There have been some other big moments this week. We've seen ice! The first 'berg appeared on the horizon as we emerged from a storm, and stayed in view almost all morning, with the sun (yes, sunshine!) glinting off it. Shortly after, we saw a growler - that's a bit of an iceberg, allegedly - quite close by. And a few days later another huge berg at sunset. These made us ever more vigilant watching the radar and on iceberg watch on deck. Not the kind of place to be without a radar, but you'd better ask some of the other boats about that. The things that have gone in knock-downs are radar aerials, compasses and wind instuments. Quite useful bits of kit in the grand scheme of things. Another tick in the eye spy book must be the Southern Lights. Something about sun reflecting off bits in the upper atmosphere (well, whatever - they'd have me believe anything here!). Quite spectacular, brightening up a dark sky with amazing swirling streaks of light, like search lights across the sky. Not something you'd rush down here to see, but worth an ooh and on aah when you're here.

So now we're in a lull between storms. The heaters are on, kit and boat are drying out a little, and we've all had showers. Wow! A whole crew smelling of birch and hops can't be bad. And it must be getting warmer since last week we wouldn't have even contemplated getting enough clothes off to make a quick splash worthwhile. Another alteration in domestic arrangements is that everyone has turned round in their bunks and now sleeps facing forward, so as we lift off waves and crash down the other side it's feet that hit the bulkhead, not heads. And talking of heads, the major casualty in the last storm - which was a monster - was the port toilet bowl. Phil, who saw it all happen, said the seat lifted up as we launched off a wave, then 3 seconds after it landed the top half of the porcelain bowl fell off, as though a spoon had been taken to a boiled egg. Now this was a serious turn of events - when heeling so much the uphill head is dysfunctional since the water inlet is too high to pump in. And if this is the only one with a bowl, you're in trouble. Our solution has been to tack the bowl as we tack the boat - and you should see the care with which we handle the bowl during transfer!

I've bored you with big waves and high winds, but this last little hooley really was a monster. And I had my birthday somewhere in the middle. As a special treat the wind tipped off the top of the Beaufort scale (that's a big 13) and we found ourselves hove to for a time. I'll settle for a few pints in a local pub next year, thanks.

A final thought, which Ed pointed out: we've crossed 90 degrees east and have therefore covered three quarters of the globe in longitude. Groovy. Sorry, not very coherent this week. Think of us all over the next long days as we battle to the Kerguelen's, tacking the toilet as we go - and still just about managing to see the funny side of it!