Volvo Ocean Race- Camper Blogs from the Horn .. dreamin' of Hooters

by Hamish Hooper on 10 Apr 2012
MCM Hamish Hooper blogs from on board Camper sailed by Emirates Team NZ, as they near Cape Horn

By this time tomorrow, all things going well and going to plan we should be around Cape Horn by now… I hope…

So far the weather is playing ball nicely with us, but as everyone knows the weather at Cape Horn can be a temperamental beast, so we are doing out best not to upset things. Just trying to tip toe down the Chilean coast and sneak around the horn with no more drama.

The more the weather is our friend on the remaining 2000 odd miles of this leg, the more time we will have in Itajai to relax and prepare for the next leg.

But honestly the guys are not counting on much time to relax at all- if any.

A sure sign of this is we are all talking about what we want to do in the Miami rather than Itajai already… NASA, NBA, NFL, Disneyworld… Hooters…

Oh… um… we have just heard that the staff are so friendly that it’s a must go for some true American hospitality and culture.

And this is a team full of culture vultures.

Where were we, ah yes Cape Horn…

We have been making good progress south today, and putting the boat through its paces a little bit as well. We’ve had some half decent crashes where everyone below shoots a glance forward nervously. But all is good up there so far, and you can tell everyone’s confidence in the boat is returning, if not returned fully, which is a very good thing so soon.

I wonder if the shore crew has woken up yet?

It has been mentioned how nice it would have been if we could have taken one of the big gas heaters they had onboard to cook the repair work to keep us warm.

No such luck.

Instead the layers continue to be piled on. There has even been some doubling of socks already.

Getting in and out of the bunks is becoming more and more of a mission just having to peel all of the layers off then put them on again when you get up.

Speaking of sleeping, everyone seems to have caught up on sleep again now after our Porto Montt stopover. Funnily enough, most of the guys all had huge trouble sleeping on land. We had big warm, dry comfortable beds, with full and content bellies of food each night, but then to get to sleep became mission impossible for some reason. As soon as we get back on the boat, everyone is sleeping like babies again.

Too much time on this boat I reckon!

Some time on the boat is being passed with Mike’s Sudoku book he bought which has been popular. However Mike has imposed a rule that every puzzle must be named in case of failure to complete it either so he can name and shame or so that he doesn’t look like an idiot with a book full of failed puzzles.
Animal swiftly breezed through a few of them then promptly asked Mike if it was a book for beginners or morons.

GOLDEN QUOTE: 'Back into the furious fifties again, water temperature is down to 8 degrees and my bag is getting very empty as I put every layer of clothing on. It can’t be that often a yacht rounds Cape Horn in mid April. Touch wood, it looks like we can get around the Horn well ahead of the 935 HPA low that is trundling east. ' WILL OXLEY