Fernande was certainly the fastest sailing boat that we saw between
Ushuaia and Antarctica. There were occasions when some of us would have
been just as happy not to have sought out the wind, such as the during
crossing of Drake's Passage. This is 400-500 miles of open sea at a latitude
South of 57 deg, "where there is no God" (No law South of 40 deg, but no
God South of 50 deg). We had storms crossing Drake's Passage in both
directions and were envious of another yacht, Le Sourire, which waited
out one storm (the one we experienced going South) at Cape Horn and was
was able to get across in comparative calm before the next one. Storms
cross the passage every 35 hrs on the average, so one does not expect much
calm on any crossing with a yacht that takes at least 3 days.
