual I thought) but they did say that I was to be taken straight to the health center as Doc Peter needed to talk ASAP. hmmmm, me think something's cooking here !

Everyone was so nice and so welcoming to all of us, you couldn't help but smile and to be glad that we had come to Pitcairn, we zoomed up the steep road up the mountain to where the main village center lies, just like Brenda, Brian made some cool sweeping rally driving turns around the muddy potted lanes and boomp there we were at the health center, boy, lots of quad bikes here today, maybe its morning tea time that Brian had mentioned.

I was shown into the center and then passed over to Doctor Peter where we slipped into his hygienic office, a warm smiling face, but you could see that something was troubling him and I already knew that they had a bit of a medical situation that they may need some help on. Peter started talking and within moments I knew that we had been chosen to be here today.

Their problem was that they had one of the locals (Terry) who had 30 hours ago come down with some bad pains in his torso, what started out looking like a stomach ulcer , was actually appendicitis, and to make matters worse, it had ruptured !

We have all heard of horror stories of this happening, but generally years ago, but to be on a remote island in the Pacific is not the place to have this happen. Doc informed me that they had taken additional advice from medical staff in New Zealand, and had tried to contact 2 ships which were in the general area, one ship handout responded and the other was 4 or 5 days away and on route to Panama.

Their medical supplies to be able to keep Terry alive were forecast to last for about 3 days, maybe a smidgen more. I knew what they needed and I didn't hesitate to butt in (yes typical of Stephen) to straight up ask where they needed us to take Terry ?

The closest island with an air strip is Gambier Island and that lies 288 nautical mile West North West of Pitcairn, I had looked at it one the charts and knew that we could do this is 1 1/2 to 2 days max.

What happened during the rest of this Friday of Fridays is legendary, of adventure, hard work, community spirit that I haven't seen anywhere before, coupled with unhesitating warm and open friendship to everyone of us here on Xplore, which will live as a life memory and lesson about humanity and care of each other.

Tonight as I write this we have left Pitcairn 4 hours ago, we have on board two new crew members, one who is very sick and the other is a great paramedic nurse, we have 252nm to get to Gambier where the Tahiti / French medical evacuation team are expecting us, so that they can fly Terry out for emergency surgery.

Xplore sails a little lower in the water, not just because of our two new crew, but because of the incredibly generous offering that were gathered from all of the Pitcairn community during today, fruits and vegetables and local items that could mean that we can open our own grocery store, any where ! I have never seen so many bananas in my life !

We all hope and pray that we can get Terry safely there in time for surgery, he's a big tough looking chap but he's not so great at the moment, we need those smooth trade winds to behave for us and sail us sweetly and comfortably there to Gambier.

Stephen

Easter Comes and Goes

2011-05-17T17:55:00.001-07:00

Like so many of the passing's in lifes calenders, Easter marks a special time, and for those on board Xplore it was as well.

The only difference is that we spent this special time at Easter Island ! not quite on the same date as the rest of the world but it marked a specail mile stone in our Pacific crossing.

The day was hot and virtually windless when we arrived so that by the time we had droped the anchor in the bay of Hanga Roa most dived straight into the clear 26 C waters to cool down.

We enjoyed 3 days there is this remote Chilean island of the South Pacific, renowned for their Moi rock statues that surround the island's coast.

The team had one full day on shore, as the other's were taken up with the "Work List" topping up the fuel tanks useing a local open fishing boat, minor stiching on sails, provisioning and general re-tidy.

Bob's wife Lyn was also there at the shore line waiting for Xplore, and she now makes up our full team of 8 that continue across to New Zealand, hopefully with a brief stop at Pitcairn island which currently lies 346 nautical miles due west of our current position.

More relaxed news to come Stephen

Like a bat out of hell

2011-04-27T05:40:00.001-07:00

As if the gates of heaven opened, the chains that held us to Tierra del Fuego broke into dust and the sweet air of the ocean started to fill our lungs.

From when we left the anchorage of the Straits of Magellan four and a half days ago we have travelled 596 nautical miles, which makes an average speed of 5.5 knots, now to any sailor, that is not very fast for a 67 foot yacht !

The route which we travelled was not straight by a long shot, it had twists and turns, some round parts and some curved but the actual distance that we should of taken was 402 nautical miles, so one might ask is the skipper deranged or was there another factor that brought this about?

The slip out of the straits through the centre of the low did work well, the weather system that we had after that was not that well.

Out of the 4 nights we had to hove too for 3 of them (to stop the boat whilst at sea) . The counter currents along the Chilean coast made the seas even well off shore where we were like a washing machine, so even when we had boat speed, we were stopped dead by the continual hobby horsing and gyrations that Xplore made each time as we came over a wave crest.

A few technical, mechanical and sails issues also kept the speed down, and the atmosphere cool along with the temperature, the team on board was also settling into their own rhythm and routines along with their sea legs.

But like all sailors know, ever day and ever watch can be so totally different, and we at last saw what we wanted in the prognostic weather charts....... the re-emergence of the South Pacific High Pressure Cell!!

From late morning yesterday we have seen the back of the South, hell has been closed and heaven awaits those who are patient.

Our mileage that we have travelled in less than 24 hours, in the right direction has changed the faces of everyone on board.

So like a bat out of hell, we'll be coming on back to you

Stephen

Fasten your seat belts !

2011-04-23T09:17:00.001-07:00

Fasten your seat belts !

The southern ocean will always have a mystique and awe about it.

The sea faring stories that have been written about the roaring forties,
furious fifties and the screaming sixties in the past only have changed in
that the type and style of the boats are hopefully a lot better... we hope.

Our departure from the shores of Tierra Del Fuego and the western reaches of
the Straits of Magellan was something of a feat, long hours mulling over the
possibility to sail direct into open ocean or to use the inside channels 400
nautical miles up the coast and then to exit further north from the Gulf De
Penas.

I was happy with either way, but with each of these options there were draw
backs, pluses and minuses.

The prevailing winds are from the NW to SW, and here in this part of the
world you NEVER try to fight against the winds.

The inside channel route is some what protected, but as we found out on the
day before departure that our Cmap electronic chart package that we had just
installed on the boat navigation computer had some serious flaws in their
coverage. These were to compliment our collection of paper charts on board
and play an important part of the total navigation safety picture.

After paying $200USD for just this Chilean section, I was furrious with what
they had supplied us, it was virging on the case of suicide to only navigate
these twisting channels with them alone. I wasnt happy !

The option to sail direct into open ocean, and then north made a lot of
sense, BUT you need to right conditions and wind direction to be able to do
this, as this western side of Tierra Del Fuego is as ferocious as Cape Horn.

The night of the 20th we sat in our anchorage off the side of Magellan, and
I had my head deep in mixed thoughts. We had known for over 4 days that a
substantial low pressure system was going to come across from the Pacific
and take its normal path track around Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn, the
prognosis was for extreme winds on the front reaching higher than 60 knots.

If the low didnt track too much to the SE then we may have a small window to
exit Magellan and cross through the centre and then take the Southerly winds
north on the western side of the low, lots of ifff's and But's about this.

I slept with mixed dreams and woke early as any anxious skipper does, down
loaded some new weather information and looked at the satelite image, hmmm
this low is just about stationary and coming right across the top of us.

To not take this oportunity (and many would say that there is nothing
opportunistic about sailing through the centre of a big low prressure cell)
but here in the south you also learn that some of the calmest conditions
happen in the centre of a low, well thats untill you get out from the
centre.

Many coffee's and reflective thinking I saw that this chance to move was the
best, to not take could mean that we would be stuck there in the south for
another 4 to 5 days potentially, not a great thought as autum and winter is
drawing closer, the days already cut substantially.

The howling winds from the eastern side of the low started to ease early
afternoon, we made our break, but didnt really know what the Straits would
be like untill we exited our hiddy hole ?

What we found and what we saw was amazing, flat smooth seas, low wind, and a
clear passage North West, Xplore was prepared and ready for the Pacific.

In the 2 days since leaving the Straites of Magellan we have had some tough
but fast sailing, winds into the mid 40's have kept everyone on their toes,
rough starts arent the best for settling the stomaches of people but overall
the team has survived in a sterling fashion.

As we tear along 65 miles miles off the coast steering due north we all long
for the warmth of some sun and calmer conditions

Blow and Go

2011-04-20T06:08:00.001-07:00

Well, the life of a sailor is very much about patience, waiting for everything, the winds to turn, the seas to ease, the crew to arrive, the passengers to leave.

We are waiting at the moment in the very western reaches of the Straits of Magellan, much further west than I have ever been before in Tierra Del Fuego, and our waiting plan is all about a low pressure system.

In my years down here I have seen many a low blow through, some small and many very large, and this one that we wait for has to be classified as one of those large ones !

With the Grib files showing average wind strengths in the 60 knot range we know that gusts could be much higher. So in our travels out to this location we needed to find a good bolt hole that would give us protection.

As the name of the yacht is Xplore, we once again did just that, explored and found another new anchorage to hide away in.

If you have that chance Google this Latitude and Longitude and you can see where we are, and named it "Caleta Julie" as it was crew member Julie's birthday the day that we found this place.

53 07.995 South 73 36.250 West

The blow should last for 2 days, but indication have it easing on the morning of the 22nd where we may be able to sail out of Magellan and then head north to more temperate climates and the start of our Pacific crossing.

Stephen

A hoy, what you doing up there ?

2011-02-28T03:02:00.001-08:00

Finding yourself hanging 2/3rds of the way up the forestay off the Antarctic coast with a bitterly cold southerly wind and a three meter sea needs some explanation, about one sanity, and reason for finding yourself in such a position.

Well, where do you start, a sailor knows that some things need to be done, its not a case that certain things can wait, its a case of do it right, do it now, and do it fast, and this was certainly one of those situations.

I had been mulling over our weather window to leave Antarctica after a grand voyage along the white continent coasts line. This trip in February had dealt us a very mixed selection of weather, which also made it that much harder topic the perfect time to leave, too early and we miss precious time in this special white play ground, and too late and the plans,flights and future of everyone on board becomes a messy chess game.

The day of the 24th presented itself with an opportunity, any later would be dicey, and the only thing that was a question mark was the 35 knots of wind forecast for the first night out.

We headed up the Gerlach Strait, with sails flying, a following wind with clear sunny breaks. North of Brabant Island we turned and met with the ocean swell and the promise of a relatively quick but not too bumpy re-crossing of the Drake.

Being my 26th time of crossing the drake I am certainly used to its peculiarities and its temperament, something that no sailor here in the south would ever, ever take for granted, drop your guard for a moment and it will kick your ass so hard you will have nightmares about it for years.

We knew we were expecting wind, a good direction, but as February days are so much shorter now one has to take the lack of visibility and light into account carefully. Audrey and I were on the first of the night watches and we had already reefed down the main sail to 4 tucks, the head sails were virtually non existent as we saw the tell tail signs of a fast changing low pressure system sliding directly over the top of Xplore.

The barometer had been dropping all day and now was 20 millibars lower than what we started, at 958, we knew that it was going to change, probably fast and from a totally different direction, and that it did !

Within minutes of the wind grinding to a holt, as if someone had closed the front door of the house, the back door swung open, and a right feral monster was waiting out the back. 20 30 then 40 knots the winds started blowing, 50 and then 60, shit this is wild !

The winds were not from the West / South West as proposed but from the direct SOUTH, and in Antarctica every one learns very fast that anything from the south is COLD, very cold.

The decision to stop and hove too didn't take long to make, from a skippers perspective I am sure you can see what I mean, boat speed is 9 to 10 knots, visibility doesn't exist as its pitch black, and even if there was some light, the strength of the wind mixed with ice and snow means you cant look at anything anyway. Couple that with the fact that you have a boat which is your life line to the world with 12 people on board and there is a great potential that there are ice bergs around.

Stop and stop fast !

Having too is a traditional mariners way of virtually stopping the boat whilst at sea, it brings calm to the boat if positioned correctly to the seas, not often able to be used on modern fast and fancy plastic boats these days, but here in the south this is something that we regularly use when the going gets just a tad too tough........ like now!

Instead of being a comforting smooth stopped motion by hoving too, Xplore and my fine bunch of feather friends (as I quite often call them) had been whacked onto spin mode in the washing machine. For myself, Audrey and Julie the key crew we are all quite used to this, but the stomachs started to turn pretty fast for the fathered bunch.

But situations like these need concentration and as boss I wasn't concerned about what was happening in the boat, but what was happening outside of the boat !

Southerly strong blows in Antarctic if they are fed with a moist air stream from the ocean means lots of snow and ice in the winds, and this is exactly what we were getting, and for a mariner we call this "Icing" yep a bit like a cake top.

Icing looks really pretty, but on a boat if it happens, and has a lot of snow, then the weight of the snow can if this continues for longer periods dramatically effect the stability of the boat, so you can understand that from my perspective, I didn't really care if anyone was sea sick at the moment, whether their pillows weren't fluffed up, but I certainly was very conscious ad cautious about what and where we were, and what was likely to happen ?

We knew that this Low pressure cell was going to move over us fast, and the barometer was already moving up fast, but a fast rise is a bad as a fast drop, and the 65 knots that we were currently experiencing I was hoping that we weren't going to see any stronger.

We all know the saying that "Every day is a different one" and for sailor we definitely agree with this, it just that for sailors we measure a day by each of the watches that we do, one 4 hour period can be horrendous, and then after a sleep the next can be like a bed of roses, calm sunny and tranquil.

I was woken by the ON watch to be told that the winds had dropped, I had already felt it in my snug bunk that I refer to as the "Cave" positioned back aft on the boat we really feel the swell and the movement when things change. I slipped up on deck and confirmed that our hove too position needed to be change, we had to get under sail, and stop playing around like a cork in the ocean.

We beared away and flopped the head sail over to the correct side so that we could gain boat speed, the winds were still 30 to 35 knots, but gusting 40, really quite calm compared to what we had during the bleak hours of darkness !

As we started to make speed the ice and snow that had built up in the mast,spreaders and rigging began clanging down on the deck and our heads,luckily most of it had already turned soft from the wintry sunny morning.

We settled the boat onto a beam reach (winds 90 degrees to our heading) and I decided to put out just a small amount of the second larger head sail called the yankee to give us a little more speed and stability. Crew at the ready on deck we slowly eased the lines and winched in the sheets to control it, but at that moment we were hit with another 40 knots or so of wind. Within seconds the lazy sheet that sits idle on the opposite side of the boat started snaking in the air, and with enough slack in it, it started whipping like a demon, crack crack at everything in its way. Seconds can seem like hours, but seconds it took and the proud and strong No 2 yankee was torn completely in half.

With team speed and reaction we turned off the pilot and headed down wind to reduce the pressure on the sail, to furl it there and then was the only option. I was gob smacked and shocked, speechless and angry $%#%#&&^%(^&*()&%& came from my mouth like someone had used me as some type of a ventriloquist act on TV.

We gathered our self's and not a lot was said, we were only just off the Antarctic coast and had a long way back to South America and one of our most important sails was in tatters. There's not a lot you can do with a blown head sail in 35 plus knots of wind, I hadn't slept for nearly 24 hours but the show had to go on. We turned on the main engine to give us the extra speed needed to controllably move through the large 4 meter swells that had built during the night, nothing much else I could really do.

Exhausted and devastated I asked the watch to wake me in a couple of hours, maybe my soft pillow would give me comfort and some idea's.

My pillow was comfortable but my dreams weren't, a few hours can make a big difference though and I climbed up on deck with a hot cup of tea and consumed at least 3 cigarettes before the plan unfolded, we had 600 nautical miles (about 1,100 Kms) to get to Ushuaia an we need to do it pretty quickly. The Drake doesn't let people or boats sit around for long in one place before reminding them who's boss.

The head sail had to come down so we at first turned down wind, to unfurl it and then ease the halyard which holds it up, slowly slowly doe it weeased the lines and watched to ripped remains flap and wiggle in the winds, bit by bit it unwound until................ shit ! Where the tear from leech to luff horizontally across the sail 2/3rds up our towering mast the internal rope call the leech line had broken and wrapped it self around the forestay and the top section of the sail ##^%$%^%(*^(&)&(& God this language seems to be the basis of my day !

We refurled the sail again, and I once again sat and smoked another 3 cigarettes. The dread of what I knew needed to be done was all too apparent, before we could do anything to salvage this sail we had to get it down, and that was impossible here in deck. I also knew that if we motor sailed all the way back to Ushuaia that what remained of the sail up the mast would most likely look nothing like a sail after 4 or 5 more days at sea. The other factor that had to be taken was if we didn't get this sail down then we couldn't hoist another sail to replace it, and then that would mean a very slow trip back with everyone on board missing their flights back to the other corners of the world.

Dread and a healthy dose of Dutch Courage, I sat down and explained to Audrey and the team what needed to be done and our options, well there wasn't really any option, it had to come down, and the forecast was for increasing winds later in the day, this moment was probably going to be the only chance to get the sail down and replaced if there ever was going to be
one.

So there we are, swinging around like a koala bear clutching to a gum tree in a storm 2/3rds the way up the forestay, knowing that if I let go at any moment then my brains would be cracked in pieces by the forestay or the inner forestay, well at least if I passed out I wouldn't feel too much pain.

The long side of the story is good, I did get up to the cut point of the sail and cut away the leech line that was stopping us from unfurling the sail so it could be lowered. I am not ashamed to say that I screamed a bit towards the end of being up there, as the blood streams in my brain were about to explode.

I am so proud of Audrey, Nigel and Justin who worked side by side with me on deck and made sure that I did get down in one piece, along with the sail.

I lay on my back still in my climbing harness for at least 10 minutes, I couldn't move. With a bit of time I found some energy and lifted myself from the deck, I didn't smoke 3 cigarettes at once (that's how bad I was feeling ) but we tidied the deck and put the sad and twisted No 2 yankee to bed.

But the job wasn't finished, we had won the first part of the battle and the confidence to win again was strong, the replacement sail had to go up. We woke the rest of the sailing team on board Julie, Assaf and Sami and within a hour we were sailing again.

I write this for you all, so that you know some of the different sides of being a sailor, its not always easy or a champagne cursing that we do down here, but also for myself, because I have found that every time that I have a tough, difficult or traumatic experience writing it down is some what therapeutic.

Now we are 100 nautical miles exactly from our eastern way point to enter the Beagle Channel, 26 crossings of the Drake meant that this was my 13 expedition to Antarctica............... God I am lucky.

Crabeater Seals can fly

2011-02-22T13:26:00.001-08:00

Sun shine and a crystal clear mornings haven't been happening that much here in Antarctica this February !

But when they have it is certainly been something to savor for everyone on board Xplore.

The islands of Hovgaard and Pleneau were our anchorage and birthday location for Troll, feeling that she was getting very old we decided to have a grand party the evening before, and invited great chum and mate Henk and his guests to join in the celebrations.

The rising of the sun did bring rays of light which for a few of the team were a tad too bright considering the strength of the birthday punch and the copious amounts of other delightful liquor's that were consumed during the night, but the warmth of the sun reminded us why Antarctica is so amazing.

Sitting on deck with a few of the team, I was positioned at the stern of Xplore having a quiet "Lets get my head together" type of a start along with a needed cup of tea.

Others were on deck including Assaf one of our able bodied team members from Israel, cleaning the decks with buckets of crystal Antarctic water, I was noticing a Crabeater seal swimming towards Xplore, and the floating shore lines which we use to keep us in position.

I didn't notice this crabeater at the party the night before, but it was a busy night, because this chap didn't have his bright brain cells working too well either, because as he was swimming up to our floating lines he just plum forgot or didn't see them !

With a splash and a great flap he whacks straight into the line, makes a rubbish sort of a dive down to cool off his sore nose.

This really gave me a chuckle, silly bugger, and I went back off to my fairy head land admiring the views with a sweet little smile on my face, oh nature can be so amusing !

Within about 20 seconds of day dreaming we were all startled to hear a great Ge splash from the Starboard side of the boat, my first reaction was that bucketing washing Assaf had fallen in the drink !! but as I quickly had turned my head, it wasn't Assaf entering the water but the end of the Crabeater who had tried to jump up on board Xplore !

Now to get a few figures straight here, Crabeaters when fully grown are around 400 Kg, the height of Xplore from the water to the deck edge is about 1.6 meters, and the life lines and stanchions are about another 0.6 of a meter higher on top of that.

Well the silly bugger, must have known that we were a great place for a feed and a drink because if he had managed to flop over that last little height of the life lines we certainly would have been in for very rude awakening, because a 400 Kg Crabeater isn't the nicest of guests to try a shoo off the boat at any time of the day.

Well, he left his mark in all of our minds, and he also left his mark on Xplore, the 600 mm high stainless steel posts that hold up and support the life lines are strong bits of steel. The Crabeaters entrance meant that he bent one of these over at a 40 degree angle Oppps, that's something new on the work list to repair !

Antarctic Adventures continue as we head north east to Enterprise island

Stomachs rumble, stomachs grumble

2011-02-03T02:52:00.001-08:00

How could you ever look a client in the face before leaving to cross the Drake and honestly tell them that they weren't going to be sea sick ? Its a bit like thinking that a bank wont charge you interest rates on a loan.

Crossing the Drake though does come easier to some than others, but its often interesting as a witnessing by standing that is a none sufferer, about who will, and who wont be sick, an that is virtually impossible to judge or place a bet on.

There's the quiet sufferers who crawl into a corner, or to the depths of their dark cabin, there's the noisy "I want to make as big a mess" types, and there's the sly types where it just sneaks up on them and catch you by total surprise.

And you cant forget about the macho types, that always are looking for some thing else to blame this malady on "oh it must have been the peanuts that I ate" it's never happened before.

But I love the strong willed, get it out of the system and get on with it types.

You can see how horrible that they feel, their guts are wrenching, their faces are covered with tears and traces of the last meal, and they throw their heads back, lift their red strained eyes to the sky (obviously asking why god has done this to them) but they always surprise me because they just jump in and ask to help on deck, take another glass of water or even straight into another meal..... impressive.

There are though many medications and techniques that can help people to avoid or to get over from sea sickness, but the trouble is that it takes a test or two to work out which type works for the individual, that's the frustrating part, because even though you are taking something to stop or cure this, it some time reacts and can make someone feel worse.....poor poor souls.

But being comfortable and confident with the fact that you are on a boat,staying warm and dry but not too hot or too cold makes a difference, the human mind is a powerful device that does have the ability to help control the internal balance system that triggers this in people.

Stephen

Gale came, then everyone went to bed

2011-01-22T02:46:00.001-08:00

Funny how some people just make you want to go to sleep.

Not sure if its their grey personality, their habits or lack of jokes but Gale seems to certainly be one of those types.

For our team of Antarctic ski climbers who managed to ascend 12 different peaks during their time on the white continent they all feel the same way about Gale.

Its a bit of a shame, because when you get to know Gale, she really does have some interesting sides to her, but maybe that just takes a special type of person to be able to see that.

We left Antarctica in mill pond perfect conditions, the whale society was out in full force for our departure, waving their hands, tails and blowing their horns. ooooh what a send off it was.

We settled down into sea life again, as Xplore changed face from "Hotel" mode back to southern ocean sailing mode, the forecast was for a soft start and then two periods when we would get some stronger winds The (Gale Sisters)

I write as a few snores and grumbles come slipping out from the cabin door ways, its been sitting stead at 38 to 45 knots of wind coming from the ENE, seas are about 4 meters.

The barometer is continuing to drop rapidly as we strategically position our self to go through the centre of the low pressure cell the heart of Gale) and then exit on the WNW side of Gale to give us a favorable wind direction to make the final run into Tierra Del Fuego and the Beagle Channel.

Position at present 60 degrees 19 minutes south, 65 degrees 44 minutes West

Stephen

Beef Indian Curry

2011-01-13T13:49:00.001-08:00

Position 65 degrees 14 minutes South, 64 degrees 15 minutes west, Antarctica

We are located in Stellar Creek, chartered in 1935 by the British vessel Beagle.

This is located on the island of Galindez which was discovered in 1903 by the French expedition under Charcot.

Galindez is part of an island archipelago called the Argentine Islands, again discovered and chartered by French Charcot and named Argentine in appreciation for all of their support of their expedition.

But what has this got to do with Indian beef curry ?

Well tonight we are enjoying a fantastic Indian beef curry, made by an Australian, particularly for the British team of ski climbers that we have on board because a good curry is renowned as their favorite national dish.

It is accompanied by extras prepared by an Argentinean and 2 French, and is just in time before we visit the Antarctic station which is close near by which is Ukrainian, but formally was English.

Hmmm, a slightly large mix of international elements to the whole day.

Stephen

What to write ?

2011-01-02T05:30:00.001-08:00

Writing can be such a power thing, for the writer and for the receiver.

But there are times when its hard to know "what" to write, even though you just know that there is something itching to come out, some part of your soul and experiences that need to be put down on paper.

I sit here tonight (well I cant really call it night as December in Antarctica and its close surrounding waters is never dark) but there I go,I've digressed.......now where was I, that's right, trying to find something to write about.

Our climbing / skiing expedition leader,Jim has stuck his head up from the cabin, he's a tall chap and a metabolism of a 17 year old youth, and the engine that drives him needs fuel, he's been just a tad queasy for the first day, but now that his sea legs are really kicking in his worms are restless.

Duracell Dave, our expedition surgeon, well he's been bouncing off the walls and ceiling, great guy to have around for a chat and a helping hand, always looking for something to do, and with a permanent smile, he's infectious.

Ski expedition surrogate woman Bethan, has come back to the world, its her first ocean sail, and the understandable nerves of the Drake started early.she took to her bunk and we didn't see her for the first 24 hours as the seas were a bit lumpy and not a training play ground, safe move. But now she's up and in the Admirals seat of the companion way and amazed at how the boat doesn't roll over, tucking into a modest bowl of Shepard's pie, she's a happy girl now and back off to bed.

More news on the team and its members as the adventure unfolds.

Position 61 58 South 63 04 West course 181 true speed 9.1 knots,

temp 3.3C water temp 1C wind WNW 24 knots

Stephen

Slay Bells Ring

2011-01-01T11:41:00.001-08:00

How can one ever explain the joys of ocean sailing unless you have experienced it... and not been sea sick !

Ohh my heart goes out to those who do suffer this malady. and I can say that from my experience of youth when I also used to be vilently sea sick. My first encounters of sailing there in South Australia still bring vivid memories back to my mind and stomach.

We have taken the plunge across the Drake, the first stage was rough, wet and exhausting, for all of the team in their own ways, but slowly each have bounced back after fighting their own fears, dreads and doubts about what the Drake will be for them.

I am though very proud of each and every one, because they really came for what is on the other side, and their dreams were far stronger than their fear of the Drake, the white continent Antarctica is getting closer !

Position 59 15 South 63 09 West, course 169 degrees true, wind 29 knots WNW, boat speed 10.2 knots, out side temperature 4.1 C, water temp 4 C

Xplore Expeditions

Year to Year

2010-12-31T17:39:00.001-08:00

2010 slipped from the pages of the calender as we like wise slipped south into the Southern Ocean and Drakes Passage.

Xplore and our reporting of the adventures this last year have been a bit quiet, as the range of demands and activities have beem just a tad consuming! needless to say that we havent written because of the lack of want, but from the lack of time.

Xplore is full as a goog (greatexpression meaning a hard bolied egg because you cant fit any more in) a fantastic team of 8 ski / climbers and a hardy team of on board crew.

Tierra del Fuego weather kindly let us exit its shores in a calm smooth way, but its neighbours werent so knid, the Drake tried to let us believe that summer and warm weather would take us accross its seas, but he was only joking, as we quickly slipped into 4 reefs, and reduced stay sail and yankee.

The turning point from one year to the other sees us with 32 to 42 knots orf wind from the west, a heavy 4 to 5 meter sea slaps the "fat english girl"(Xplore) on the ass as we swish down the wave faces doing 9s and 10s on boat speed.

The washing machine out side gave a few team members a good dunking im the cockpit, but all were safe and sound.

We wish everyone that we know, and who have sailed with us a safe and very enjoyable 2011.

Stephen

360 degrees

2010-11-26T06:31:00.001-08:00

360 degrees

Sharing amazing life experiences with joy, is a gift, it doesn't always happen easily and it certainly doesn't mean that it is felt the same way by everyone around you, and at the same time.

Life on the outer edges of the remote parts of the world is different than what most of humanity see, and that makes those places important and difficult all at the same time. If remoteness was always easy then there would be thousands of people there.

Remoteness doesn't mean that its lonely or escapism, its just placing yourself in a different location so that you can experience something that is not seen or felt, in what many a person would call their normal life. And what one person calls remote, another would say its normal.

Often I meet people that talk of the loneliness of big cities, I have felt that feeling and it frustrates me, it doesn't make sense that with hundreds of thousands of people around you that you should feel alone, scared and without hope.

Anyone can also feel the same way in remote locations,especially if they have got themselves in a pickle and haven't got a solution to get out of there or to change things.

Each day we try to be the connection and the guides for helping those with us to have an amazing experience, and yet over the years I have also been learning that each person daily takes that responsibility into their own hands.

We choose the most desirable locations each day, based on our local knowledge, and of what people most likely want to see or do, then adjust those wishes and plans with a whole mixture of weather conditional aspects, temperature, snow or rain, wind strength, sea state, sunshine or clouds.

Then the wishes for each and every person comes into play, Do I want to get out of bed? Well that's a good start, Do I have a dream or desire for the day? Now that's not such a bad idea. Is that a collective plan or just their own?

Every year we see a wide ranging collage of people, their dreams, desires and aspirations are all so different. Some people know exactly why, and for what reason they are here, and some just don't really know, but they know that for some reason they really want to be here in these remote places, and that reason will present itself to them at some stage.

360 degrees is a full circle, a long way around at the equator, and also the full turn of a life. We see that here in these remote locations, the life cycles of animals and plants, the joy of birth and the sense of despair in death, the start and finish of each day, they're all 360 degrees !

What happens within any 360 degrees that we experience is up to us, but there is a start and a finish, and hopefully a lot of pleasure in the middle.

Monday Monday

2010-11-09T17:39:00.001-08:00

There is no such thing as the "Monday Morning Blues" in the Falklands,and that's because its normally grey.

Xplore and the team has been in the Falklands for a couple of weeks,

final preparations for sailing, some much needed fine turing

on Mrs Perkins (our loved generator who has been going through

menopause for some time) and the chance to have time to share with

our many friends that we so rarely get to see.

The late October gales whipped and tore Xplore at the side of the commercial wharf, for 2 weeks we didn't see winds less than 25 knots,for 4 days it didn't get below 35 knots, and peaked at 66 knots and remained over 55 knots for 6 hours (the Falklands has an annual average wind speed of 17 knots)

But even though we were grit blasted with rust from the commercial wharf we were in the safest place that Stanley can offer sailors and their boats, a sad state to the once renowned maritime history of the place which once recorded the port as being the busiest in the world in the late 1800's where in one year they had 777 ships visit,now days you are lucky to tie your dinghy up with out it being destroyed.

Stanley harbour is just littered with decaying, crumpled remains, of tall ships and the docks, from east to west there is that deathly feeling there to remind you that if you stay too long you will become the same way.

Our client for this years South Georgia adventure arrived late on Saturday,jet lagged but excited, we traveled the dusty road to Stanley at dusk. Otto and Mischa had both visited the Falklands before, as avid bird watchers the Falklands excels itself as one of the great bird locations of the world, but for Murray and Rebecca this was their first time, eyes wide open and lots of questions.

The forecast for departure was mixed, we either took our chances of luck and departed that night with a tired bunch, and a mixed bag of weather looming above our heads, as skipper I was uneasy with this, even if we had a crack team of sailors, I chose to stay over night and get fresh weather information in the morning, and let the team sleep.

Dawn breaks early this far south, at 4 am I sat at the computer and the weather wasn't looking any better, if not more confusing as the satellite image and the GRIB files were strange ( GRIB means girded reference in binary code, digital weather data that gives prognostic forecast)

There was a small but intensifying low pressure cell to the NNW of the Falklands and it looked stubborn, if we left now it was a 50 / 50 chance of a favorable wind direction.

By midday that had changed to 30 / 70 chance of favorable, and by 1800 it was 0 chance, what had looked touch and go turned out to be an easterly gale, diffidently not what anyone needs to go to South Georgia.

Though we were held in port for 24 hours, the time was still well used, safety briefings, getting to know the boat and some time to walk and see Stanley before the 700 nautical mile crossing to South Georgia.

Grey Monday morning came, and by 10 am the sun was starting to break through the clouds, as the winds eased from the SE and shifted into the south, the sign I had been waiting for.

A lumpy sea greeted us at the heads, and everyone knew that it was going to be a washing machine out side, The sailing was fast, but the stomachs weren't so strong, the rough conditions put half the team into their bunks pretty fast, the best place to be.

In the first 24 hours we traveled 201 nautical miles, now as I write it will be 304 miles in 36 hours, the pace is fast and the wait for the extra day has paid off with cold icy winds of the SW pushing us fast to the animal paradise of the southern ocean.

Stephen

Good Golly Miss Molly

2010-10-14T09:11:00.001-07:00

The blow from yesterday had left both of us tired and exhausted, we had traveled fast with the strong northerly winds to be met by the tightly spinning centre of the low.

We had seen it coming in the forecasts, but the waiting game and mental preparation take more out of you than the blow itself.

It came, it went, we survived, with winds peaking at 39 knots, it was not one of the worst blows that we have seen here in the south by a long shot, but it was our first for the season.

The night went slow, as finally the winds started to ease, the seas were like a washing machine which meant that no mater how much sail you have up, the only way to keep head way and movement was to motor sail.

Dawn light started to creep into the skies just after 5am, no other vessels around we plodded on towards Stanley.

I gathered up enough energy to venture on deck to shake some reefs out of the main sail, I had wanted to for some time but my desire and strength of action didnt match.

The day was looking beautiful, maybe thats where the extra strength had come from, crisp morning light where the air has been totally cleansed by yersterdays storm, the air though, still had its cutting sting to it, a quick reminder of what sailing in the south is like.

I preped the main sheet and then headed to the mast, the boat was still moving in an uncoordinated way as the seas were still unpredictable. My decision to shake out the reefs were to give us more power and to stabilize the boat, we currently still had 4 reefs in and I needed to remove 2.

The lines which are normally strapped to the deck with clip ties were looking like a mad womans breakfast, they had been washed and swirled around all of last night where we had been taking tons of water over the decks.

I started to free and sort the lines to be able to raise the main sail, 4th reef out, hoist the main, 3rd reef out, hoist the main, re-sort and tidy. The chill of this morning southerly air also meant that all the lines were icy and cold, my hands were numbed, ohhh I remeber that feeling, but as yet my hands havent grown the thick skin layer that we get each season from working for months in the cold cold south.

One more line to coil, and for Molly her life line, I looked down at the deck and curled up within the lines she lay. At first I thought she was dead. I bent and checked, and my heart went out for her.

There she was soaked and drowned like a rat, I couldnt believe that she was still alive after yesterdays and last nights storm, but closer I looked and I saw the faintest sign of life, a breath or a slight movement in her limbs.

I reached out to her, and she didnt hesitate, with a soft nudge she accepted my hand and came. Molly could have been like any other casualty at sea, gone and never forgotten, but this cold sunny morning she had been given another life.

I carried Molly to the warmth of the Dog House and settled her down, there were rays of sun light coming through the side windows facing east and she flopped immediatly in a bath of warm, life giving sun light.

The more I spend out at sea, with nature, the more I realise how every living creature, IS a living creature like we are, some days are good and some days are bad, we are born and we die, the question is just when.

Molly is a "Moth" I named her that this morning, she has been sitting and recovering in the Xplore herb garden which is there in the Dog House window.

Nice to feel like you have done something nice, even for a little creature.

Stephen Lat 47 42 S Lon 58 50 W Course 176 Speed 6.8 knots,

wind 11 knots direction 265, Temp 5 C

www.xplore-expeditions.com

Half an hour can be special

2010-10-11T09:57:00.001-07:00

Golden rays of light, so strong in colour density that you could eat them.

The sun dips to the edge of the horizon but doesnt give the green flash of love.

The dolphins rise high into the sky as they jump from the bow waves.

The steady winds slip across the sails, helpful hands taking us softly south.

The cresent moon and the evening star are so bright and clear, the night is near.

The warm days light, is replaced by moist air, the close of a perfect day.

The stealthy mist creeps into every space, the deck becomes damp and the windows fog.

Soon we are wrapped for bed, the fog is all around, the world outside cant be seen or found.

Stephen 38 31 South 56 32 west, course 224 T, speed 7.5, temp 12 www.xplore-expeditions.com

Go to sea and stop being a gringo !

2010-10-09T23:21:00.001-07:00

Living in South America as a foreigner will always mean that you are a gringo, especially if you are blond !

No matter how well your spanish becomes, you are still a gringo !

Xplore headed to sea today after a busy but very productive winter re-fit, modifications and maintenance.

The time in the sleepy Uruguayan port of Piriapolis went smoothly, less rushed than previous years, with Audrey and myself having a good work and daily routine.

The changes that we have made will make everyone who sails on board happy, we certainly love the new fabrics in the saloon and some great new electronics that will make navigating and exploring in the south just that much easier, safer and interesting for everyone (special thanks to Charles at Interphase and Juan from Evolutions)

We had a busy but relaxed sort of a week, most times before heading to sea it is just plain pandemonium, not enough hours in the day and too much to do, this time we made it different. There was another good weather window one week before, but there were still a few things to do and we wanted to have the chance to take a breath before jumping back into the South.

Being "Gringoed" was all part of this last week, the taxi driver that we used to go to the airport to clear out immigrations wanted to charge us an extra 14 USD for having to wait an extra 5 minutes in a free standing zone ! and the fruit and veg man who brought down to us this morning some excellent products but started by saying that it was just a tiny bit more expensive than he had quoted, but landed us a bill that was 35% more expensive ! ah the blond hair and a nice boat doesnt help much !

But we slipped the dock with a zepher of a breeze, we headed from the ports break water and I quickly saw that our boat speed impellor log was not functioning (now for most sailors you know that with no boat speed log reading then there cant be an auto pilot) opppps better fix that.

There is a couple of options to fix this, as the problems wasnt that the log impellor wasnt working because we had only re-installed it 2 days ago and we had checked that is delivered a reading, but the problem was that eventhough I had dived on the hull to clean the propellor I had not gone forward to clean the opening around where the speed log comes through. But the hull was generally nicely clean, but if there is a barrier of growth just in front of the speed log then nothing works. So option 1: you either open the hull fitting there in the water, remove the speed log fitting whilst filling the boat with salt water and try and scratch around the out side of the hull from the inside and clear any barnicles or growth (messy and fills the boat with bad salt water which we have to pump out) or Option 2: is to dive over the side with a scrapper and brush and do it in the water !! (not so nice as even up here the water is not that warm, and certainly not that clean).

So as we were only minutes away from the marina, and the boat next to us had their zodiac in the water which would make it easy, so the easiest and fastest option was to dive into the water.

Audrey and I took the boat back in (all the friends had disapeared luckily so we didnt have wave hello with red faces, like the good by that we had just done 15 minutes before) dropped along side our friends boat with just needing one line and a few fenders.

I jumped below to get my bathers and goggles out with a scrapper and Audrey preped the dinghy. Splish splash I jumped into the drink, boy thats a tad cool, but under I went and found the problem, a couple of scrapes and I was out of breath so a quick exit to the surface and gasped for air as I came up next to the zodiac. Well as I was gasping for air there was tense scream from the zodiac, seems that when I hit the surface I blew out all of the water in the snorkel, bit of a shame that it was pointed straight at Audrey who wore the whole lot (hmm some kisses and a cuppa needed to compensate).

Back on board I quickly dried off with white fingers from cold, re started the engine and like a Formular 1 race Audrey and I were back at sea. The log span round and round and Arnie the auto pilot was happy.

We head directly to the Falklands with just the two of us sailing Xplore, we had hoped for our third crew but due to family problems they had to cancel at the last minute, we thank Mike at Pantaenius who has insured us for 4 years, great bloke, and he knows that Audrey and I have sailed Xplore in some tough conditions for a long time now.

The seas are smooth as we slip out of the River Plate, 1000 nautical miles to Stanley, Falkland Islands, Xplore couldnt be in better condition and we look forward to another great season.

If you havent seen as yet we have also posted below and on the website our plan for a Pacific tour which will take us across to Australia and New Zealand after this season in the south.

Looking forward to sharing more great stories as we sail the Southern Oceans.

Stephen, Audrey and the fat english girl XPLORE ! Latutude 36 South 55 34 West, course196 speed 7.7 knots, outside temperature 13 C www.xplore-expeditions.com

Pacific Ocean Adventure 2011

2010-10-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

After 8 years of expedition sailing in Tierra Del Fuego, Antarctica and South Georgia its time to take this fair yacht to some different and warmer waters to show her the other side of the world.

Join Xplore for a multi stage voyage that will cross the Pacific Ocean and take us all the way to Tasmania, Australia with a variety of interesting island stops along the way.

If you only have a short time, then there are sections that will suit, or if you have always dreamt of sailing across the Pacific then what better way, or boat to do it in comfort and in a short period of time.

The Adventure Starts:

Leg 1: Depart Punta Arenas Thursday 14^th of April

3 days cruising the Straits of Magellan through to the western reaches that open into the Pacific. Visiting the Island of Charles the 3^rd, famous for whales, and enjoy a few Fuegan anchorages as we prepare for our first ocean leg to Easter Island.

Leg one 2400 nautical miles, time length 21 days, arrive Easter Island 5^th May

Leg 2

Easter Island, we will have a few days for everyone to explore this magical tropical island steeped in history and ancient pacific myths. We depart Easter Island Monday 9^th of May and set sail for Pitcairn island, 1130 nautical miles away where we will have a brief stop there for a day or two before heading further west to New Zealand.

Leg two 4,000 nautical miles, time length 25 days, arrive Auckland 2^nd June

Leg 3

Auckland New Zealand, some time on shore there in Auckland, the largest city and sailing centre of New Zealand, we depart Monday 6^th of June and venture into the Bay of Islands to relax and explore the myriad of islands before heading across the Tasman sea to Tasmania.

As we cross and enter the famous Bass Straits we plan to stop for a day in the remote Flinders Island. First destination in Tasmania will be Beauty Point, Tamar river in the North East of Tasmania.

Leg three 1,510 nautical miles, time length 9 days, arrive Beauty Point 14^th June

Leg 4

Tasmanian tour, we leave Beauty Point Monday 20^th of June in the NE and cruise the North, East and enter the south coast of Tasmania with our arrival into Hobart the capital of Tasmania. Visiting along the way the Bay of Fires, Wine Glass Bay, Coles Bay.

Hobart with its magical water front port is a marvel of history, architecture, great restaurants and the famous Salimanca markets on Saturdays, 4 to 5 days to enjoy Hobart and then we head to the West of Tasmania to the wild country.

Stopping at Port Davey, only access is by boat or sea plane, we will enjoy this remote area before heading north along the west coast to the also remote and rarely visited King Island, located in the western side of Bass Strait, it has a reputation of some of the most sought after dairy products, cheeses and free range beef.

From King Island we sail NW past Kangaroo Island and Back Stairs Passage to make land fall in Adelaide in the Spencer Gulf. Hoes to some of the best Australian wines, Adelaide and the hills regions is a wonderful place for exploring, enjoying great foods and wines, with its maritime history of the days of the grain races there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Leg four 1,040 nautical miles, time length 13 days, arrive Adelaide 3^rd July

Leg 5

Xplore departs Adelaide Monday the 11^th of July and heads back to the east to Sydney. On route we plan to stop for a day in the port of Eden, on the SE corner of Australia, famous as a fishing port and town, also for the killer whales which have been in residence within the bay, at times working with the fishermen in catching fish.

Leg five 880 nautical miles, time length 6 days, arrive Sydney 16^th July

Leg 6

Sydney harbour is a dream harbour, inlets bays, anchorages and one of the most exciting cities of the world, we will spend a week in Sydney so there is time to enjoy and explore this breathtaking city, climb the Sydney harbour bridge, visit the blue mountains, or maybe a classical concert or play at the well recognised Sydney Opera House.

We depart Sydney on the 23^rd of July and head a short distance north to the wonderful river inlets of the Pittwater and Hawkesbury rivers, and few days to relax and unwind from our Sydney city experience in this very picturesque location.

We depart Pittwater / Hawkesbury on the 27^th of July and head north along the Australian coast to the Queensland Territories, where we find one of the wonders of the world, The Great Barrier Reef.

We may make a short stop at South Port before heading to the Whitsunday Islands which is the start and Mecca of this tropical play ground.

Time to relax in the sun and crystal waters, we will have 10 days exploring the island bays with silica white sands, and make a trip to the Great Barrier reef before returning to Shute Harbour.

Leg six, 1,200 nautical miles, time length 24 days, arrive Shute Harbour 13^th of August

Leg 7

Whitsundays to Wellington New Zealand, an ocean crossing of 1,830 nautical miles, will take us to the impressive volcanic harbour that is secretly tucked away in the Cook Straits.

Four days in Wellington, often called Windy Wellington, we travel a short distance across the Cook Straits to the area that Captain Cook loved as his favourite area to stop for winter periods the Queen Charlot Sounds on the tip to the NZ south Island where we will have a few days to see this peaceful part of the country..

Leg seven, 2,100 nautical miles, 20 days, finishes in Queen Charlot Sound 2^nd September

Leg 8

South Island New Zealand

Queen Charlot Sound to Christchurch, we depart and sail to the eastern reaches of the Cook Straits before heading south to the harbour city of Christchurch where we will stop for a few days.

Further south we travel along the east coast to visit Duneden before heading to the most southern Stewart Island which is a wonderful remote and intriguing island, animals like the Kiwi can be seen, and the walks and bays are stunning.

We head back to the main south island to the port of Bluff on the southern tip to prepare for the next great adventure.

Leg eight, 630 nautical miles, arrive Bluff 22^nd of September

Leg 9

Bluff South Island to the New Zealand Sub Antarctic islands.

At this stage we are applying for permits for a “Friends and Family” trip to the new Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands.

We expect to voyage and explore these wonderful and remote animal islands for 1 month

Leg nine, 1,000 nautical miles, arrive Christchurch October 30^th

Leg 10

Christchurch to Tierra Del Fuego.

We take Xplore back to the South American territories and continue the adventure sailing in the south. This is an ocean passage experience for keen sailors who want to gain miles and serious sailing experience.

Leg ten, 4,200 nautical miles of straight sailing, arrive Tierra Del Fuego 1^st of December.

Rio de la Plata, River of Silver

2010-04-07T19:59:00.001-07:00

The Rio de la Plata, river of silver, literally translated.

Tonight is one of those silver nights, there is no wind as we come the final miles from the tormentuous south, 172 nautical miles left to travel as we cross the continental shelf in front of the River Plate to our winter destination of Piriapolis Uruguay.

Not often do you get to see nights like tonight, especially where we have come from, the moon hasn't risen yet, but the clarity in the warm air as Xplore slides along, making wavelets of silver phosphorescence randomly from each side as we oh so gently roll along in the oily sea.

The stars are out, which just makes the romance of such a special night, they not only twinkle in the sky above, but they are perfectly mirrored in the water all around us.

The silver may have come from the mountains nearby, but tonight the oceans around are wearing it like a grand ball night.

Stephen

By the hair of my chinny chin chin

2010-04-03T02:57:00.001-07:00

When I woke up in the morning and tried to clear my weary head, the low grey nimbostratus cloud that hung over Punta Arenas didn't help much.

I don't often sleep well before any major passage, so being awake at 5 am was nothing unusual, kettle on for a good tea, scrub the old toothy pegs and onto the computer to see what the weather was really going to give us this departure day.

The more I look and understand weather, the more I realize how much I really don't understand, its one of those conundrums which you just have to learn to live with when it comes to weather, because its so much greater and more complex than anything that one person can pretend to understand, the variables are immense.

The one thing I did see was that a newly formed low had set itself up on the west coast of Chile, WNW of our position, and even though there was an indication of a small system being there 24 hours ago, this new satellite image looked imposing.

We had arranged yesterday in the blaze of warm sunlight and the fare well fan fair of the Tall Ships leaving Punta Arenas for immigrations and the naval Armada to come to Xplore and do final clearance for us at 8.30am, the town had been enraptured with all these amazing sailing machines in port, and we had received so many comments that it was sad that Xplore couldn't continue with the fleet.

I turned on the boat electronics for departure, and within seconds the radio squawked with the words Xplore Xplore. After a brief conversation it seemed that the navy wanted us to to their office instead of them visiting us (grey rainy day, no wonder !! ) so we all grabbed our jackets, and me with the boat documents we jumped onto the dock, but there on the dock was the immigrations chap !! back on board we quickly did his paper work and once again jumped back off, and made a run for the navy office as we were now going to be late !

With the change of the main port dock it now takes a bit longer to get out, even the local dogs which are always hanging around haven't worked out the new escape routes. Finally at the navy office, a bit wet I open my bag to get the boat clearance papers finally stamped and we were told by the officer at the desk that the clearance team was there at Xplore on the dock ! well my damp head started to steam at this point, a few words under my breath and off we choofed again back to the boat.

There to greet us at the boat were two uniformed staff of the navy both shaking their heads and saying what a mess up this had all been. I only needed three signatures from them and we were all done, so what was meant to be a smooth start to the morning and voyage was all turned upside down and a bit of a kerfuddle.

A light southerly had already started as we threw off our connections with land, 1300 nautical miles would see us reach Piriapolis in Uruguay, the only things between us being the Striates of Magellan and the South Atlantic ocean.

The Striates of Magellan is a place that I am very careful, weather and the currents around here are unpredictable at best. Its about 100 nautical miles to the east from Punta Arenas to the opening into the Atlantic Ocean, there are two narrows which bottle neck the striates which give currents up to 9 knots in both flood and ebb tides, this means that if you want to travel non stop through this stretch the you have to endure at least one tide against you.

9.30am we departed, by 11.30 we had 4 knots of current against us, by 12.30 that had increased to 6.5 knots, Great ! with a boat speed of 1.2 knots over the ground we weren't going any where fast. but I knew that the most critical place that we wanted positive tides with us was in the narrows, so we just had to grin and bear it, we were nearly at the start of the first narrow and the tides were due to change around 2.30pm.

Slowly, bit by bit the currents started to ease, during the afternoon it was painful watching it until it went to slack water, and then into positive, now we were getting somewhere, and a hell of a lot faster. By the time we reached the second and tightest narrow the current was really hooting along, we all chuckled as we watched our 7 knots of boat speed through the water get turned into 10 knots, then 12, then 14.5 and to gob smack us all we hit 16.6 knots over the ground.

With an expected 3 to 4 hours more of current after leaving the final narrow we had a good chance of popping out in the South Atlantic that evening, not much else to worry about, only 15 to 20 oil rigs, passing container ships and general commercial vessels and a couple of cross channel ferries, all a bit like playing a pin ball machine, except we were the steel ball.

The winds freshened and we made ground, the final point to our freedom was Point Dungeness on the north eastern corner of Magellan, a shoal bank guards the corner which is only good to cross close to in fair conditions, with the wind already up to 32 knots it was touch and go if we could take this short cut.

Just south of Dungeness the radio came to life from the navy reporting station, who were we, how many people and where we were going, all the normal questions.3.6 miles from this cape I was a at the nav table and the wind suddenly dropped, from 32 knots it went to 18 and the boat slowed to crawling pace, then within seconds it all changed. As I so often see here in the south the sudden and fierce shift in winds on the fronts of low pressure it was all on us in seconds, the 70 degree shift now meant we were pointing directly at Dungeness, hmmm, time for a little action as the sails were now flapping and Xplore wasn't a happy girl

Audrey popped her head up from sleep and we quickly put another reef in the main sail, trimmed up the head sail and started the motor to give us better directional speed, this had all happened in the matter of minutes, but we had to clear the cape. With tide now against us, the winds hitting high 30's we crept our way along the edge of the bank.6 miles, 3 then 2, nearly there we had already planed out our sail plan for when we turned the corner.

The sudden change in wind direction and strength had come 3 hours earlier than forecast, but shit happens as they say in the classics, you just have to deal with it. We rounded the point and headed north, even the psychological fact that we turned north seemed to warm me up, but it would be a few days before we felt the heat of the north.

After 36 hours from leaving Punta Arenas we had covered over 300 nautical miles, the Fat English girl gets along alright. That first night was a tough one, as the seas were large and short, the winds peaked at 48 knots and it certainly was a washing machine ride on board, not a lot of sleep was had by anyone.

But every day is a different one, and tonight as I write, the seas have eased some what, the skies have lifted and there are stars all around, the boat is silent as she slips along at 8.5 knots. Its amazing how as a sailor we so quickly forget the tough, the rough and the cold, and revel in the golden moments that we have here at sea.

Stephen

Such A Special Day

2010-03-27T01:12:00.001-07:00

There are "Tall Ships" and there are "Small Ships", and they all need men to sail the seas. But for each and every ship, those men and women who sail the oceans of the world are special.

Life at sea is not for everyone, there are those who choose it for love and for passion, and there are those who through life's circumstances just accept that its their life.

But for all the different types of people that you find that go to sea, the sea becomes part of them, its something that you cant quite explain, but when placed on land for some time a sailor become restless and uneasy.

Around the world every sailor that is married to the oceans, there is one piece of water that has the respect and fear of everyone, Cape Horn.

The morning of the 24th of March 2010 was a special day at that formidable place Cape Horn, gathered to the west of the gnarly rocky island was an armada, but an armada of many nations.

Nine tall ships and one sailing yacht representing the countries of the Americas and Europe came together not to fight but to celebrate a 200 year anniversary, most were navy and sail training ships, but the one yacht was Xplore.

For two years we had been working and negotiating Xplore's involvement in this monumental occasion, and that day had come. We were there as an official photographic vessel to whiteness what possibly has never before been seen in history, the rounding of Cape Horn by nine tall ships at the same time.

As the black of night started to dwain, and the twinkling lights in the rigging of these grand ladies of the sea were turned out, the men on board prepared for a historical day.

The winds were fare from the WNW, a mid level cloud covered the entire sky as the fleet formed into place, to commence a very special race. Yards squared round as they made course for the Horn, sails were let loose like a flock of doves being thrown to the skies.

With masts stretching to the skies, they flew like you would never believe, skipping over the waves they drew closer to the Horn, resting place for thousands who had toiled and strained to round this cape, but today was going to be joy not sorrow.

On board Xplore the cameras whirled, memory cards were filled to the brim and the batteries were flattened and changed time after time, there was so much happening as each ship of sail changed their angle and showed another pretty face to take just one more shot.

That day made history, and will stay in the minds of everyone involved.

Stephen

Tall Ships of Fame

2010-03-16T08:28:00.001-07:00

Tall Ships of Fame

When I first heard two years ago about the Tall Ships circumnavigation of South America to celebrate the bi-centenary of the commencement to gain independence from Spain by Argentina and Chile I was instantly committed to being part of it.

Now the day has come, we are sitting at anchor in one of the small bays in Isla De Los Estados (Staten Island) waiting for our official reunion with the fleet before entering the Beagle Channel.

The only problem that the fleet has at present is the weather ! for the last 3 days the wind strength on the South East coast of South America has been appalling, the fleet has been scattered in different directions, with even the strongest and sturdiest ships making virtually no head way. The Mexican ship 2 days ago turned and headed into Puerto Madrin for protection, and at present the Chilean ship Esmeralda is the most furthest south.

The next 24 hours will be telling to see if the scheduled rendezvous here in Staten will be possible, or that with the delays we will have to move back into the Beagle Channel East where there is a second meeting point on the 19th.

Xplore is the only modern designed yacht which is a part of the 11 sailing ships involved in this momentas event, we will have 3 days in Ushuaia for local festivities and official events, before we take to sea again and head for Cape Horn.

More news to come as the fleet reaches the south

Stephen

The Golden Circle

2010-02-23T13:08:00.001-08:00

Once in a while something really special happens, it doesn't necessarily have to be big ,but just special, and when its shared and enjoyed by a number of people at the same time then that has to be the best !

Xplore during our February Antarctica expedition was able by the grace of god (and some good planning) to be able to make it south and past the "Golden Circle". I am not talking tinned fruit you might ask, I am referring to being able to go to, and past the Antarctic circle, it is the spot in Antarctica and also in the Arctic where on the longest day of the year (December 21,22 or 23 depending on the year) that the sun never sets, it just stays up there in the sky, beaming away like a happy chappy.

We didn't get there on the longest day of the year but mid February, we did get twilight all night, and we also had some of the fabulous weather and scenery whilst down south, the whole continent was there in front of all of our eyes, grand, large, white and pristine, awe inspiring !

We spent a few days below the circle, no sounds apart from the local wildlife, and the lapping of wavelets against the rocks. Days and even weeks could have easily drifted away and none of us would have noticed or cared, those were some of the best moments that will stay embedded in everyone's minds.

But like a dream our eyes must open again, luckily we all have the chance to come back again and see that special side that only Antarctica can deliver, no other place is the same.

Stephen

Ice Ice

2010-02-22T18:49:00.001-08:00

Ice Ice

Silently it creeps, with no sound it weeps, with deathly motion it finds you, to destroy leaving wounds that cut, oh so deep.

Turn your back, it moves with such speed, murder its motive, yet no trace of its path.

With sunlight, it's like a jewel, so pleasant is the viewings of fools

Don't be deceived by its glamour, the noise of its entry, fierce blows from the largest of hammers, whether small, or the large, they're from the same palm, beauty and beast all in one piece.

Locked up and blowing

2010-02-09T08:09:00.001-08:00

The first two days here in Antarctica with the France Vs England battle of the "White Continent" teams have seen an array of talents and skills, muscles flexing as the raw flesh of seasoned athletes have been training and acclimatizing to the atmospheric conditions of the south.

Soft snow, deep leg trekking has been a favorite to harden the leg muscles needed to compete in this grueling knock out completion. High speed zodiac sorties, designed to test a persons balance, agility and strength of stomach as the G forces and acceleration can turn the hardest body into mush.

Evenings also see talents never expected, as the French have battled neck and neck with the English team on lager and red wine consumption. Night 1 had the English in the lead, but then night 2 saw the French make a flying come back as they gulped copious quantities of Syrah and Cabernet, we now see a line draw so far in this important point scoring part of the competition.

Flooding the heads, earlier on in the competition was found out to be a direct attack on the French team by the English, designed to give them cold feet and put the fear of god into the toughest of their team, referee kangaroo Stephen soon pulled a Red Card to this tactic outlawing all future use of this menacing and debilitating trick.

Today has been set as a "Lay Day", to enable teams to recover from the onslaught so far, the weather has been turned up to ensure that no teams sneak additional, and valuable training in the secret of the night, with wind strengths increased to 36 knots from the south, and a wind chill factor hitting minus 5, teams have been quiet and reflective as they plan for tomorrows events.

Referee Kangaroo Stephen said in this mornings official media conference that if teams don't maintain decorum, and restraint in trying to stymie the opposition then an addition day of foul weather will be arranged, meaning that teams which are currently on peak performance levels, will start to feel muscle failure as the cold dissipates their strengths and energies whilst bound to their team camps on board.

More exciting news to come through as the "Battle of the White Continent" continues

Referee Kangaroo Stephen

Roast beef, Frogs and a Kangaroo

2010-02-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

Well it is the year for world cup rugby, so why not have a ding dong battle as well on board Xplore ! France vs. England. On the left hand side of the field we have the French team comprising of Fabrice, Delia and the formidable Troll (Audrey). To the right, we have England represented by Steve Strong, Edward and giant Jim. Referee for this Antarctica 28 day knock out is kangaroo Stephen. The challenge and the games that may be played along the way may not resemble rugby, but there will be a score, a prize winning team and the loosers, just who that will be, time will tell but we will report as it evolves. So Xplore slipped her lines there from the dock of Ushuaia, provisioned and prepared for what we hope is another great success in discovery on the white southern continent. Our plans are to arrive into the middle section of the Antarctic peninsula and then to penetrate south to the Antarctic circle and maybe further, to discover new anchorages and maybe touch on locations never visited by man before. More sports news to come as we head for the Drakes Passage. Stephen

Oh wont you stay, just a little bit longer

2010-01-20T13:12:00.001-08:00

The news machine has been a tad quiet over the last few weeks, and for that we apologise ! but we have been so busy having fun and seeing Antarctica in only the best possible, that its been hard to find the correct words to discribe how 5 different nationalities have seen the frozen South.

So lets try a different way of reporting, and take from each on board their reactions to the south.

Peter from Bonheiden in Belgium: schitterend, subliem continent , een stilte en pracht om nooit te vergeten.

Lyn from Fremantle Western Australia: More than magnificent, an unbeliveable and unforgetable experience

Giorgina from Milan Italy : un viaggio estremo agli estremi del mondo, immenso, grandioso, senza pieta'.....sentendosi in tana, protetti e sicuri. indimenticabile

Eirik from Oslo Norway : Et utrolig kontinent som jeg bare har sett en liten prosent av. Likevel har jeg sett langt mer enn forventet. Et minne for livet som svaert faa foer oppleve. De som gjoer, er heldige.

Audrey from Paris France: La 1ere fois, le paysage vous bluffe, la 2eme fois vous commencez a ouvrir les yeux et a en apprecier les details, vivement la prochaine!

Marco from Milan Italy: magnifica ed indescrivibile se non venendoci...... sinetizzo con ludico acronimo:ANTARCTICA: Awesome Nature Tremendous Adventure Remains Certainly Truly Inside : Come Again!

John from Darwin Australia: From 1 of the best Arenas in Patagonia to the Pitt of the Islands there was no Deception in the forecast(le) weather, so I must pen(a gen)guin re-marc 'O'yes before my words 'peter' out. Truly magnificent trip, weather, crew, guests, yacht and scenery!

Francesca from Milan Italy: ti tramortisce con il suo candore, il suo silenzio, i suoi buffi abitanti... posso tornare l'anno prossimo?

Valeria from Milan Italy; La prima volta pensavo ci fossero solo i bianchi ed i neri ma....adesso l'ho vista anche in technicolor!! No words!

Stephen from Beauty Point Tasmania: A top trip, one of the best.

As you can see 5 nationalities can live in harmony, especially in one of the most harmonious and beauitfully untouched parts left here in the world.

More expedition news to come as we re-cross the Drakes Passage.

Stephen

Drake Lake, takes the cake

2010-01-02T13:56:00.001-08:00

When Audrey went to bake a cake this afternoon, there wasn't any need to jack up the side of the oven tray 20 degrees on the side like we normally do when we are sailing. Why? Because the ocean all around is like a mill pond. Being my 10th expedition to Antarctica I have had calms in the infamous Drake's Passage, I have had light winds, but I have never had it like an oily smooth ocean.

During today we have finally started to see Ice bergs of a fair size sparsely sprinkled along our route, easy to spot by radar, but no need for that as the days are long and it never really gets dark, our latitude being 62 degrees south means that we are constantly getting closer to the Antarctic circle where the sun never goes down. We all have marveled at the reflections of the sea birds that fly by, with the sea so smooth there is a mirror image that one can clearly see on the water. Just minutes ago we had two seals floating on the water surface like they were beach bunnies at some Mediterranean club resort, oh how tough life can be. But for those of us who have been on board Xplore since the start of the season, this has to be the most relaxing holiday we have had for months. Mr. Perkins potters away giving us a steady 6 knots through the water, with our ETA at our first landing location at Deception Island which is one of two active volcanoes in Antarctica at around 7am tomorrow morning. Many on board are looking forward to a nice warm volcanic sulphur bath on the shores of Whalers Bay inside the mouth of this incredible location, reported to soon erupt again, we hope it's not during our visit.

More adventure news to come Stephen

Yakity Yak, which language to chat ?

2009-12-31T20:06:00.001-08:00

There is always an interesting air of anticipation that surrounds a group of people who are about to set off into the wild blue yonder. Especially when you are to cross the infamous Drakes Passage to get to Antarctica. What will it be like, will I be scared, will I be sea sick the whole time, what will the boat be like and will I get along with my team mates on board, so many questions that only time will answer.

Xplore was docked in the Argentinean port of Ushuaia, on the banks of the Beagle Channel that backs onto the Darwin mountain range of snow capped mountains, even now in the middle of summer we experienced dustings of snow on these peaks which make it a truly picturesque place.

For two days we made final preparations and topped up the provisions that will need to last us a month in the frozen south as 10 people from all around the world joined Xplore.

The question is what language do we speak ? we have 4 people from Italy, 1 from Belgium, 1 from Norway, 1 from France and 3 from Australia making a very eclectic group ranging from 19 years of age to my father at 76, a banker, someone from media, an electrical engineer, 3 architects and a student, surely this will be a love / hate experience !

Luckily a number of the team have sailed together before and those that haven't soon fell into the routine and comforts that have made Xplore such a popular boat, good food, great wine, homely comforts in a safe and warm yacht. what more could one ask for to make an adventure complete.

We slipped our lines early on the morning of the 30th of December, birth date to Lyn on board which we will celebrate in full style when we reach the snowy peaks of Antarctica.

With a calm forecast to cross, we have set full sail, more adventure news to come.

Stephen

Working away in Punta Arenas

2009-12-17T06:11:00.001-08:00

The days are long, for two reasons, it's light until 11pm, the sun starts to rise again at 3am and the work list for preparations for Antarctica are long as well.

But all is moving along well, Audrey and I are making good progress with preparing Xplore for the next southern adventure.

Stephen

Something to chew on

2009-11-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

We all like sitting back and chewing the fat, well in English we use the term when you just want to relax and have a think about things.

South Georgia with all its animals certainly have lots of time and also things to think about as well.......who would make a nice mating partner ?, who's getting in my territory ?, where's dinner coming from today ?, aaaaand who are those pesky humans that keep on coming and staring at us all day, and run around on those noisy rubber boats ?

Well Xplore and the team certainly saw a different side of something to chew on. The first experience was after the team had made a shore landing and we all went for a hike, weather being reasonable and we all wanted to stretch the legs, we left our zodiac on a relatively open and empty part of the pebbled shores within the middle harbor of Prince Olav.

On return an hour or so later, with lots of images in our minds and cameras we found two male fur seals sitting either side of the Zodiac there on the beach where we left it, only problem was that one side of the Zodiac was deflated (the same as how I felt when seeing it) with a bit of careful negotiation with the two fur seal boys we gingerly launched the Zodiac and returned to Xplore to find out how bad the "deflation" was.

After an inspection once we had the Zodiac back on deck we found that one of the fur seals had sunk one of their large upper jaw teeth into the back end of the dinghy, Serge and I dismantled the engine and heavy items and brought the rather flat tail end of the zodiac into the warmth of the companion way where we set about repairing the damage, a bit of hot air from a hair dryer, some alcohol to clean the area, repair patches and glue and within an hour is was all back like new.

In all of my time in the south I have never heard of a fur seal attacking a zodiac, Leopard seals do this quite often, but fur seals no ! we continued out travels around the island with a new wave of caution for beach landings.

Time moves on, and the spectacular sights of South Georgia captured everyone, until............, what not again !

One of the very special locations on South Georgia is a place called Gold Harbor, you may not become rich there but you will with experience, its a location that just has the right mix of everything, a hanging glacier perched on a rocky cliff, terminal lagoon to the left and an beach area which has one of the largest colonies of King Penguins, not just thousands but hundreds of thousands. Mixed amounts these beautiful birds is a whole range of other critters, Albatross, Giant petrels, Fur seals and this year we have a rather astonishing number of Elephant seals, males, babies and females all trying to have a happy and peaceful summer's holiday. Reminds me of one of those classic black and white movies of an English beach resorts where there is an air of freedom, some pomp and ceremony, and on the fringes there are the louts with their bad behavior and boozing sun baking and scantily cladded girl friends, there is sure to be some tears before bead time !.

After dropping anchor in the cove it wasn't long before we had the majority of the team that wanted to go a shore and explore, the light was great and the temperature nice, we headed in with a small shore break and I landed them all in the normal spot in the northern end where its calmer. I had circled a couple of times to see how the waves were running, and also noted a lot of Bull Elephant seal males on the beach and cruising the waters, all seeing who was going to get the best outt of those cute girlies that were baking on the beach.

After three or four hours I get a call on the VHF that the shore party was ready to be picked up, happy laughs of some of the wonders that they had seen it was time to return to Xplore for drinks and nibbles. On with my dry suite I headed into the beach to pick up the team. In the same spot the swell had eased a bit, but the activity late in the day was getting a bit more serious as the Elephant seal boys were obviously getting desperate as to who was going to be their girl for the night.

A fast surf in on a wave and turn around, the team all jumped into the Zodiac at lightning speed so that we could get back out of the surf fast without all getting soaked, we all were looking toward to Xplore when within 10 seconds of leaving the beach the whole zodiac physically was shoved to the left, it felt like I had just driven the boat straight into a huge rock, a bit like when you drive dodgem cars at the side shows and no one gives a dam about the damage !! ca boom.

I was certainly startled and looked to the right hand side and saw close to us the hind part of a male elephant seal as he dove below the waters, he surfaced again and had one of those startled looks about him like a punched drunk boxer, what the hell happened there, you could see the expression on his face (he probably said the same about the look on my face as I certainly didn't know what the heck had happened)

Whilst all of this was happening I still managed to keep the revs on the motor, but within a moment I could feel the side of the Zodiac that I was sitting on went totally flat, oooooh Sh.....t, I think we have a problem. I quickly asked all the team in the boat to shift over to the other side and we roared back to Xplore as fast as we could. As soon as we came along side everyone started to climb onboard, but now that the zodiac was stopped I felt the water level changing at an alarming rate, I was sinking, double Sh.....t.

Quick guys, we have to get the Zodiac back on deck other wise we are going to loose it and sink the motor as well. What a team ! for the next crazy five minutes we pulled , pushed and winched the zodiac on deck, full of water, torn apart but the motor was fine, and most importantly was all of us were as well.

It didn't take genius to work out what had happened, we had either been attacked or we hit the Elephant seal whilst he was under water, it was good to look back though and know that we didn't hit him with the propeller as it was the starboard side of our boat which took the brunt of the shock. But his reaction had torn a 1 meter long tear along the side of the Zodiac with ragged vertical rips along the way, Elephant seals have claws on their flippers which they use in fighting and even with human strength I cant tear the material that these Zodiacs are made of.

The next morning at dawn a familiar cruise ship the Hansiatic that I know also arrived at Gold Harbor, I spoke with the expedition leader to tell him about the fisty activity in the normal landing spot and explained what had happened to us the day before. Fletch is a great guy who has years of experience down in the south, he also was surprised to hear the news, but he also asked if we needed any help to repair our Zodiac. I explained that we had looked at it and it was a serious repair, but if within their ships crew they had someone who had lots of experience in inflatable repairs, then a second opinion was appreciated.

20 minutes later one of the ships big industrial Zodiacs pulls along side with the Chief Mate and Bosun of the Hansiatic, and we scratched our heads as to the damage to our now very sad looking Zodiac. Bit it was very plain to see for everyone that this was a shore based repair job. We parted company, the Hansiatic was heading for Antarctica later in the day, luckily their shore landings went fine, and for us we had our second Zodiac to inflate and prepare for duty.

So with another range of different experiences, I will chew on this experience and have a very different regard to Fur and Elephant seals in the future.

Stephen

Georgia, oh sweet Georgia, the whole day through

2009-11-13T04:15:00.001-08:00

Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through, and old sweet song, keeps Georgia on my mind !

Xplore arrived to the western shores of South Georgia after a smooth and rapid voyage from Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The 714 nautical mile crossing was achieved in 4 days to the minute, with clear seas devoid of the often seen ice fields we slipped into Rosita Harbor to a snug and secure anchorage between the shore line bull kelp beds.

Just like the Ray Charles song of Georgia, every time I return there is a feeling of peace and tranquility within the high snow capped mountains that surround you on all sides. With sunshine, South Georgia is a visual wonderland, its hard not to just stare at everything. When the clouds roll in the scene changes again to another mood, and gives you a different perspective of this truly grand island that is the breeding ground to millions of animals.

The sounds which come from the sea and on the beaches, is something which remains in your mind for life, the noises that fur seals make is so distinctive that even in the dead of night you can hear the Phiff Phiff noises that they make to themselves, or the roar that male elephant seals make whether they are making themselves comfortable for the night, or fighting for their territory on the beach can bring fear to even the strongest tempered person.

The team onboard has started to settle into life in the island, no more sailing watches to be done, and meals mixed between amazing experiences on shore, everyone returns to Xplore with memory cards full of images of animals and landscapes that have been carved by thousands of years of wind, snow and ice.

My only disappointment in coming to South Georgia this year is that a very dear friend of mine is not here on board with us to share this amazing experience. Betsy Crowfoot has been such a wonderful support, encouragement and media journalist from the inception of Xplore that she decided after so many years of me writing about the south to try "Life in the freezer" on board Xplore. After working through the final stages of the winter re-fit in Uruguay Betsy sailed with us south to Punta Arenas, and decided that this wasn't her cup of tea. But as we travel around this stunning island, I would like Betsy to know that she is, and will always be on our minds as a wonderful and dear friend.

Stephen

White Squall what a blow !

2009-11-03T22:38:00.001-08:00

White Squall what a blow !

Well after 9 years of sailing down here in the south I would have to say that this little blow took the cake to date, and gave me and everyone on board yet another reminder of the fact that we are only children playing around here in the ocean, and if we are not careful, the all, almighty will slap our wrists when ever he chooses to.

We had just entered the eastern reaches of the Striates of Magellan very early in the morning, we had 120 nautical mile to run through the 2 narrows and then into the widening part of the Striates before arriving into Punta Arenas.

Our voyage from the River Plate, Buenos Aires had been overall very smooth sailing, with one other relatively small blow along the way where we stopped, and hove to for just over 24 hours.

Well we knew that we were going to have some unsettled weather and potentially some strong northerly winds during the day, all forecasts were similar and we proceeded on with a positive out look of the evening in port after 10 days at sea.

Through the first narrows we had fresh winds and some snow from a NNE wind, in the middle widening stretch between the 2 narrows, winds eased and the sky cleared with winds turning unstable and back to the north.

Part way through the second narrows, Audrey first mate woke me after a nap to tell me that it was freshening and that the trend of a constant drop in millibars was continuing at a regular and constant rate.

On deck we continued to reduce sail area as things had freshened, more turns on the staysail (only head sail up at this point) and 4 deep reefs in the main sail.

Sneaking around the final corner of the second narrows we had 35 knots of true wind speed from the NW and 26 nautical miles to go.

Within half an hour we were seeing wind speeds reaching 50 knots true, but with the amount of sail area up we couldn't reduce it further and still keep our head up to maintain course, Xplore was trucking along with no major issues.

Bright sunshine was pouring through the cloud structures as we were seeing all forms of white fluffy things, cumulous, cirrus, stratus and cumulonimbus.

Down below at the nav area there was tension in the air, we all knew the conditions were tough, but we also knew that we were very close to being in port, we were taking a bit of a thumping and the winds weren't easing, 55, 57, and then Serge who was sitting in the companion way under the protection of the new cuddy / dodger called to me at the chart table that he was seeing something ?

So what is it Serge ? a ship, the island not far off our port side, give me more information, well in a typical Serge crazy French way he said that he didn't know, well whilst on the edge of our seats and with electricity in the air, I jumped up to find out what the hell he was talking about.

Words cant explain the sight that I saw, but instantly I knew what it was, and there was no doubt, the whole sky from water level up to about 1000 feet was a wall of white, the sky above was brilliant blue, from full left to right there was nothing but a solid barrier and it was coming towards us fast, the tendons in my stomach went knotted and tight as I evaluated our options, it had to be a white squall !

To the left of us was an island which we were nearly clear of, to the right and closer to the main land of South America, but that was to wind ward, behind was the narrows with its turbulent tidal waters that rip through at 6 to 8 knots with not a lot of room to manoeuvre.

We held course for Punta Arenas, if anything we used engine revs to lift our heading and to try to bring us closer and quicker to the protection of the main land and to ease the force of the wind from the sails.

59 knots, 62, 68 I have never seen our wind gauges ever read this high, and we have always known that it reads lower than what we actually experience and see out there on the water.

The sheets of the headsail were thumping and tearing at the deck hardware, the winches were shuddering as the whipping forces of wind, sails and sea were trying to tear each other apart, I know there was a lot of preying going on, but everyone remained very calm and matter of fact as these hurricane force winds tested what we and the boat were made of.

In the 18 hours up to the white squall the barometer dropped 41.7 millibars, probably about the same, but opposite amount of blood pressure that rose in my veins during this experience.

I look back at the experience and reflect on how it all went, what lessons did I learn and what could I have done differently or better, yes there are points and some aspects that I may change if I ever go through anything like that again, but I do believe that the team of four on board, the boat being very well prepared made the total difference of safe passage or disaster.

I didn't feel at any point that we were going to loose, but I know that in anything but Xplore I would not have been feeling safe or comfortable.

During the afternoon we all took some photos and video, see this link to some footage that Serge took when the wind speeds were in the high 50's and low 60's, from my experience at sea I estimate we encountered winds over 75 knots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5uXVq2Nry4

Stephen Wilkins

Skipper Xplore Expeditions

The First Big Blow

2009-10-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Furious Fifties have lived up to their reputation. No sooner had XPLORE crossed the 50 S meridian than we met with our first ‘big blow’ of the new season.

But we were ready. Several days before Stephen had seen this brewing, and one night the crew gathered around the nav station for dinner as he clicked through the satellite images and grib files, explaining to us what was to come.

The night before was the proverbial ‘calm before the storm’. Audrey and I sat on deck and she admired the bucolic scenery as a crimson swathe of sunset burned between the sea and the brooding sky. “We have petrels. We have dolphins (a small pod of Duskies splashed alongside). We have a sunset.”

“And we have a storm,” she added, her arm panning the sky.

Since then the wind has increased and canvas decreased, as we took in all the reefs on the main, furled down the headsails, until ultimately, last night just after midnight, we hove to. Now we are drifting – deliberately and slowly –out of harms way, waiting for the storm to pass. It’s quite civilized: we stand two hour watches, read, rest, and enjoy meals together. And watch the sea. The swells seem to be born right before our very eyes: huge charcoal grey mountains pushing up from the sea; white with spume; rushing by, one after another after another …

But we feel very safe and secure on XPLORE. I was around for only the last month of the refit to see (and help with) the huge amount of work and planning that has gone into making XPLORE an even better platform for the South. Like the new cuddy atop the companionway with the clear plastic enclosure. You have a 360 degree view of the seas all around, from a dry secure perspective. Stephen’s many seasons down here are evident in the thoughtful improvements made – and especially comforting in a ‘big blow’ like this!

- Betsy

Sea Fog and Monsters

2009-10-19T00:08:00.001-07:00

The main engine burbles along on the oily flat seas, with virtually no movement noticeable on board we could be tied to a dock.

But on deck there is an eerie feeling about, the lines of phosphorescence streams out from the side of Xplore as the "Fat English Girl" carves her way south, surrounded by sea fog, the only sign we have is the soft reflection of the navigation steaming lights against the moisture soaked air that is all around.

It's one of those nights that would have captured the writing imagination of Jules Verne and scared the wits out of ancient mariners, already superstitious as they voyaged into unknown oceans and lands, the feeling that slimy tentacles could slither up over the sides of the deck and grab a dozing sailor doing his watch just seem all too real, you feel like you must stay close to the centre of the boat so as to have a chance of getting away from its clutches.

The sea fog that is all around doesn't let you see more than 10 meters all around, but the cover is close to the surface, so if you look directly above you can see the soft glow of the southern hemisphere stars.

Having left Buenos Aires two and a half days ago we have made good progress down the coast of Argentina, sitting 100 to 150 nautical miles (NM) off the coast we are still on the continental shelf, and shallow waters. Our voyage south to Punta Arenas is approximately 1400 NM and if the weather holds true, we could make this in 8 to 10 days in total, if it turns nasty then god only knows our ETA.

We do have a deadline, as our first official trip for the season departs Punta Arenas on the 30th of October and heads for the exciting island of South Georgia, an animal play ground and haven to millions of creatures.

But in the mean time all of us on board will try to recover from the massive work load and daily grind of the last 3 months of re-fit and modifications, we can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor as Xplore looks so good and sails so sweetly.

Stephen

"Steve and crew,
it is good to hear from you and to learn that you are all underway fo a new exciting season; I am so much looking forward to joining you lot again this winter. I'dlove to see some photos of ur beautiful boat with all the modifications, improvments etc.... and maybe under sail... keep in touch... ciao from a cold milanese morning with a dy in the office ahead.... believe me, you are all quite lucky!!!
yours, Marco"

16 Oct 2009: XPLORE departs Buenos Aires, Argentina for Punta Arenas, Chile

2009-10-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

XPLORE scrubbed, prepped and ready-to-roll!

XPLORE arrives Buenos Aires: 10 October 2009

2009-10-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

At long last we have completed the refit and departed Piriapolis, making a swift and joyful passage to Buenos Aires, Argentina. XPLORE looks more fabulous than ever, and has attracted the attention of sailors young and old here at the Yacht Club Argentino. Earlier today several of the hundreds of junior sailors here for an Opti regatta were invited aboard by Skipper Stephen. After a talk and ‘Q&A’ (How fast can you go? What is the most wind you’ve had? What kind of animals do you see?) they enjoyed a tour below decks, which drew ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ from the youngsters, who came from all over South America to compete in the championship regatta. The bulk of the refit is done but there is much to do still before we depart Buenos Aires later this next week. Next stop: Punta Arenas, Chile! ~ Betsy

2009-10-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

ALIENS INVADE XPLORE!

2009-09-26T08:27:00.001-07:00

Have bug-eyed creatures from another planet taken over XPLORE?

No, that’s Stephen (right) and Audrey (below) removing the glue from the deck to replace the TBS deck tread.

TBS is an incredibly durable and effective non-skid application which Stephen has used since 1999, and which XPLORE, from her earlier incarnation as a Global Challenge racing yacht, had on deck. Part of our refit plans include replacing the TBS … but first, the old stuff had to come off.

Warm sunny days soften the glue enough to make it easy for one or two of us (and on occasion all three: stacked up like a conga line) to peel off. The old pieces are kept to use as templates for the new application. Then the glue must be removed from deck: a crucial process which involves scraping up the goopy cement with copious amounts of solvent, hence the face masks.

Once the deck is clean, the new pieces – which have been carefully cut using the templates and a double-check of sizes and placement – are easily placed down, and the edges are sealed. Voila. At this time we have replaced nearly a third of the TBS on board XPLORE and sunny days ahead promise the rest won’t be far behind.

“When we re-designed and modified XPLORE for the South, we worked with TBS hands on. It’s easy to use, measure, cut and apply; with the self adhesive backing all you need is a clean, smooth area and it sticks and stays!”

Stephen first product-tested TBS 10 years ago, saying “At first I thought there was not enough to grip onto, as the surface seemed smooth; but quickly I realised that no matter how much water came on deck there was always a firm grip and a feeling of steadiness, whether you were pushing hard in racing conditions, or when there was snow and ice everywhere.” Since then he has become a big proponent of the product, for secure footing in the world’s toughest, most demanding and dangerous conditions; Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, and Cape Horn.

FINALLY, WE PAINT!

2009-09-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Sept 21 2009

Today is a gorgeous sunny day and the forecast is for more of the same … so finally, we paint!

XPLORE has been in Piriapolis, Uruguay for her biennial refit. Stephen and Audrey have already added extra navigation area windows, and a newly designed cuddy atop the companionway, both of which increase comfort and safety as well as a bit more brightness below deck. Above deck we’ve been working on replacing the TBS non-skid deck tread, for safer footing underway, plus other odds and ends like replacing part of the mainsail track.

But our plans to repaint the hull have been stymied by the weather, including the last-big-blow-of-the-winter last week, which put us all into ‘chill’ mode. However this morning dawned sunny and clear: Fiky and his workers are already busy prepping the hull, and replacing all the protective plastic that shredded in the storm. We hope to be seeing green (as in the hull, not envy!) soon – fingers crossed. -BC

Onboard but never bored

2009-09-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

XPLORE’s deck is a clutter of tools, parts and projects; the colorful power cords strewn about: up the rig, over the side, and all about. Stephen is dangling from the bos’ns chair up the mast, replacing parts of the mainsail track that got dinged in a big blow on the way to South Georgia. Audrey stands by: passing tools up and down.

Alongside, Fiky and his men continue to prep the hull for painting: sanding, filling and priming, in the hopes that a weather window is ahead. But it’s much too windy these days and the threat of rain is imminent. In the meantime, we keep busy with projects that conditions allow – sealing the new cuddy and oiling the teak trim and rails in between Stephen’s occasional call from halfway up the mast: needing a hoist up or down.

It’s been non-stop and I’m impressed with all that’s been done since I arrived a week ago; and not only that, but the boat on the whole. Even in her ‘undressed’ state she’s by far the most beautiful and powerful yacht in Puerto Piriapolis, and I take more than a small amount of pride in being onboard as part of her crew. After several years of being ‘shore support’ for XPLORE EXPEDITIONS I have come south to sail for the season, and will be adding my voice to Stephen and Audrey’s dispatches here. ~ Betsy

Saint Tony

2009-08-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while a little ray of sun shine comes along in your life, not just a morning beam of light but a glorious and magical beam of light that permutates everything.

For us here on Xplore, that is dear "Saint Tony" (Antoine in French).

For the last six weeks as Audrey and I have been busy with a huge work list of tasks to get Xplore ready for this next summer season, Tony and his wife Celine have been here in Piriapolis with their yacht Shana.

Shana is a French design aluminum yacht of 14 meters which Tony and Celine built there in France and are currently doing their second circumnavigation.

Tony is a professional yacht builder who over his life has built seven yachts for himself; he just loves building yachts ! He obviously loves sailing them as well, as his first circumnavigation was for seven years and this one that they are doing may be around the same length, time will tell ?

When we met Tony and Celine they were making desions about whether they would stay here in Uruguay for a bit more time or move over to Argentina and lift their yacht out there for cleaning and painting.

Well a few days went by and Tony and I kept talking about projects and what we were all up to, so over a drink Tony informed me that he was bored; they had decided to stay here for a month more, but because his yacht was all in excellent shape and didn't need any repairs or maintenance, and that he would like to help us with our work list.

I said to him that I would have a think about some small projects that he may be able to assist with, and would let him know on Monday ... well that was six weeks ago.

At first I was a little bit reticent to ask someone else to help (because I don't like to impose, and secondly that we don't have the budget to pay someone) but Tony on the first day said to me when I told him that we didn't have much $$$$$ that he was just happy working away and keeping busy on a great boat without being paid.

The friendship and his total devotion to helping us get through the mountain of tasks has been amazing, Tony just keeps turning up for something new to do. During our time here, we have tackled a vast array of jobs, cutting new windows into the navigation deck house, fitting new lexan windows, a newly designed stove lock, forepeak hatch surround improvements, forward bulkhead trim, cabin bunk modifications, advice and help on rudder bearing re-fairing and the list goes on ...

Luckily we have been able to help them in a few very small ways in comparison to all of his help, but for me having someone else around me who is soooo "Boat Savvy" and motivated, this has also helped me to remain focused, fast and to methodically work through the tasks and projects at hand.

I know that their time now is limited here in Piriapolis, and now that spring is showing its signs then Tony, Celine and Shana will be moving on. For me I know that there has been a very kind, generous and hard working French man who's standards of work is the same as mine "Do it Right, Do it now, and Do it fast"

He has left a quality mark on Xplore, and that where ever we sail we will think warmly and fondly of Saint Tony.

Hopefully we may see them in the south this summer, but we may just be passing ships in the night; however if you every meet Tony and Celine on Shana give them a warm welcome and a glass of red wine (but don't give Tony any jobs that you KNOW are going to be a pain in the ass!).

Stephen

Marooned on a marina !

2009-07-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

As winter re-fit work continued day after day, we knew that the storm that had ravaged the coast of the River Plate and Punta del Este three weeks ago and taken ashore 18 boats, was not going to be the only one during winter.

Daily, when sending emails, we check the next five days forcast, to see what conditions will be like for work; can we do inside work or will it be shorts and T-shirts in the sun? Last Sunday it showed us that this week was going to be one hell of a windy week, with no real let-up before Sunday the 26th.

Xplore lies at rest in the marina complex in Piriapolis which is between Montivideo and Punta del Este on the Uruguayan coast of the Rio del la Plata (river of silver). We are tied to shore fore and aft, meaning that our bow faces the concrete dock and we have buoys which have heavy chains going to the sea bed. In total we have six heavy lines securing her.

On Monday, by the afternoon we had electrical storms and torrential rains which were forcast, and that was the pre-frontal warm air mass before the blow.

Audrey (Troll) and I made a dash in full wet weather gear to the partially flooded town centre to pick up food supplies and some finally-to-arrive hull paint that had taken over four months to materialise and find its way here! (Even after seven years in South America, I still get astounded by some of the inefficencies we experience here.)

So tucked back on board, dripping like wet rags, we eased our lines on the bow to let Xplore sit back further from the dock as we do every night in case weather turns, and that night she did.

By first light on Tuesday morning the winds had started to blow, they actually had started around midnight, so we could feel whilst lying in our bunks the change of the motion as the waves and wind hit Xplore from side on.

We had a friend from another boat who came over on the dock to see us, and by 9.30 am we could hardly hear his shout as the winds had already increased. The barometer continued its drop. We went to the bow to see if it was going to be possible for us to bring Xplore closer, but the strength of the wind and the motion of the boat had all lines bar tight. To ease a line even half a meter at this point would only put us in trouble.

We waved "Cheery Oh" to Tony and got back to work. By mid-morning and coffee break, the barometer had bottomed out, and it was now a case of how fast would it rise. A fast rise is just as bad as a fast drop in air pressure because the rapid change in barometric pressure means that even though it is rising, it's just a sign as to how the Low is moving away and gives an indication as to how fast the next High pressure system is moving in. When it changes fast, it means that its going to blow hard, and hard she was proving to be.

At the dock lunch time was like a beam reach in 25 knots, dinner time was like close hauled in 35 to 40 knots, and this is tied with six lines! During the afternoon, the seas had built to large rollers that were now breaking fully over the breakwater walls and dumping thousands of tons of water on the fishing boats tied on the inside of the "So called" protected walls of the marina.

We settled in for the night, hoping that these winds would start to at least ease a bit by morning. With clenched teeth and a hope that none of the mooring buoys would let go, we headed for bed that felt more like a washing machine on "Heavy duty cycle."

I woke a number of times during the night, it felt like the winds eased a bit, but by 6 am it was still black, both the night skies and the winds! Troll had been up as well, and even though sleep had come, it wasn't the type that brings rest. We had held alright and everything seemed fine on deck, but we have now been marooned onboard for two days and with winds being as equally strong as yesterday morning, the saying goes that if its blowing hard in the morning it will blow hard all day.

Maybe we will just keep on working away at the jobs list like yesterday, but even that was hard at times. Cutting aluminium was hard to keep straight with all the bouncing around, and to hold the Sikaflex sealant gun on a straight line was nearly impossible, as every gust of wind brought the the boat to a different heal as she strained at the lines and then they would snap taunt with a jerking motion. Oh well, maybe I should have taken up knitting as a hobby! I certainly know some people who have been onboard that would be seas sick here at the dock in these conditions.

So we wait, we work and we stay on watch for a change, good or bad in our little marooned little island here in the marina.

Stephen Wilkins

Tall Ships to round "the Horn" once again.

2009-07-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

In the depths of a southern hemisphere winter in Ushuaia July 2009, I met with three Admirals who were visiting from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago Chile. What could have brought these desk Admirals to the coldest ends of the South America continent at this time of the year ? Skiing ? Not likely, but a dream to celebrate 200 years of when Argentina and Chile first made moves to cut ties with Spain and establish themselves as new countries of the south, that was in 1810 and a lot has changed since then.

My meeting and dinner with them at the sleepy airoclub also inspired me, because their plan to celebrate the bi-centenary was to bring together one of the largest fleets of Tall Ships that still sail and to make a regatta by rounding of South America. From Rio de Janeiro Brazil, south with stops in Argentina and Uruguay around Cape Horn, then north along the Chilean coastal historic ports to Peru, Ecuador, through the Panama Canal to Venezuela, Dominican Republic, then a finale when the fleet reaches Veracruz in Mexico, 5 months of sailing and some of the most spectacular coast lines and historic sailing ports. (see http://www.velasudamerica2010.com)

Xplore will rendezvous with this currently confirmed fleet of 12 Grand "Ladies" of sail when they arrive at Staten Island off the coast of Tierra del Fuego, where we will commence the first 2 week period of sailing in company as an official support / photographic vessel to the fleet.

From Staten Island we will sail the eastern stretches of the Beagle Channel into Ushuaia, a brief port stop, then we will head for Cape Horn, a place that for all sailors around the globe, it is the Mecca that symbolizes achievement in sailing. (please see the included Cape Horn extract below)

After "Doubling the Horn" we head to the central and western reaches of the Beagle Channel and make sail with the fleet up the Straits of Magellan to the Chilean southern most city of Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) where we will end this first leg.

To sail in company will be amazing, to see this all in Tierra del Fuego is a once in a life time experience, interest is starting to mount as word gets around that this may be the last time to ever see a sailing Armada afloat in this part of the world.

Xplore has posted their entries with Argentina and Chile and has been officially accepted at sea and in port. We hope with strong interest, that we will continue to follow in company of the fleet the complete length of the west coast of South America and possibly through the Panama Canal to finish the regatta.

We ask that anyone that you know who maybe interested in joining Xplore for this experience to contact us, as group and longer passage discounts are possible.

So "ahhhhh me hearties, swab those decks and you'll get a bottle a rum"

Come sailing with us onboard Xplore and see those grand ladies under sail like you never will again.

Stephen Wilkins

Time to XPLORE!

2009-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

In these times of economic uncertainty, there is still one currency you can count on. Experience. ‘And one investment that will never fail. Investing in yourself. Especially now, We invite you to join our world of wonder in the south aboard Xplore. It’s a world not bound by stocks and bonds and interest rates. Where ‘climbing’ refers to treks across glacial ice; and ‘plummet’ refers to the crystal streams of Tierra del Fuego. Where the clamor of the stock market’s opening bell is dulled by the cacophony of 300,000 King Penguins on a South Georgia beach. Dare to overcome obstacles others cannot even imagine; be inspired by natural beauty others only dream of; and fortify yourself for the changing world, with the strength, wisdom, perspective, and confidence that true adventure and exploration provides. With the coming 2009/2010 season Xplore has built on our past successes to provide a rewarding selection of journeys and destinations for all tastes and levels. Whether you long to experience the immeasurable wildlife of South Georgia, explore the icy wonders of Antarctica, or the grandeur of Tierra del Fuego, there has never been a better time to Xplore. We have held our rates at last year’s level, and offer terrific incentives for returning guests and friends. Please review the new 2009 / 2010 programme on line and let us know when you will come Xplore with us! Stephen Wilkins and Nicolas Pichelin Skipper and Expedition Leader Xplore Expeditions

Stand by for the 2009-2010 program, to be posted soon!

2009-04-22T22:52:00.001-07:00

Xplore Arrives in Buenos Aires

2009-04-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

In the heat of the night The day sets and the sun slips low over the flat landscape of Argentina, only hours after the moon - merely a crescent- also drops to the horizon. But the heat from the day lingers on as we glide along through the mud brown waters of the River Plate (Rio de la Plata 'river of silver' -- I don't know where the silver is because every time I have come here it's always been mud ! ). We have had a very smooth, and interesting trip north: it's been fast, considering the weather systems and the distance (1440 nautical miles) and through good luck and planning we were able to sit on the right side of the weather systems, giving us such good sailing conditions. After being in Tierra del Fuego for some months and having to do so much motor sailing, it has been such a real pleasure to actually sail Xplore, 24/7. God, she is a great sailor: she laps up the miles and loves the wind. During this voyage we have passed our 20,000 nautical mile mark since launching her in mid-2007, and some incredible miles we have done; and the places ... well even the photos can't tell the full story. We will dock at Yacht Club Argentina, in the centre of Buenos Aires in the early hours of the morning, where I plan to toast Xplore and my crew, whom I have been so pleased and proud of this season. Audrey, as first mate, and Julia crew and second engineer, are a brilliant pair of girls -- anyone who thinks that big boats need to be sailed by big butch blokes is definitely wrong, it's all about technique: brains not brawn. For all of us this trip north has been great, and to feel the warmth of the sun has been a real change. To be able to come up on deck with only one layer of thermals on and to lay in bed without a thick duvet wrapped around you and have to wait the 10 minutes before the cold chill turns into warmth has been a real change, but mind you it has had its drawbacks as well. The change from cold to warm and then hot climates takes a lot to get used to and our bodies have reacted. Dehydration has brought days of headaches, swollen glands and we just can't seem to get enough water in us as we adjust to the temperature change. Even the thick skin on our hands (which your body builds up to fight off the cold freezing conditions in the South) is starting to show the tell-tale signs of dropping off. Yes in previous years I have felt like a snake as large thick layers of skin suddenly fall off your hands as the heat and the climate changes ... oh well that's life in the South. Xplore will be based in Buenos Aires for five days before we take her to Uruguay where we can lift her out of the water for normal annual maintenance and painting. We have a few modifications planned to make her even better, but during the winter break we will still keep in touch with you all with details and plans of next season's exciting events and programs. If you sailed with us this season, thank you for your company and busines! If you didn't, then I hope we see you on board soon! Stephen Wilkins and all the Team of Xplore

Xplore Punta Arenas to Buenos Aires: 27 March 2009

2009-03-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Upside-down dolphin Of course Xplore is a dolphin -- you try and convince all the hundreds of dolphins that have been swimming and playing with us for the last three hours that we're not !! I'ts just that we are an upside-down one and a bit bigger than them. In their eyes we're just like all of their mates in the ocean: grey body, two fins, likes playing and bouncing off waves, never tires of exercise, and the faster you go the bigger the splooosh and bang when you go into the next wave. Definitely sounds like a dolphin to me! We slipped out of the Straites of Magellan like someone had wiped our ass with baby oil: we got the weather and the currents right and did 198nm in the first 24 hours. Day 2 wasn't slow either: 182 miles which then turned into a glorious afternoon of sun, sun and calm seas (classic precursor to another southerly blow). We had been watching closely this new system and as we scraped our way around the southern corner of the Golfo San Jorge we had confirmation that change once again was on its way. With a lowering cloud base the winds continued to move into the north ... there was nothing we could do but to be ready and make our sail changes down early, keep it easy -- it's going to be a very blowy three days. With four reefs in, number 2 Yankee partially furled and the same for the stay sail, we came to meet this new howler in the early hours of the morning. Xplore when she is tucked up for a blow she is great, "snug as a bug in a rug," I some times say (mind you those who are suffering - whom we call 'bucket heads' - don't quite see it in the same cuddly sort of way I do). We tacked off the inside coast of the bay and headed out into never, neverland (South Atlantic). Within an hour we started seeing the loom of lights out at sea, and Jules and I talked about what type of boats they were. My guess was they were squid boats fishing off the shoals in the bay, they use strong flood lights to attract the squid and then use "jiggers" which are a type of fish hook with many barbs that catches them. We plowed on to the east, trying to bring on faster the break of dawn. Dawn came and the sun squeezed through the myriad of broken wind blown clouds, fishing boats all long gone, a confused sea state still remained to build as were not even over 70 meters of depth. Sea birds are plenty and as this story started the dolphins came to play ! For the sailors out there, we were getting solid 34 to 38 knots of true wind, sailing at 34 apparent we are doing 7.7 knots through the water, a good run for a blowy day. We expect the winds to go further north, and then shift to the NNW and NW and continue to blow for the next two and a half days, with a course to steer of 034 degrees true we should make good ground, touch wood and fingers crossed, as all sailors do. More news coming as we head north and finally feel some warmth for a change Stephen

Punta Arenas to Buenos Aires: 24 March 2009

2009-03-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Blasted By Sand, Blasted Sand! Punta Arenas is the most southern Chilean city in this country where the mixture of European cultures has evolved into a wonderful, eclectic mosaic of people, architecture and life style. When it's cold and windy here, its damn cold and windy. Winter and the changes of season see local people flee the area for some respite from the harsh conditions ... others, well they have just learned to live with it. Myself, I enjoy the visits to Punta Arenas. The Chilean people are always happy to see a sailing yacht visit their port; they are always friendly and helpful, and over the years I have made some very special friends in this town. After the excitement of the Avro Lincoln airplane crash, myself and the Xplore team cracked on with the work list in preparations for the trip north to the River Plate, Buenos Aires, and then over to Piriapolis in Uruguay where we lift Xplore out of the water for maintenance and painting. There were some good jobs and some shit jobs that needed to be done ... After two years of travel we had found that the starboard head's plumbing pipes had built up with calcification and narrowed the pipes to the point where they just didn't flush any more !!! 'Damn Bugger' you could here us say, so we spent the best part of one day removing all 12 meters of pipes and then meticulously cleaned out every centimeter of the internal pipe walls. Yep you guessed it, we were ripping the old shit out of the pipes ... 'Nice job' hey? But done and working again we don't expect any more problems with that side, however the girls and me do know that we will have to do the port side before the boat comes out of the water ... who's going to get that job ?! After three attempts to complete the port paper work and documentation, yesterday morning I finally was able to see all the government people to clear Chile and enable us to set sail for Buenos Aires in Argentina: Port Captain, for a new "Permissions to sail"; pay the port entry exit fees; customs department; and then the international police for the stamp in the passports. The day had started calm, but our permanently running satellite weather system began showing a very large new low pressure formationn. In theory it was possible to leave, but by 1030am as I stepped back onboard with the Naval lieutenant who was completing the final documentation, even he spoke gravely about the sea conditions and wind strength in the Straites of Magellan. I already knew in my bones that we weren't going anywhere, but being keen to set off can trap many a well wishing sailor. As we sat there in the cockpit and watched the water being torn from the sea around us, there was no one onboard who disagreed with my decision to sit, wait and be patient. We roared with laughter watching some of the juvenile birds trying to take off from the bay as the gusting winds twirled them around like fairly floss. One bird, after just taking off, was slammed back into the sea, and next we saw him shake his head as if to say to himself, 'Bloody hell what happened there ?!! No one told me about that!' We sat and watched and waited till the billy boiled (yes I know, that's an Australian folk song) and we did; and nothing changed. It blew and blew: the sand from the surrounding hills covering Xplore with dirt and grit, as all day and into the night the winds peaked into the 60's. I woke at 5am, at 7am and again at 8.45. Sleep, I didn't get much of, but by 9am I had formed the plan for the day. The winds had eased and the crew, keen to break the stalemate, jumped into the tasks to get us away. We knew the winds would be on the nose for the first part of the day but we had to get the tides right to pass through the First and Second narrows of the Straites of Magellan. To get them wrong means you can go backwards at up to 8 knots and have to start all over again. Finally clear to go , with a cheer we cast our lines. More news to come as we undertake the 1450 nautical miles to Buenos Aires. Stephen

Update on Found Plane

2009-03-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

The authorities have said it is Argentinian, an Avro Lincoln Mk2, plane number B-019 which was flying from Rio Gallegos south, had 11 people onboard and went missing on the 22nd of March 1950.

Apparently the Chilean Air Force at the time did and aerial search over 6,500,000 Km of territory to find it but never did. Check us out on CNN

Lost Souls in the Mountains

2009-03-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

The glacial ice creaks and groans, the stout windblown trees rustle from the incessant gales that sweep the area, and at the base of the glacier lie the souls of adventurers who flew in their airplane with a dream of success in Antarctica.

We have not been able to report to you all about the discovery that the team on Xplore made during this last expedition in the remote fiords of Tierra del Fuego (TDF) until now. We were exploring the bays and glacial basins off the arms of Seno Almirantazgo when one of the shore party teams’ VHF radio started calling back to the yacht with a squealed excitement.

Rodrigo had gone further up the glacial valley than anyone else and what he found after crossing the glacial moraine would open a wave of intrigue about what he had uncovered.

Lying at the base of the glacier, partially covered with ice and moraine soil were the remains of a large aircraft that had smashed itself to pieces as it had flown straight into the mountains.

Rodrigo's first reactions were a mixture of excitement and emotion as he relayed to the shore teams and Xplore what he was looking at. Touching and turning over pieces in his hands, the size of the parts lying there could not be taken lightly. The huge landing wheel couldn't even be lifted. The sections of the twin tail planes showed telltale signs of the type of craft, and the seat belt in his hand was rusted and of a design from many years ago. The huge propellers lay there, still with their yellow tips, bent and twisted. But the discovery of a parachute that he started to tug on, as it was partially buried, stopped him short in his tracks as he realized that there may be something on the other end of it, and the shards of bones lying mixed within the soil and ice could be …?

Rodrigo returned to Xplore with a few items and a lot of photos, his heartbeat was still erratic as the whelm of ideas and emotions were shared within the whole team. Where did it come from, what nationality, where was it going? Who was onboard?

Just over 24 hours ago, Xplore docked at the fishermen's dock here in the Straits of Magellan, Punta Arenas (Sandy Point). Waiting on the dock were five men from the Civil Aviation, Army and Air Force, who looked very serious. They waited until we had Xplore tied up and then the questions started to roll, on and on they probed Rodrigo about the events and discovery.

Late last night we received news that some possible answers were coming to light. During the Second World War and into the 1950's the Chilean and Argentinean Air Forces had used Avro Lancaster aircraft in the area, and we had evidence of Spanish markings on the plane’s fuselage. These planes normally flew in military operations with eight crew and had the capability to carry 15 passengers/troops.

Even though there had been no listed missing aircraft in this part of TDF, the authorities had received news that in the 50's two Lancaster aircraft had departed from Argentina en route to Antarctica. With extreme weather along the way, both had turned and headed to Punta Arenas to escape the conditions. Only one landed.

Is the twisted wreckage that we have found the other lost plane?

The investigation continues

~ Stephen

Don’t go to sea on Friday the 13th !!

2009-03-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

When you are woken with a slam to the top of your head at five in the morning, it can take you by surprise! Your mind tries to quickly work out what the hell is going on. Am I sleeping with a gorilla which has just tossed me out of the tree, am I sleep walking and smacked into a brick wall

-- orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, holy shit Bat Man, the boat has just hit something.

Sure enough, the forecast winds for Friday the 13th had arrived and that was the start of a very memorable day, for all the wrong reasons.

The night before at the dinner table, Victor (Victoko by nickname) was joking about Friday the 13^th. He was suggesting all sorts of nasty things, but even as we laughed, I had a small amount of dread in the back of my mind. Maybe it was that I knew the weather forecast, or maybe with so many years at sea I am becoming a little superstitious.

Now back to that thump in the top of my head. Any skipper knows when their boat is in trouble, and as I flew out of bed in only my underpants and skidded to a stop in the cold rain and wind, my fears were a very real reality. In our little anchorage where we were tied with three 26mm polysteel line to shore, we had lost the rear stern line and Xplore, in the strong winds, had moved forward and touched bottom (hence the sudden stop and my head banging against the cabin bulkhead (wall). “Damn and bugger,” I muttered to myself as I quickly jumped down the companion way and started the main engine. I had to get the boat and the situation under control damn fast.

My crew were pretty fast behind me and I was thankful that one of them handed me my wet weather jacket, as standing there on deck, just about naked wasn’t going to help the humor of the day (or maybe the crew couldn’t stand to see me like that). Anyway, we quickly got the boat and situation sorted out and Xplore was tied up once again in these blustery conditions. I had felt the katabatic gusts during the early hours in the morning but an exceptionally strong blast, with enough force of leverage had actually torn the tree that our stern line was attached to, out of the ground. Well, there's a first in life.

With all that commotion early in this "Lucky" day, I needed an hour sleep before I could face the new day, probably more to let my nerves settle than anything. I faintly dozed and then "shaken but not stirred," we moved on.

So out we headed. The mission for the day was to survey three islands and check them for wildlife nesting locations. The SE winds had eased, but were still gusty as we turned the corner and headed back into Seno Almirantazgo. We moved along under motor at a smooth rate and life seemed normal. An hour later, we were reaching our first island, when crew Audrey informed me that there could be a problem with the starboard heads (toilet). Sure enough, I checked the toilet and it was blocked. I persevered for 15 minutes, trying everything under the sun to unblock it but she was buggered. In a foul mood, I stormed back up on deck, knowing that a full strip down of the pumps were needed.

After a smoko break, I headed down with a bundle of tools and started pulling it apart. Lo and behold, it wasn’t a shit that had blocked it, but a huge piece of Fuegan kelp had been sucked up into the water intake pipe and blocked it solid. “Well,” I said, “this is turning into a fine day,” as we started to rock and bounce a bit.

Back on deck, the winds had turned and turned bad, straight on the nose, and by the looks of the clouds poring in from the SW, this was not going to be a good day. Big cumulonimbus clouds, wind blown were flying along, and we were being pounded. With headsail out, we clawed our way up the Straits of Admiralantazgo.

Waves and water were pouring over the decks as the combination of wind against tide were giving us really shitty conditions, and those waves were getting bigger by the hour. This was going to be a very slow day. At the nav area, I was working away at a revised schedule and options of where we could go and be located by the end of this "Lucky" day, when all of a sudden I heard a “Sploosh” as I felt the boat lurch from another wave. “Oh shit,” I think someone heard me say as I rushed forward to the cabin areas, to find that two of the hatches had been closed, but not properly, and sure enough, we had taken a good dose of sea water into their areas. “Bugger, damn,” I spluttered, “what a fine day this is turning into,” as I crawled around the floor with a sponge and small bucket before all the seawater soaked into everything.

Hmmm, time for a cuppa (mug of tea) and a few ciggies (cigarettes). We continued with the rhythmic thump thump, splash splash as we tacked our way to the NW. Three more miles and then we could make the final 100 degree turn that would take us into Bahia Brooks. But along comes crew Julia who informs me that someone had left the head’s valve open and that the bathroom was flooded with salt water!

“!#$!^^^$%#&#&#&%#.” Yes, you can imagine I didn’t say nice things but hey, this was Friday the 13^th. The question was, what was going to happen next ?

We all sat quietly and kept our thoughts to our selves; we all know that "Shit Happens" but today was really taking the piss out of us. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, we waited and made sure that we checked and double-checked everything that we did and what was happening. We didn’t want any more of this game today, we had all had a gut full.

Quietly we slipped into our anchorage that evening, tired and in need of a good stiff drink. No other unexpected things happened that afternoon, but needless to say, the selection of strong trees were very good.

Xplore and the adventure here in Tierra Del Fuego continue.

~Stephen

In the heat of the night

2009-03-11T08:36:00.001-07:00

Rarely do heat waves get experienced here in TDF (Tierra Del Fuego), the land of fires, and are seldom front page newspaper stories about temperatures soaring into the mid to high 20's (Celsius we are talking), but over the last three days, Punta Arenas and the surrounds have had some warm weather. Even for us we felt the heat compared to the normal days in this region of between 4 to 12 degrees, so our last three days of boat preparations have been done in short sleeve shirts and we even worked up a sweat.

Xplore departed Punta Arenas early night time with a smooth ripple on the waters of the Straits of Magellan. Early explorers of this region, Pringle Stokes, Fitzroy and Darwin would have rarely seen nights like this.

The team from Comapa here in Punta Arenas are used to the changing faces of TDF. Comapa is a company that has two small cruise ships of 110 passengers that ply the waters of TDF and Cape Horn, giving tourist who don’t want to bother with “flappy white sails” and doing it tough, the chance to see and experience the marvels of this region. The team on board are all part of their company’s Expedition Team, and we are in search of new and interesting locations for wild life and adventure experiences so that they can broaden their choices of landing locations for clients in the future. Yes, TDF is becoming a very popular location as people start to realize that Chile has some of the most grand and interesting landscapes of mountains, glaciers, flora and wild life in South America; so popular that Comapa have yet another larger high quality cruise ship in construction to meet continued growth.

The team from Comapa is comprised of Branko, Alvaro, Rodrigos and Victor who, along with the Xplore team of Audrey, Julia and myself, head to the northern regions of the Darwin moutain ranges. These parts of TDF are very rarely visited by anyone. The distances involved and their remoteness means that you have to have a very good reason to make the trek, hence why we are sailing all night to get to the first part where our discovery starts.

With current information from the University of Marine Biology there in Punta Arenas, we hope to be able to locate some newly found breeding colonies of seals (leopard and elephant) and bird life (black browed albatross). Along with this, the scope of permanent glaciers will hopefully mean we can locate some safe ice climbing locations for the more adventurous tourist visitor in the future.

So with fair forecasts for the next 36 hours we head to the south east. What we will find only time will tell. Stephen

Xplore: 28 February 2009

2009-02-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

There be Dragons and Trolls in them hills !! Entering the gap in the ice strewn rock cliffs that give entry to Seno Occasion in Tierra Del Fuego is like being on the film set for Jurassic park: you can feel the tension building as your heartbeat skips a little faster and faster, as you make the final bends to this truly secluded anchorage. Each time I bring a yacht into this location my whole being is alive with emotion and feeling. I often wonder how I can capture the simultaneous feelings and sensations of my heart, mind and soul, so as to give readers a deep and full impression of what we see here in the south. But, like trying to take a photo of a large wave, the result is always disappointing compared to the real event; it's never the same until you live and experience it yourself. Xplore made a fast turnaround there in Ushuaia, after we finished the one month expedition to Antarctica. Everyone was pleased to be back in South America even though the arrival meant that new friends and shared experiences had to depart; while the new tasks, challenges and voyages bring questions that have to be answered. For me, I needed to get away again, and quickly. The small boating community in the South is a tight knit group of daring and kindred spirits -- which after years of experiencing can also become claustrophobic. My true friends there are very special, and I hope will always remain so, but the hustle and bustle of the Argentinian port and its quirky unexplainable Argentinian ways can get very tiring. So instead of remaining in Ushuaia and working on Xplore's regular maintenance list (to keep the wheels in motion) we decided to head to the Beagle Channel and the western capes of Tierra Del Fuego to win back some of the long lost energy that years of Southern sailing takes out of you. 'To bask in the rare moments of clear and crisp sunshine, and rock away in a snug anchorage after a good meal and glass of wine (or two). This is recovery time for myself and the crew, and I damn well need it. From here we will head west, and then north, to the Straites of Magellan and the Chilean port of Punta Arenas ("Sandy Point" in English). Our last expedition of the season will leave from there, working for a Chilean company in search of new wildlife locations on the northern side of Tierra Del Fuego's Darwin Mountain range. An interesting, and challenging location -- as virtually no vessels venture to this side unless they are there for military purposes or science. This is a chance for Xplore and the team to tread on untrodden ground, and we are looking forward to it. However today the weather is cold and windy: even if we wanted to move on it would have been impossible or dangerous. Gale force winds from the south have brought cold, cold conditions and dangerous ocean waves that break on the coast, blocking the passageways we need to take to creep around the corner into the Pacific, where we'll then re-enter the waterways of safety in the Cockburn Channel (don't laugh, it was named after an English explorer! But maybe someone in his family's past had an embarrassing personal problem). So we sit, read, plan our work lists, stay warm and remain patient; the only thing that changes weather in the South is time. More news to come ~ Stephen

Xplore arrives Ushuaia: 12 February 2009

2009-02-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

ED. NOTE: Xplore arrived safely in port at about midnight 12 February 2009. After re-provisioning Xplore will depart Ushuaia, Argentina for Punta Arenas, Chile where guests will embark on a 10-day voyage through Tierra del Fuego.

Xplore Cape Horn Report: 12 Feb 2009

2009-02-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

One foot on the table There is an old maritime saying that once you have rounded Cape Horn you are entitled to enjoy your after dinner drink with one foot up on the table - you can be sure that tonight all of us will be doing exactly that !! This, of course, means that we passed the rock, in the middle of the night as the sun still slept behind the horizon, with what I must say were mixed emotions. Although not fully visible, apart from the low light of the moon, I could imagine the moody rock laying silent witness to the sad fate of so many mariners and their ships across the centuries before us. In addition, also signaling to me that we all had had a safe passage across the infamous Drake Passage and I could go back to sleep knowing we were making our way towards the relatively safe passages and islands to its north and eventually our home port Puerto Williams in Chile. It was also with some deep thought that I knew we had left behind us four days ago the large sleeping white beauty, the Antarctic, brooding over its -- and indeed all of our fate -- due to the ignorance and mismanagement of mankind for way too long now. The return across the Drake Passage seemed longer than the trip going but even as a kid in the back seat of my parents' car, the trip home from one of our adventures always seemed the longest. Even as a total novice to this sailing lark I could tell that there was plenty to do and more than enough to keep the crew busy and happy. From the webbing on the head of the main sail giving way 24 hours into the passage, there was plenty to be done. From installing a new trysail, fitting a larger Yankee, to rigging the Spinnaker pole (you know, the ones that you see in the pictures of the boats in the Around the World races allowing the sails to balloon at the front !? :o>) and lastly, positioning the boat to take advantage of the very last puff of wind. As always, Stephen took all of this in his stride - although I must say his mini adventure to the top of the main mast -- in what I would describe as nothing more than a roped up swing saddle -- was the closest I have seen him to wishing he had trained to be an accountant for his chosen career. You know, as we all continue to push the boundaries of travel and in my case keep pushing the envelope with regards to witnessing and experiencing more and more off the so-called 'beaten track', I am personally guilty of ignoring or underestimating the personal dangers associated with this type of travel and the risk I may be exposing myself or my partner too. In a place where, for example, exposure to being in the open sea could measure your life expectancy in minutes, Antarctica is not a place to be underestimating these dangers. I think it goes without saying that when entering into such an expedition as this that you use a skipper who has both the experience of the Antarctic region itself (measured in years) and the maturity of years at sea in pretty much all conditions which nature can throw at you. For Sonia and myself, I can honestly say that we felt our lives were in more than capable hands at all times and my hat goes off to Stephen and his crew for their hard work and pure professionalism at all times. Cheers, James and Sonia

Xplore in the Drake Passage: 11 Feb 2009

2009-02-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

This morning a few thoughts from port watch which has hitherto been silent in the blogosphere ... One thing that is nigh impossible to convey to those not lucky enough to experience it firsthand, is the sheer beauty and exhilaration of being on a large fast boat with a balanced sailplan on a downhill romp (wind in the aft quarters) in the open ocean with a following sea. I have tried and failed many times, on this boat and others, to capture on film (or chip) the gracefully choreographed poetry of motion as the boat weaves its course ... the rig aloft creaking and groaning (or is it 'oohing and ahhing'?) as it powers up into the wind on the crests of large ocean rollers ... and then -- as if knowing too much of a good thing ruins the novelty -- it expels all this energy sliding down the waves in a gliding flourish, de-powering as it goes, ready to be held high on the next wave and sip from the cup of nature's force. Well my 'poetry' is of course drivel, but I was just caught up in the emotion of sunrise in near-perfect sailing conditions with something cultured like Chopin, which is playing gently in the background (someone else left it on, of course) at the nav table (although naturally I am spending much time outside enjoying the elements rather than the relative serenity - and warmth - that the virtual world has to offer). As the low pressure system we have been monitoring has moved over us it has gifted us with steady south westerlies ranging from 20 to 35 knots during the course of the last 16 hours or so. The sea-state has calmed considerably during the course of the night (not counting the 10 or so metre ground swell that is) and the boat has been powering along at between 8 and 12 knots consistently, with similar measure being made over ground. This, the best sailing of this trip so far, was delivered at the just the right moment, after more than a few watches of frustration at 'mixed' conditions shared amongst us all as we have waited what seemed like an eternity for weather predictions, and therefore our strategy to address it to play out. As Steve shared in one of his last communications, our frustration at the mixed conditions was somewhat amplified by one small spanner in the works: the mainsail headboard imbroglio (i.e. it busted). After a day of letting what will be be, I think this caper had the strange effect of energizing us, causing us to stand up and try and to do better with the resources immediately at hand: those being a big powerful green boat and some other flappy white things (well some of them are the sailmaker's yellow) to play with. And here we are: the flurry of activity yesterday paid off, and this morning at dog-watch changeover we are 120 nautical miles from our waypoint near Cape Horn, slipping steadily in the right direction, rather than 300 miles from that waypoint, crawling the surface of the Southern Ocean, following weather around as was yesterday morning. How times change, and they will again, and so we enjoy these moments while they last. This attempt at a blog is incriminating evidence. Better break free of the nav desk cocoon and spend some time outside or risk a bollocking from Steve. It is too nice out not to really ... One final fortunate note: some colour has returned to the faces (and appetites to bellies) of a few unfortunate Xplorers who have been rather subdued of late. A good thing ... [ED NOTE: At last report Xplore was 85nm from Cape Horn, with plans to sail directly to Puerto Williams and onto Ushuaia by Friday.]

Xplore in the Drake Passage: 10 Feb 2009

2009-02-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

How much can a Koala bear? This morning whilst I was hanging in my harness at the mast head 26 meters above sea level and being thrown around like a rag doll, I wondered how many more years I can take this crap. My hands were already frozen as the ascent had been a slow and tiring climb, Audrey and Serge were on deck managing the halyard which was my lifeline but their faces I couldn't see; my total focus was getting to the masthead and recovering the main halyard so we could rig and hoist the trysail, which is a replacement (very small) main sail. Yesterday had been a long and frustrating day, where the only words I could say to my crew Audrey -- who has been sharing the same watch -- was that I was fractious. I had just received news early in the morning from my father (who was meant to have joined us on this trip) that my stepmother was about to pass of cancer within the next few weeks. For 25 years she has been with my father, and I have spent time with them a few times in Darwin: a lovely lady who had come into my father's life at the right time for both of them. So yesterday, even though I knew we had to make sail changes and recover the halyard, I didn't have the emotional or physical energy to face it. The sea state had still been very lumpy, but maybe that was just me convincing myself that it was better to just sit out and wait for smoother seas and a little bit of personal energy. So back to the masthead: I know some crazy people who would pay for the experience at a masthead at sea, like in a carnival showgrounds ride: you pay 5 bucks and get the hell thrown out of you. The G-forces are quite extreme as the masthead whips from side to side and then back and forwards in such an unpredictable way, you just have to hang on for dear life like a Koala Bear !! With legs wrapped around the mast you can only slowly go from each spreader to spreader, a brief spell at each point to grab your breath; as any longer and you would lose your nerve and merely make the freezing process stretch out painfully longer. My biggest concern was that my hands weren't going to be able to be used to re-attach the halyard to a short strop connected to my harness so that I could drag in back down the mast on my descent. Another deep breath and I was ready to move down, the insides of my calf muscles were humming, the lactic acid from being clenched around the mast as my prime means of holding on while I attached the retrieval line. Audrey and Serge on deck weren't sure what I screamed to them, with blank faces they didn't know if needed to go higher, or was I in trouble ... for me I just wanted to get the hell off this sideshow ride! Down I needed and fast, but not too fast as each part of the descent I needed to un-attach the retrieval strop and pass it around the spreaders, then re-attach it and move on down. As I reached the deck, my body and face just slumped, I think a cardboard box full of cotton wool would have been perfect, my body ached and was so cold but we all had got the halyard down. Now it was time to warm up and plan for the next stage of manoeuvres. With an hour we were ready to go. We cleared the forepeak and prepared the trysail, new lines run and other modified to do the job, we changed over that pesky main halyard onto the head and up she went !! Woooo hooooo, a different flappy white thing -- haven't seen that one before. Next we prepared to change the No2 Yankee headsail for the larger No1, new sail flaked on deck, halyard ready to drop, we all crouched ready to receive the smaller sail onto the deck. Down she came and we all went at it like Rottweilers in a butcher shop. I had seen a cloud line on the horizon which could bring some not-needed extra wind which would only make the process much harder, but within 20 minutes we had switched headsails and were back on course. Now the waiting game could continue. We have all been so bored in waiting and watching the movement of this large low pressure system that now we were ready with our new armoury and a plan, we wanted it now, but no such luck as the winds within the centre of lows are weak, indecisive, and fickle (hence why I have the time to write this). The plan -- if it goes to plan -- is that we should get good fresh-to-strong winds from the SW as the low passes over us. This should give us good speeds in the desired direction of Cape Horn and then our entry into the Beagle Channel, but for now only time will tell when the winds will come. More news to come ~ Stephen

Xplore loses main halyard in Drake Passage

2009-02-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

Shit Happens Well what was a smooth departure from Antarctica, with a good breeze and forecast, soon became a very careful game of chess for skipper Stephen and his team. At 2325 first mate Audrey went on deck to trim the main sheet as the winds had picked up, we had already reduced the Yankee and were sailing with four reefs in when the unexpected happened; after only a few turns on the main sheet Audrey saw the world collapse around her, the entire main sail went 'bang' and started flapping like a rag, then dropped to the deck and boom. Stephen at the nav table heard the squeals from Audrey and quickly popped up on deck to see that the main halyard had parted at the headboard of the main sail. With flaps and flakes of sail piled onto the boom in total disarray, Audrey and Stephen proceeded to lash the sail to the boom in not-so-easy conditions. Blowing in the 30's, luckily the sea state hadn't built into the washing machine that it could have; we were still on the continental shelf of Antarctica making any strong winds the recipe for large seas. We hung on and tidied the mess on deck, the halyard was at the top of the mast waving around like a school kid up a tree, 'come and get me down.' it was calling, but for the night the top of the mast was where it was going to stay. We slowly thawed out below as any wind and water in the south makes for cold, cold conditions; even though Audrey and Stephen are more than acclimatised to these temperatures, more than 10 minutes on deck means your hands and faces are freezing. We sat and talked about what had happened, and Stephen started to look at the ramifications to the careful course planning he had devised for the crossing. The key factors that effect Xplore now are as follows: Xplore has 1.75 tanks of fuel left onboard (approximately 500 liters). With minimum engine revolutions we will still use approximately six liters per hour. The sea state is still too rough for anyone to venture up the mast to recover the main halyard, let alone carry out a temporary repair. Seas and temperatures don't allow at present to change the No2 Yankee to the slightly larger No1. We currently have winds above 21 knots that means that under sail we can make 6.5 knots of boat speed which is quite reasonable, we have planned on making a minimum of 140 nautical miles per day to be able to position ourselves in the SW corner of the next monster blow that is already starting to show its first stages of building to the west. Whilst pondering options and plans on their first day-time watch today, Stephen and Audrey were watching the winds speeds slowly drop, and as the winds dropped the boat speed diminished. We sat and saw it tumble 5.9 - 5.4 - 5.1 ... oohhh God ... 4.9 ... Stephen was staring at the wind gauge and began talking to it, 'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh come on up you go Hewey! Please just a littler bit more, don't leave us this way, we love you and your strength!!!' Audrey by this stage knows that Stephen can be a little bit crazy but this was taking it to a new high: 'He's gone bonkers!' The next thing that Stephen said to the wind to encourage it was that he would sacrifice a 'Chocolate Hob Nob' to the seas as an offering !!! Audrey was mortified. Hob Nobs are the most prized cookies onboard, purchased from the Falklands -- we are already on the last packet, for Stephen to offer them away was treason. But always good to his promises, minutes later Stephen entered from the galley with one Hob Nob in hand and proceeded to exit the companion way and throw it to the winds and the sea. Audrey nearly wept: as a confirmed chocoholic this was terrible. We sat and watched the wind speed to see if Stephen's stupidity would work. 18.2 - 18.7 - 18.9 and then 19.1................ Yehhhhh, Audrey was gobsmacked, it had worked ! Our boat speed continued but if Hob Nobs were needed to continue motivating Hewey then we were going to need a truckload. We continued along, with average speeds enough for us not to have to use the motor and maintain a reasonable course. This crossing may be a slow one, more news to come ~ Stephen

Xplore departs Antarctica: 7 Feb 2009

2009-02-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

A skipper's prerogative to change his mind We all were patiently waiting for the verdict on when we had a good weather window to depart the Pitt Islands and Antarctica. During the 5th it looked suitable for the next day, however fate and weather had their own cards to play, and on the morning of the 6th the GRIB files ( weather data file that show wind direction and strength, Gridded Reference in Binnary) told a different story. Not only did they show that a departure on the 6th would mean that we would have a strong blow mid-crossing, but it showed a monster low hitting the Tierra Del Fuego coast and Cape Horn with wind strengths over 60 knots. We had to have another plan. The next best option first looked like early on the morning of the 9th, so with looks of joy, we settled back down to enjoying Antarctica and the Pitt islands: team tobogganing races down the snowy slopes; zodiac cruising in an area which has a wealth of animal wildlife; and the chart survey team with Skipper Stephen continuing their rounds of the myriads of islands, trying to plot and chart this rocky mess of islands. By mid-morning of the 7th, we saw a change in forecasts and were able to make plans for a revised departure late in the day. Most of the boat preparations had already been done so some last minute extra 'sea-going food' was prepared. James and Stephen finished off the charting needed, with final depth soundings of the enclosed anchorage that Xplore had sat in for three days, as the entrance to this cove is probable the tightest that Skipper Stephen has taken Xplore or any other yacht through, and the soundings were to prove invaluable -- with forecasts of slightly stronger winds in the afternoon, we needed to position Xplore with precision, as water colour with wind on it doesn't show the hidden depths. With a plan, the entire team -- the shore line crew, zodiac crew and depth spotters -- pulled off a flawless exit. Xplore slipped through the narrow gap (15 meters wide) which has an 80 meter glacial overhang looming to tumble on one side and about fpur meters within the water for sideways tolerance ... you could hear the collective sigh of relief and the un-clenching of butt cheeks as the depth sounder started to rise and we emerged into deeper waters. The next hour was spent doing the final preparations for the Drake Passage. Zodiac deflated and stowed, shore lines away, anchor removed and everything 'ship shape' on deck and below. With winds in the low 20's from the NE we hoisted our main sail with three reefs and slipped away from this magical place. Soon the ocean swells and the heeling of the yacht took their toll and the happy faces of life on a flat horizontal plane started to change. The faces slipped away to their cabins as they knew the best position for getting your sea legs is in bed. Xplore and her core crew settled down to life again on the ocean waves. More news to come as we head north. ~ Stephen PHOTOS RICHARD LARONDE

Xplore in Antarctica: 6 Feb. 2009

2009-02-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

Ed Note: Xplore was scheduled to leave Antarctica at 0500 6 Feb., however the weather was forecast to be on the nose for most of the passage, and up to 60k off Cape Horn, so Stephen has postponed departure up to three days. More to come.

XPLORE EXPEDITIONS

Blokes on Boats

Morning has broken

Great Balls of Fire

Bug City

Thered be sheep in them hills

Sweet Sister Sue, I fell in love today

High There

Xplore Medivac Up Date, Pitcairn to Gambier Island

Friday on my mind

Easter Comes and Goes

Like a bat out of hell

Fasten your seat belts !

Blow and Go

A hoy, what you doing up there ?

Crabeater Seals can fly

Stomachs rumble, stomachs grumble

Gale came, then everyone went to bed

Beef Indian Curry

What to write ?

Slay Bells Ring

Year to Year

360 degrees

Monday Monday

Good Golly Miss Molly

Half an hour can be special

Go to sea and stop being a gringo !

Pacific Ocean Adventure 2011

Rio de la Plata, River of Silver

By the hair of my chinny chin chin

Such A Special Day

Tall Ships of Fame

The Golden Circle

Ice Ice

Locked up and blowing

Roast beef, Frogs and a Kangaroo

Oh wont you stay, just a little bit longer

Drake Lake, takes the cake

Yakity Yak, which language to chat ?

Working away in Punta Arenas

Something to chew on

Georgia, oh sweet Georgia, the whole day through

White Squall what a blow !

The First Big Blow

Sea Fog and Monsters

16 Oct 2009: XPLORE departs Buenos Aires, Argentina for Punta Arenas, Chile

XPLORE arrives Buenos Aires: 10 October 2009

ALIENS INVADE XPLORE!

FINALLY, WE PAINT!

Onboard but never bored

Saint Tony

Marooned on a marina !

Tall Ships to round "the Horn" once again.

Time to XPLORE!

Stand by for the 2009-2010 program, to be posted soon!

Xplore Arrives in Buenos Aires

Xplore Punta Arenas to Buenos Aires: 27 March 2009

Punta Arenas to Buenos Aires: 24 March 2009

Update on Found Plane

Lost Souls in the Mountains

Don’t go to sea on Friday the 13th !!

In the heat of the night

Xplore: 28 February 2009

Xplore arrives Ushuaia: 12 February 2009

Xplore Cape Horn Report: 12 Feb 2009

Xplore in the Drake Passage: 11 Feb 2009

Xplore in the Drake Passage: 10 Feb 2009

** Xplore loses main halyard in Drake Passage **

Xplore departs Antarctica: 7 Feb 2009

Xplore in Antarctica: 6 Feb. 2009

Xplore loses main halyard in Drake Passage