Hi Guys
Cowrie Dancer is in Antarctica.  They took a detour on the way to South Georgia and Capetown.  If you look at the photos/posts on Google Earth - there is a good photo of Melchoir Is and a great panoramic photo of Elephant Is. - made me feel cold.

Dale is looking for two crew for the passage home from Capetown to Fremantle.    He estimates it will be from early April to mid May.  But it could be quicker than that if they don't go to Kerguelan Is.

If you or anyone is interested, let me know
Liz

extract from an email from Charlie ( in Drakes Passage):

We're not securely anchored yet, but may well be by the time you receive this, with hook down and warps to shore. Aiming for the Melchior islands. 11 miles away as at 17:30 UTC 26 Feb. We're here in the Antarctic after a reasonably easy and very cold crossing. The island of Brabant was first to welcome us rising up white out of the grey ocean, and standing out between the ocean and the grey clouds immediately over it. We now have islands to port starboard and ahead, all mostly pure white, but sadly my short experience of southern ocean skies is grey grey and more grey, so no great photo opportunities. It was very squally on the three-and-a-half day passage, with small squalls moving swiftly across us almost all the way down. You could see the clouds gathering, anchored to the ocean, and 5 mins later they were on us. Barometer has been off the scale (i.e.
less than 978) all the way, but with no highs hanging around the isobars haven't been to close - winds mostly between 14 and 34 knots and all angles of the compass, including a half day beat as we got close - Murphy's law unaffected by these colder climes it seems. One very brief gust when we were putting 3rd reef in the main on day 1 (it's been there ever since) was 50kts - very impressive amounts of spume - but it was short lived and little else has been over high 30kt's.

I am off to enjoy my next one hour spell on the helm. The cabin is pretty toasty right now with the heater on full which we've used sparingly, and it is windy-glacier-ski-slope cold up top on deck. I have 6 layers on and have kept very warm and dry (loath as I am to write that what with earlier reference to Mr Murphy). Thank you for Merino sheep and for Mr Goretex!

Quick update: 13:15 UTC 27th Feb. We have spent our first cold night anchored in the Melchior islands, up a little creek with towering white ices shelf islands on three sides. Opposite us is a 50m ice overhang waiting to crash and roar down into the sea - we are far enough away. There is one other yacht here, Northern Lights famous for the book "Time on Ice" written when they wintered down here (in 2003 I think). They were in Opua when I was there with Cowrie Dancer in 2004, so amusing for Dale to bump into someone he knew, the first place we anchor in the Antarctic!