Closing on the Cape

Jean-Luc van den Heede now has less than 500 miles to go to reach the tip of South America on his round the world record bid

Hello,

Yesterday evening I sailed past dozens and dozens of fishing boats anchored along the 100m depth line in the process of fishing (I think for squid?) using lights to attract the catch.

Their lights were so strong that to my right, the glow in the sky was like that of a town as far as the eye could see. Luckily I was to seaward of that line and I didn't have to zigzag between them. But I kept a good watch because I had to avoid them.

The area must be fairly well populated because yesterday I saw two big beasts on the same heading as me... but going more slowly. I say beasts because I couldn't recognise what they were: whale, sperm whale? In any case they were big (more than 10m?) and they blew out their breath hard and they had very square fronts to their heads.

To finish it all, it was the dolphins who woke me this morning. Through my aluminium hull I can hear their little cries very well. Apart from that, Adrien is gently pursuing her path with the wind right on the nose at the moment but a nice Cape Horn is looming on the horizon!

Until tomorrow
JL VDH

Position at 14 h: 47°18’S /61°02’W
Wind south to SSW 10 N Temperature day 18°C/night 9°C/water 8°C
Distance run in 24 h: 211 naut miles.
Advance on Monnet 4 days 6 hours Distance to Le Maire 485 naut. miles.