Ellen On The Edge…: Big Mac is having a brutal time getting to Cape Horn. Just check out her latest e-mail, and ask yourself how you would be coping:

“Hi there world out there… Today I feel a bit like I have awoken into a new world…. i have an aching hunger inside me which has been absent for

a while, and the sea and sky that have been so agressive are now flat and grey – both. The last three days of sailing have been undoubtedly the worst of my career. Never before have i experienced winds more unstable, more agressive, more unpredictable.. With a low pressure forming to our NW we found ourselves getting literally ‘run down’ by the energy and cold air rushing north to build it. My body has been pushed beyond its limits, once again i found myself screaming at the heavens. I am sure that I have never been as tired as that in my life. Sleep – such an easy thing to say – but an impossible thing to achieve in such unstable conditions. Winds have been all over the place – changing in direction by 50 to 60 degrees at times, and changing at times in strength my 30 knots in the space of a few seconds. In effect the worst conditions for a multihull, as capsize is a real possibility – and i have to say that flying along with one reef and the solent in 44 knots of breeze made me talk to myself constantly telling myself we were in fact going to make it. Yesterday was the worst day, with massive squalls, the same wind that was not predictable – the day begun with a constant 30 knots after a 47 knot gust, I was sailing with 3 reefs and staysail. I’m now full main and genoa. Reefs in, reefs out – body aching. I apologise to the albatross that came closer in wonder what my cries were all about. I was past it, just past it – empty, exhausted. But at that stage with no escape, no button to push to make everything ok again…no way to hide from the alarms and wake ups from continuously interupted doses – absolute exhaustion. I tried checking the weather out, and characteristic of the day the grib i picked up came in 6 days out of date – i didn’t realsise so that threw me completely, and the end never seemed to be in sight. But one thing which does, did and wil always help is reading the e-mails of support. One yesterday from Oli, one of the team members who sent an unbelievable mail which could not help but pull you up on a bad day and the thousands that are flooding in to the website. I sat there reading peoples encouragement, and quite honestly cried. Cried just to see the support of so many people from so many places – it’s humbling. I feel like they must be for someone else who is doing somenthing incredible. Yesterday evening the situtation changed – i could feel things were improving ater the final blast which was a hail storm. Not just any storm but an inch and a half of sleat in the cockpit. I don’t know where the energy came from, as my eyes had been burning red with tears just moments before, but I made a snowman and fter that – slowly but surely – everything began to get better. By daylight i was on full main and genoa – and now i have a light breeze – but finally, thank god – a more predictable one. this is ellen out – about to eat something…”

Plus, she severely burned her arm, survived a crash gybe, and…oh yeah..another massive storm is about to pounce on her. Somehow she’s almost 4 days ahead of Joyon’s record pace, but at this point I think she’s mainly preoccupied with getting past Cape Horn alive…



Storm Watch: “With another one on the way, I’d better make the most of this balmy Southern Ocean weather…”