45/29S 21/13W, passed Cap de Bonne Esperance (Cape of Good Hope) this morning. Distance covered in last 24 hours: 214.8 nautical miles. Have shockingly beautiful sunny day, crystal blue sky, big bank of clouds overtaking of course, but great sailing today so far, reacher and 1 reef in the mainsail. Spent considerable time working on video editing and conversion and uploading this morning, many computer battles fought, some won some lost, but did get some good video last night of the moon and got it uploaded.

Inspected forward two watertight compartments today in anticipation of low coming along in a couple of days. Bailed a couple of buckets out, but otherwise all ok. So hard sometimes to tell if you have a leak, or if its just condensation.

Gybed this morning for the ice gate, reacher and full main, 25-27 knots true, that was exciting, likely won’t do it again, should have put in reef first, ended up broaching upon the gybe, but did have the new runner on so all was ok. Forgot to put the extension tiller on before the gybe, done by pilot, so that if I have to take over in a hurry, i have leverage. That contributed to the broach. But she came back down after easing main sheet, and then we’re off and away again. Tried some more pilot settings and learned some more about those adjustments.

Haven’t been in these waters going in this direction since 2001 when we sailed our New York to Melbourne record passage following the Australian Gold Rush route. That voyage began by us arriving in New York harbor on the evening of September 10, 2001. We docked at Chelsea Piers, two miles north of the World Trade Towers that were attacked the next morning.

Chelsea Piers, the old Cunard Lines terminal building, now a sports complex, was turned into an operating hospital by 11 a.m. that morning. We volunteered, Bill Biewenga in the triage area, since he had been in Vietnam, I in the respiratory unit, because of my asthma. I have aboard the jacket that I wore that morning, with my name tag still on it, to remind me of that day. The hospital was open, but there were no patients as there were no survivors. No one came in until about midnight that night, firefighters and policemen mostly then, many with respiratory problems from the dust, and needing so much to be able to talk to somebody. We canvassed a variety of teachers in our sitesALIVE! school program for the voyage – should we go, or not? They said yes, there will be so much bad news, go and do something good for the kids, so we went a week later and tried to do just that. Writing this all now will make the rest of today a somber one of reflection.