January 23 is a day of calm before the storm. A thick fog covers the sea and by evening there is practically no wind. With reduced sail, Pelagic is making no speed at all, but by the next morning the wind is filling in quickly.

At 1100 am on January 24th, Tom Crean reports they are hove-to on starboard tack. By early afternoon Pelagic is hove-to 7 miles north of their position. By now there is a big swell with breaking waves and the surface is covered in white foam. The Irishmen are still in good spirits and locked in their tiny cabin they ask if there are intentions for another film session, this time in the storm!

At 2200 on the 24th the wind is still increasing. The wind instruments on board Pelagic record gusts of 52 knots, a Force 10 storm! The sea is in turmoil. The evening weather map gives hope for a shift of wind to the south but then another low is expected.

At midnight Skip makes a run south, sailing with staysail only, to catch up with the Tom Crean which is almost 9 miles away. At 0240 on 25 January, Pelagic is again hove-to 4 miles north of the Tom Crean. Radio schedules are now every hour in order to try to keep as close a contact as possible.

At 0700 Jamie Young gives us his position but also lets us know they have been rolled over and are just finishing "tidying up" inside. In the meantime Patrick calls me out on deck. We need to sail down towards them because we are again drifting apart. I get my first taste of steering in a real Southern Ocean gale. While I am at the helm, Patrick tries to put the wind vane up for self steering. It's very hard to keep Pelagic up wind on the enormous swell. Then the wind reaches a record gust of 58 knots and the wooden wind vane cracks in half. We go back to heaving-to on starboard tack and our course is now converging with the Tom Crean's.

At 0800, we get more details of what has happened to the replica of Shackletons 23 foot boat. They were rolled over 170 degrees by a big breaker and partially filled with water, but their rig is intact and nothing was lost except a few buckets. After emptying out the water they have taken shelter, all cramped inside the cabin.

We are now asking the weather specialist Bob Rice for another detailed forecast for the area. It seems there are at least 3 depressions, which could turn cyclonic, following this one. It looks as though we will be hit by successive gales for the whole of next week. More strong winds and fierce seas are expected and as I write Pelagic has just been slightly knocked over herself by huge breaker that hit her starboard side with a big bang.

Shackleton wrote on his 11th day at sea, "It was a mighty upheaval of the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white- capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days. I shouted, for Gods sake, hold on! it's got us! Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into hours. White surged the foam of the breaking sea around us. We felt our boat lifted and flung forward like a cork in a breaking surf...but somehow the boat lived through it, half full of water...we bailed with the energy of men fighting for life, flinging the water over the sides with every receptacle that came to our hands, and then we felt the boat renew her life beneath us." Hail Tom Crean!

Elena Caputo