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Log Updates
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Sitrep: 0925hrs 20 Aug 2005 UTC leaving Falmouth Ref
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2005 UTC Falmouth
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Sitrep: 1540hrs 14 Aug 2005 UTC Falmouth
The original back of an envelope planning in
The to do list this time is much shorter - mostly sorting what we need to freight back, packing it and
getting it on a ship, then packing the boat with the rest, doing the food
shopping, arranging the medicine cabinet for serial Consultation and departing.
May try to fit in one trip to
In haste - doing humungous shopping and just called into the
dreaded caff to do update.
It's BIG thank you time -
we'd never have got this far without vastly out of the ordinary help from lots
of people - our families, Stephen, Malcolm, Isabella and Graham, Fenwick and
his team, Jeremy, John B, Peter Bruce, Tom and Vicky Jackson, the Patagonian
Cruisenetters, Diana at Petitbateau, The cookie crumbler in Stanley, John M-B,
Mike H, all the RORC team, Hugh M and many many more. Thanks everyone and we'll
try to keep up this manic communication.
I bet you all thought the odd little blip on the website was a
photo of the Fastnet light - but it's really the streetlight next to our bus
shelter...
If all goes well, we're out of here on Friday. Big effort to
load the boat - we're parked alongside the public jetty next to The Chain
Locker pub {photo to follow if I remember) and we have to get from tthe car
park through the passage under the pub, down a short street, down a big ramp
onto the pontoon and then hike out about 200 metres to the boat - carrying
shopping bags, slabs and slabs of Medicinal Potion, and all the bulky stuff we
took off the boat to go racing. A grind.
Hoping to have a contemplative Consultation with all our local
mates on Friday at the Greenbank before we leave. Haven't even looked at the
weather yet. Then about 120 days to Sydney.
Forgot to tell you - I had a text message from a friend, Andy
Bird (no relation as far as we know) who was 2 handing a J105 a few miles ahead
of us in the Celtic sea and who had a visit from what must have been the same little bird, hitching a
ride to Ireland - or New York - who knows. There's an indistinct photo on the
website and we have a much better print.
[ed: the latest set of tiny pictures here, Mals new
boat here,
and a great one with the Trophy here]
This might be the final update from the caff. Berri is about
half loaded, shopping in 80% done, still have washing, sorting the freight
details, fixing VAT refunds (absolute nightmare - Customs have been completely
closed down on the south coast and there's only one person in the whole of the
south of england who seems to know what to do - thanks Neil - but They are not
going to beat me - we need everything we can squeeze back), reconnecting the
Ampair, lots of goodbyes and we should be off sometime late tomorrow DV &
WP, with no real attention to WP. Knackered from carrying stuff up long and
winding steps, around pubs, up and down ramps...
Malcom, tried to find a Southern Ocean bird book - or anything
that might do, but no luck. Also finally decided that going off to Taunton in
search of isochrones was likely to be a wasted journey, so we'll seat of the
pants it. Pity - was an interesting idea.
It's stick my neck out time again - ETA in either Sydney (or
Hobart if we decide to round the final Cape) December 11th. Unlikely to be as
accurate as the Falklands - UK version, but we'll see.
Very quick one - we've assembeld everything at the boat - big
effort - and Pete is packing it it - internet caff has gone belly up - so using
a friends pc - plan is to leave at 1000 local tomoz from the harbourmaster's
jetty having had a Consultation with anyone who cares to turn up.
Parcel arrived Laura - thanks - will save for Pete's 60th.
From Isabella, Alexs sister:
We arrived in Falmouth this morning to watch departure to find
that Pete had gone to buy Tesco's while Alex twiddled with bits of rope, stowed
various things and waited to refuel. By the time Pete returned with the entire
supermarket (what do they do with all that Kitchen Towel??) Berri was full of
gas, the leaving party was assembling and The Dublin Doctor proffered copious
advice. We watched them cast off and motor out of the harbour, and several of
us zoomed off to Pendennis Point in our cars to see Berri leave. We created an
unpleasantly modern-sounding Rhapsody for Car Horn and Barking Dog as they
passed beneath us but the poor old boys are so deaf these days they didn't even
look up. Maybe they prefer the classics. Berri's sails looked smaller and
smaller, the sea larger and larger and all the various emotive cliches can be
imagined but will not be written by me here..
Isabellas pictures here
Phone call to Mal from Alex:
"Just leaving Falmouth, should be on webcam now"
From his (very brief) description, I've picked the most likely
candidates from the webcam images: here and here
The times on the webcam images don't seem to correspond to the
actual time - look to be out by about 30 minutes
And here beginneth Act 5. Sad to leave our friends on the
Falmouth fuel wharf - after suitably medicinal farewells - and really nice to
see the numbers in the GPS winding down again. We haver to average 120 miles
per day to make my ETA - so at 1000 each
day, I'll do a distance travelled to see how we're going. We're a bit ahead
just for the mo doing 7.8 knots and throwinhg huge quantities of water aside as
Berri lumbers through the waves with about 3 tons of extra weight on board.
The Lizard and Tater Du fading into the misty horizon - Synney
here we come. More reflective piece may follow when I'm off watch.
Most of the way through the second of about 440 watches.
Daunting prospect. This one has been rather long and slow - lots of ships
around and a yacht passed close under our stern - I'm sure she approached
without lights because I only saw her when she was very close. Bright clear
moon, only the first magnitude stars visible and about 10 kts of breeze - we're
wallowing in the swell and it's not comfortable - just not enough to keep the
sails filled and the boat moving. Sails flogging - not good for them.
I've been thinking about the highlights so far - Cape Horn,
obviously; our weekend with Leroy and Karen and them out back of Tater Du;
rounding the Fastnet and finally finishing one are probably the stand-outs. And
getting so many nice emails from all y'all. And we're on the way home -
woohooo.
People have asked what the trophy was for - we didn't rate
anything for our actual result - it was for the crew that had sailed the
furthest to take part in the race - I think they invented it for us. The lady
presenting it is Janet Grosvenor, Director of Sailing at RORC.
There's an article about us in both next month's Yachting
Monthly and Yachting World - both out around Sept 8 in UK - I've seen the YM version
and they've done us proud. Thanks Hugh.
Hi Martyn - listened for your Mum on 21400 but no joy my radio has 21402 as a set frequency, so
will try bothas we get further south.
The first of many dawns, from cherry pink to fiery gold to
silver grey and then the clouds to the west change from brooding shadows to
snowy peaks that turn pink as the rising sun catches them... But anyone who
sees romance in this hasn't done it too often - experienced the gravel under
the eyelids, the damp and condensation, the fickle wind - blah blah
We are 70 miles WNW of Ushant (L'Ile de Ouessant for the
Bretons) in a slow rolling swell that would be glassy if it had abated a bit -
no wind - not just a faint breeze, no wind. We are burning some precious diesel
just to keep the average going and the boat reasonably comfortable but only
getting 2.6 over the ground for an indicated 4.2 thro the water on the log. GPS
distance 107 miles so still 13 to go before 0900 (start time yesterday was 1010
local). We're starting to wind in our bit of string from the way up - Orion
rose in the east a few hours ago and the Azores are out there somewhere in
front.
A fishing vessel away on our starboard quarter, has been there
for hours, occasionally shines a very bright light.
The grib says more of
this for the rest of the day then it will fill in again from the N or NW for a
couple of days. This agrees with the EGC forecast from SatComC.
And, 70 miles out to sea, with the gradient (non)wind from the
NW, we were visited by an insect - about 2 cm long - that flew around the stern
in the silver light - what language would it speak? Breton? Gaelic? Icelandic?
Inuit? Canadian?
Will wake Pete in half an hour and have a Berri breakfast - for
the uninitiated, a Consultation while holding a bacon sando laced with a gallon
or so of Tabasco. Then I've got to sort through the mess and find my bags of
clothes and find beanies and neckies - it's cold out there, but getting warmer.
0532 Just stuck my head up to look for ships - the sun has just
risen and the clouds to the west are coppery coloured and reflecting on the
water - odd - never seen that before. How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the
blue...Tiddley pom. But I havent got Pooh's balloon.
My life in review - I think this has been my 9th Channel
crossing by boat of some sort.
First day's progress: GPS log 122 nm, boat's log (through the water)
129 nm so we might have had a net adverse tide - the boat's log probably over
reads too, so not necessarily accurate. Net result +2 for the day qnd overall.
Since which, we have probably lost it all and some more.
Small change to my predicted ETA - I said Dec 11 in either
Sydney or Hobart - it would have made more sense to have said either Gabo
Island or the Iron Pot in Hobart. Either of these would complete a
circumnavigation and Sydney would be about 4 or 7 days later respectively. So
that's what we'll stick with. Peter D, you may amend your prediction
accordingly, as may anyone else so rash as to have had a go this far out.
The insect returned, briefly. It looks like a rather delicate
wasp.
Just been overtaken by a big grey bulk carrier called Te Ho -
couldn't reads the port of registration but looked like
We have been given a set of CD's of John le Carre reading 'The
Constant Gardener'. Wonderful stuff - I'm glad he decided to be a spook and
then an author rather than an actor because we may not have got the books.
Gielgud, Burton, Conti, Finney, Fiennes, Sellers, Neddy Seagoon - all in there
- and I bet he read in in one take. Having had a go at something similar with
my 90 seconds of fame on the Beeb, I know how difficult that is. Bastard! I'm
rationing myself to one CD per week - there are six - and will mix them with
Kerouac, Potter (just to see what the fuss is all about - so far, not hugely
impressed) and lots of others. Keycorp's cd player - thanks everyone. And this
time, I've got some Guardian weekly crosswords - forwarded from the Falklands
after being sent in error to the
Pete has cooked a stew with fresh meat and spuds to weigh down
the G&T we're sharing with my Mum in virtual reality. And we've got
bladders full of plonk from Oz and
GPS 242, log 256, 24 hr GPS dist travelled 100, total 242, = +2
DTG about 12000.
The flea has started its journey beck down the elephants rump
towards its belly. Slow and steady, patience, persistence perseverance and
pigheadedness. If a flea can be said to be pigheaded. And very much one day at
a time - very hard indeed to stay calm and cheerful thinking about what's in
front as a big block of days. Just have to concentrate on today and perhaps
visualise the feeling as we sail back in through Sydney Heads. 42182 metres in
a marathon, ground out one at a time.
About half way across grey drizzly Biscay, just inside the
direct line between the separation zones at Ouessant and Finisterre. We're out
beyond the shelf in deep water again - having seen how the bay shelves, it's
not hard to see why it is so dangerous in westerly gales. Some nasty weather
due further north in the Channel - (later) we've just had a front pass through
with a big, expected wind change round to the north so we're poled out and
doing 7.5
Time to plan ahead - invitations for the S2H crew: the shore
support team - Stephen? Malcolm? Fenwick? (let me know...), Katherine ditto,
and James as first reserve ditto - sorry James, you'll definitely get a second
go if you don't get on this time.
[ed: a later PS]
Thanks Malcom - not bad. And thanks Martin - listened in today
but nowt - please tell Trudi we don't need wx info but would love to talk to
her - our callsign is VZN2025. We could perhaps arrange a separate sked - I've
got quite a good propagation application with sailmail - where is Trudi? Thanks
Kevin, will do, thanks Richard, sorry we missed getting to see y'all. Was a
little boat year - seems we picked something right! Just a bit late at the Rock
to do any serious good.
DB - the flea is rompin'
GPS 390, log 413 24hr= 148/157 = +30. No time to regard this
with any auspicion - far too far to go yet, but could be worse.
Happy birthday Jeanne - we're having our GMT Happy Birthday Con.
There's still local time to cover later as well.
We've just passed 45N - roughly the equivalent latitude to
Maatsuyker south of Tasmania, the last of the 5 Capes if we have time to go
that way (Hi Josh - we'll certainly let you know and look out for
Quetzalcoatl's yellow flash). So - we have 5400 miles to go south and about
6000 east - depends a bit on how far south we actually go in the Indian Ocean.
Do I need to talk about great circles? The shortest distance between any two
points on the earth's surface follows an arc of a great circle. A great circle
is the imaginary line that would follow the edge of any plane that passes
through the centre of the earth - so if you were to slice the earth into two
halves through the centre, with the slice also taking in the two points (say
Cape Town and Maatsuyker - and there's only one way that it is possible to do
this) the shortest distance between them would be the shorter of the two arcs
of the 'slice'. In this case, the line would go way down south past Kerguelen
and into the Ice, where we ain't going to go. The straight line along 45 south
is a few hundred miles longer and will add an equivalent time to our journey.
It is also likely to be much less windy, so also slower, but - with a bit of
luck - much safer and more comfortable.
We will probably stay as close to 40S as we can and duck down at
the end to 45, just like for Cape Horn.
[Ed: there has been a fair bit of bouncing emails back and forth
as we have had some major problems with the laptops, versions of programs, USB
ports, and sundry other pieces of technology.
All under control now with earlier versions and fingers firmly crossed]
Back in plod mode - about 85 miles NW of Cape Finisterre, long
Atlantic swell rolling in from the right, almost on the beam, poled out to port
in about 10 knots making about 4. Lots of seabirds all around - we just sailed
through a big gaggle of them sitting on the water - they took off haphazardly
each firing off a long white squitty squirt - no doubt to lighten the take-off
load or readjust the trim.
More on great circles - it follows that the equator is the only
line of latitude that is a great circle, but every line of longitude is. The
symmetry of the calculation is messed up because the earth is not a perfect
sphere (one of the few things I remember with any clarity from school geography
is that it is an oblate spheroid, fatter around the equator because of its
rotation) so some parts of any great circle arc are flatter than others. There
are actually tables to calculate the difference in distance.
I have found a map of the French meteorological areas in Reeds
Almanac. We have just passed from Pazenn into Finisterre, with Charcot to
seaward and Josephine to the south west, Porto to the south followed by San
Vicente. We will probably cut across the corner of Charcot, across Josephine
and down to the NW corner of Madeira. Doesn't quite have the romantic appeal of
Faeroes, Viking, Cromarty, Dogger and the rest of the UK areas that we all
learned almost by heart from the BBC as kids.
I'm on watch, so ducking up every few minutes to check for
ships. Pete is cooking up a stew and we're going to celebrate Jeanne's birthday
in Local Time very soon.
Farewell Raffie - a young friend who died in a car crash in St Vincent
a few days ago. We're thinking of you, Mitchie and Foster and his family.
Here I sit, in our tatty old bus shelter, a dusty streetlight
across the road laying a grey screen across the keyboard, the laptop attached
to it's pocky extension cord snaking away into the gloom, wishing I were better
oiled with Harry Pendel's fluence.
We're just outside the Finisterre separation zone - one of
We're ghosting along, gently rolling in the dying swell heading
SSW at about 4.5 kts. Too slow, but not slow enough to need drastic action. A
few dolphins around. Boot ferals coming out of aestivation and loudly comparing
notes about the quality of the festering goodies they've woken up in. We won't
reach today's 24 hour distance target but still just ahead of schedule. We had
intended to sail down the inside of the separation zone so that we could say we
had seen the Spanish coast, but there's a SW change due and I've just gybed out
to sea to meet it and give us some room if it comes on strong. Also a bit daft
at night - there are warnings about 'tunny nets may be set up to 7 miles out to
sea...' on the chart and I'd hate to get tangled up in one, as, I suspect,
would any self respecting tuna.
Berri fat and heavy, has a different repertoire of creaks and
groans - there's an interesting creak next to my left ear as I sit at the nav
table - happens when we roll to starboard and I think it may be the preventer
picking up the strain. Don't know, but it's not serious. As we roll downwind,
it seems the sails are just filled, but there's actually a lot of power there
moving about 8 tons of boat and masses of water. The preventer holds the boom
forwards and prevents the worst effects of an inadvertent gybe if Kevvo were to
get thrown way off line by an out of court wave. At the mo, he's just got
enough apparent wind to keep us on line.
DB: days run 113 nm = +23nm.
Fine sunny day - very big NW swell, about 8 - 10 metres - must
have been something happening up there. Light breeze here, nowt else to report.
Mal, are you the owner of Little Red Rocket yet? How does it
feel?
[Ed: the electronic stuff seems to be understood, if not exactly
sorted. Thanks to Marc Robinson]
Thanks Marc- this might be the answer - the usb port in question
is the one that feeds converted vhf signals from other vessels' AIS systems to
the SoB system and there's a little vhf aerial on the pushpit that picks them
up and coax cable to the AIS engine next
to the nav table. I don't have any spare ferrites and anyway don't want to mess
with something that is working so will leave it all disconnected.
Interestingly, sailmail transmitted on 6 megs but when I changed to 10, the usb
serial multi died. It began transmitting and failed a few seconds later, so it
all adds up. I thought it was the change via the application that was going
wrong.
Sitrep: 0920hrs 25 Aug 2005 UTC 4118N 01140W Ref 310
DB: 24 hour run 116 = 619 total = + 19 sfsg!
The blackest of black nights - a bank of thick, low drizzly
cloud rolled in from the west at dusk, took away the wind for a bit and so
black that no horizon either. Most unusual, even at hight. When the moon rose,
it added a gentle glow through the murk occasionally and once shone super
bright like a stage floodlight through a hole away to the east, so that I could
see the beam and the circle of light but not the moon. Eerie. And I can hear
but not see the gulls. Also eerie. Just before dusk we sailed through a group
of tiny black petrels sitting on the water and they all flopped and flapped and
darted around the wavetops till we passed. Lovely sight.
Otherwise, so far,so good. Had some problems with transmitting
and receiving emails - there is HF energy getting into the USB multi-serial
port - but I think we can work around it. And we both seem to be needing lots
of sleep - the day is a sequence of rather long and tedious watches separated
by instantaneous three hour sleeps. I do the 0900 to 1200, 1500 - 1800,
2100-midnight, 0300 - 0600 sequence. We are on UTC and will stay that way.
Brian and Jen, and any one else who sails shorthanded, you might
like to have a look at www.petitbateau.org.uk
- interesting outfit and the website is run by Diana Holder who is super helpful
and looked after us very well. Thanks Diana. And we met a lot of other people
through it, both before and after the Fastnet. Diana gave me a glass if wine
not long after we finished, on a huge cat called Dazzle.
Peter C, we'd be delighted to talk to the Cruisers, but we still
have to get home. Assuming that part of the operation is more or less
successful, April seems about right. What do you think they'd like to hear
about?
And Malcolm and Dave, Happy New Boat. We are about to carry out a
long distance christening Consultation - what do you want to call her? Will be
known as Little Red Rocket out here off Portugal for the time being. Reports,
please, after you have taken her out a few times.
It's been a bit cushy so far - haven't done a sail change since
we left. Biggest gust about 25 knots. For the sartorially inclined, I'm still
wearing the same shirt I had on when we left - a rather stained blue number -
and Pete changed out of his special Trum shirt into his Lord Howe polo and
there we go.
Another very black night - low cloud but not as dark as last
night - just possible to make out a horizon. Anyone looking down from above
would see a phosphorescent arrow, our bow wave at the head, the wake trailing
astern and two feathers spreading from the turbine 40 metres behind. Haven't
seen a ship for a couple of days - we are a bit far out, heading for Madeira
and then outside the Cape Verdes to the equator. Almost back inside the 40 degree
band - we don't have to go outside it to get home although we will probably go
south of it in the Indian ocean.
Hi Gerry and Donnaq, hi Maggie, David, Eleanor(I'll write soon),
Eve,
More idle musings: I've been thinking about arcs and great
circles and the moment, all those months ago (February?) when we passed just
south of The Antipodes Islands, on the dateline SE of NZ. Hilary and Malcom
sent us emails saying that they were so named because they are directly
opposite Greenwich on the earth's surface. So the shortest distance between the
two would lie along either arc of an infinite number of great circles - except
that I doubt whether they are exactly opposite so back to one only, and the earth's
oblatitude would favour one arc or the other. And I remember vividly a few
weeks ago standing on the Greenwich meridian outside Flamsteed's house at the
Royal Observatory at Greenwich, looking down through the earth at those rather
bleak little islands and thinking that I'm possibly the only person this
century and one of very few ever to have been in both places in the same year.
Leroy and the Orbiters, world famous skiffle group, would perhaps qualify if we
allow for vertical distance. Even Groucho might have had difficulty boycotting
a club of which he was the only qualified member - but then, why bother anyway.
Silly blather. We're trickling along, I think about to lose our
little distance cushion over our schedule - to keep it, we must sail 39 miles
in the next 5 hours and that just ain't going to happen at 3.4 knots. Poo!
And Malcolm perhaps thinking of Wildfire (nice name). Do the
S2H, Mal, and get Dave to come and meet us so you can take photos...
0500 - We're motoring at 5 knots - almost no wind. The equation
- we've got about 230 litres of diesel left, the tractor burns about a litre an
hour and we must maximise the number of miles we get from every litre. No good
starting it when we are doing 3 knots just to get the speed up to 5 - that's only
worth 2 miles/litre and so on. The finesses - use the wind to complement the
tractor so minimising revs and diesel burn, keep the tractor in gear when we
make water, just save the diesel for the doldrums - but that assumes that we'll
need it down there - is this a valid assumption?
Ann G, welcome back and thanks for NOAA geomagnetic storm
warnings - I had noticed that propagation is not the best and it's nice to know
there's an external reason.
DB: 24 hrs:118, total 738, =+18 - still in there. The wind came
back from the NW just after I sent my last. Breakfast was a toasted cheese
sando and the Usual brown sauce.
We miscalculated a bit - now stuck in the very soft end of a
ridge coming off the azores high towards northern Portugal - no wind at all and
we're motoring with the tractor just ticking over to give us 3.5 knots. The
grib says there's wind closer in towards the coast but there's no way we're
going to get there. So we're pottering across a big grey disc with a diameter
of about 6 miles - long swell, wavelength about 150 metres, about 4 metres
high. Takes about an hour to crawl to the horizon we can see ahead of us. No
clouds anywhere so no real prospect of a change. Character forming.
For Gerry and anyone else who teaches safety and sea survival -
and all y'all who go sailing - I've just conducted a small experiment. I tossed
a roughly 20 cm square coloured and highly visible cardboard box (definitely
biodegradeable) over the side and watched it as we moved away. Remember, bright
sunlight, no wind, no wind waves, just swell and we're doing 3.5 knots. It was
clearly visible until it rose over the next wave astern, about 150 metres away about
2 minutes later and then I never saw it again, even with binoculars. Wouldn't
have sunk or drifted sideways - we just weren't on the tops of the swells at
the same time. A human head in the water would be much harder to see - a strobe
might have a better chance, especially at night, but crew drills and quick
action are clearly the go. A trail of floating objects would be a good start,
plus the GPS MOB button.
Sleep calls - might continue this later.
clear night, slight haze so the universe doesn't have the
awesome depth it has from the southern ocean. Still amazing but would be better
with some wind. Currently zilch.
DB: 24hr= 93, mostly engine, total 830/840 = -10 so the buffer
is history. We need some wind and a couple of good days.
I've just dipped the fuel tank - not the most accurate measure-
and it seems we are burning about 1 litre/hr - rather more that I'd hoped. For
that we were getting about 3.5 knots so not very efficient. I will try slightly
higher revs next time to see whether it is any better. Very hard to judge. An
accurate fuel flowmeter would be a real bonus for a cruising boat. We have
about 210 litres left.
Dicky B - sorry, left you out of one of the lists - hope we
don't keep you waiting too long. And Rowley, thanks for the offer - we don't
intend to stop in Cape Town unless things get really pear shaped, but useful to
know there's a potential network.
Another almost cloudless day - about 10 kts of nothing very much
from the north and nothing to report except that we have about half a knot of
current going with us. Better than a poke in the eye. This is day 7, so we will
be one week down out of about 16 - and I get to listen to disc 2 of le Carre
reading Gardener tomorrow. Goody. Life's little treats are important out here
in the bus shelter - otherwise it's just litter blowin' in the wind and dogs
sniffing the furniture.
Our nearest neighbours, briefly, have just been the 100 or so
people on what I think was a 737 that flew almost directly over us. It was
making con trails so it must have been at about 33000ft - say 5 miles above us.
If it was a 737, it doesn't have the range for a transatlantic flight, so it
must be inbound from the Azores to Lisbon. With something to give some
perspective and contrast through the binoculars, I could see a very thin even
layer of ice crystals above it, which explains the rather fuzzy universe last
night.
And there's a line of cloud to the NW - will it bring us some
real wind or just extinguish the diaphanous zephyr wot we've (almost) got now?
Watch this space.
Cookie crumbler - and all our other mates down there at .co.fk
in the deeepest South - g'day. What news of The Baby? Please keep us posted -
and JMB, does the flagpole fit? We're going to have an 'Abeam Trafalgar'
Consultation in a couple of days - if we ever get down there. Nelson is aboard
- the highly romanticised Sir William Beechey version from the NPG in which his
neck with all its decorations is longer than his head - makes him look a bit
like the African women that wear rings around their necks. Nice portrait all
the same. He arrived on a postcard with some rather special goodies just before
we left Fmth. Thanks Laura. We've made an exception to the 'no glass' rule, but
lots of compensatory bubble wrap, deep in the aft bilge. We will need to beat
the rust that's even now eating away the caps.
Not always possible to send these immediately - now 3739 01357
27/1730 and we have wind again - the unimaginably sexy assy is up there pulling
us along and we're eating into the deficit. More tomoz.
DB: 24 hr 121 total 951/960 = -9 so we've clawed back a mile.
The southerly current component was 5 miles so very nice to have. You will be
getting these 0900 updates about half a day late because the propagation at
0900 is not good - and anyway, I can't transmit with the autopilot going
because it does dreadful things to our course and sometimes crashes the USB
gizmo too.
Mostly assy, but now on engine again - assy great to start with
then needed serious concentration as the wind died and backed - down wind with
a kite in light breezes and a swell is not easy - the boat rolls all over the
place and tries to overtake the kite and you have to try to keep it under and
behind the kite or the kite will wrap itself around the forestay. Things can
then be said to be pearshaped in the bus shelter. Today will be another big
loser on schedule but we'll catch up later.
31 miles to Trafalgar Con. Eight days down and we have
measurable progress. Good feeling. About 5 weeks to 40 S at this rate, if the
diesel holds out and we can go reasonably straight down the South Atlantic.
I've got her tractoring at 4.5 knots this time - perhaps an extra knot for a
proportionately smaller increment in consumption. Fingers crossed.
Peter C, thanks - keep that list for me please, and yes, we'll be
available for the HWS session. Having said which, I'm going to have to get
straight back to work when we get back, to try to fix the black hole in my bank
account, so I might need some notice.
Have just seen an object in the water - went over to have a look
as we're motoring - it's glassy calm but with biggish swell - and it was a
small turtle about 30 cm diameter - its position, in case you want to go have a
look, is just outside the bus shelter at 364316 0152118. If we manage to
preserve the GPS log when we get back, it will be marked by a little circle in
our track. Seemed to be asleep, but looked up at me as we departed.
I've been in this patch of ocean once before, must have been Dec
23/24 1963 in HMS Centaur - we'd just embarked in the squadron aircraft in in
the Channel when Centaur received a mayday from the liner Lakonia, on fire near
here somewhere. The engineers cranked the ship to full speed - everything
shaking and rattling, huge bow wave, heat haze from the funnel, choppers ranged
on deck ready to get into rescue mode. Sadly, we arrived a few hours too late -
we found a gutted ship still burning, lots of people in the water but no
survivors. Most of the passengers and crew had been picked up by other ships.
As we were leaving, we saw a massive bow wave creaming in from the north - a
Dutch tug racing in to claim salvage. It took Lakonia in tow but it sank on the
way to Gibraltar. We went into Gibraltar on Christmas day to disembark the
dead. Very sad Christmas. I may have written about this somewhere else in the
log on the way up. [ed: the full
story here].
This evening we rolled 3 Celebrations into one: the almost 200th
anniversary of Trafalgar, 1000 miles in the can and we've passed the northern
version of Wollongong. Special occasion and we opened a Boags and a
Coopers from our secret supply. But this poor little flea has walked slap into
a gigasplodge of dried mud and dung on our elephant's backside - I've never
known so much cloud to be associated with so little wind. We are still motoring
and have been since about 0500. Every now and again there's the tiniest hint of
a puff against the cheek but it's illusory - nothing happening at all. So
another black black night with a misty indistinct meeting of sky and water
around the horizaon - bitsd of the sky blacker than others where the cloud is
thickest and the occasional glimpse of a star. But the Phosphorescence is
breathtaking - as bright as I've ever seen it and it occurs as a solid luminous
line along the crest of out tiny bow wave and then spreads and breaks into
millions of sparkles as the wave rolls back. It's as if the stars are in the
water around us - brightens up the old studio no end.
We've now burned 40 litres of diesel - one sixth of our supply,
but there's no real choice but to go on burning it - perhaps for another 48
hours. Both the SatCom EGC forecast and the grib say we should be getting force
4 - 4 from the north but we aren't.
DB: 24hr = 105, total =1056/1080 so schedule = -24. All on the
engine - we turned it off just before 9. Within the tolerances required by
significant measurement error (or at least doubt) we are burning 1 ltr/hr @ 4
kts and we've burnt 54 ltrs so far, leaving us with 126 in the cans. This
tallies with every other measurement I've done over the years with this engine,
but we're a bit heavier than usual just now.
- 24 on sched is not a showstopper by any means - we know we can
easily do 120/day+ with any sort of helpful wind - we just haven't got it right
now. So we'll catch up - if not in the Atlantic, then in the southern Indian
Ocean. I reckon we'll cross the equator west of the mid point, maybe cross
almost to the Brazilian coast, then loop down to 40S under Cape Town and then
run 40 - 42 most of the way, with a duck down under SE Cape at the end, finishing
the 2 handed circ. at the Iron Pot. With a serious Consultation with anyone who
cares to assemble. Then straight back to Synney. Well, that's the wishful
think. There's a long way to go - perhaps 12500 miles or so if we can't cut any
corners.
For those of you who need a fix of storm and tempest and greyish
knuckles with your morning coffee, my sincere apologies - you must find these
figures rather boring. For us, though, they are the business end of the
enterprise - looks as if we've established a basis for believing that we can
(maybe just) be home for the start. We will do our best to provide storm and
tempest later - right now, apart from the frustratingly pathetic wind, it's
nice and restful.
We have the assy up and drawing again - only 8 - 10 knots of
breeze and we're getting 4 - 5 over the ground. The assy is set fairly flat -
tight luff and the clew held down but not pulled down, so that the leech holds
its shape as the boat rolls. There's just enough wind to keep it filled. Pole
almost against the forestay, jockey pole prodding the elements to starboard.
Another turtle - #3 - they appear as spiky humps in the water
and seem to be asleep.
H & K, I've just finished the first crossword and I'm into
the second. Thanks for taking the time to collect them all. And Hiccy Gurgle
Isso - open one of those bottles. John le Carre is in the wings, waiting to
enter stage right with The Gardener. Whoopee.
29/1200 And the wind dropped out again. Another turtle - which
civilisation is it that believes that the universe consists of a pyramid of
turtles? We've been working out there in the now very hot sun for an hour
trying to sail- just to save a couple of litres of diesel. But the tractor is
turning again... Opened the pickled
walnuts for lunch - thanks Tom.
29/1600 We were exactly 6 hours astern of schedule when we
passed 1080 miles. That's about 4 days over the rest of the voyage if we can
keep this going. We will lose quite a lot more over the next few days, I think,
but we will catch up later.
29/1700 - another puff - genoa up this time. All for about 1/4
knot over the engine speed.
DB: 24hr = 107 total 1163/1200 = -37. All except a mile or so on
the engine. I'll do the run rate on that later. We are about 50 miles from
Madeira - can't see Porto Santo, the smaller and lower island to the NE but
there's a bank of cloud where it ought to be. Madeira looks a bit like Maria
Island off Tasmania's SE coast from here - the same double peak and ridge back.
Our first landfall out of Hobart was The Snares, south of NZ,
about 8 days out, so this has taken longer.
We're ghosting along in 11 kts from the NW, making 4.5. Engine
off at 0915. Still very fluky wind, but here's hoping. The grib predicts better
the further south we go from here. Fingers crossed. Will transfer fuel from
cockpit tank to main tank later and assess stocks. We left with 120 ltrs in 6
jerry cans in the saloon, a 40 ltr plastic tank in the cockpit and about 80
ltrs in the main tank, so 240 in all. 2 jerries gone and main tank probably
down to about 40.
Bright sunshine and using the solar panel to keep the battery
up, rather than towing the turbine in this breeze and losing a bit of speed. The
panel is working really well but the Xantrex monitor has not worked since we
disconnected all the electrics - we must have missed a lead somewhere because
it isn't measuring input/output any more. The GPS gives an accurate voltage
reading and we can monitor the battery by watching this - the panel and its
regulator are holding it at 13.9/14 volts which is fantastic.
Will try my Telstra sim card as we get close to Madeira. Should
be in range during Oz daytime.
Have the assy back up, just able to lay the western end of
Madeira, Ponta del Prago, at 5.5 knots. Will try to sneak this away in the
propagation hole.
We are passing Ponto del Prado at the western end of Madeira. I
have just dropped my mobile phone into the water, complete with Telstra SIM and
about 100 phone numbers. How do I feel??
Its last call was to my Mum, which I suppose is appropriate. H,
I think you are a nominated person on the account - could you please get a new
SIM next time you pass a Telstra shop? They are free as far as I can remember.
Madeira looks like an interesting place and it has some history.
Big volcanic plug, I think, not unlike Lord Howe, that's been slowly eroding
into the sea. Deep craggy valleys, vertical, massive cliffs into the sea,
little settlements along the ridges, tiny harbour at Moniz in the NW with a big
rock just off shore. Cook came here to replenish - mostly beer and wine - and
most of the early Portugese explorers. All gone, but the rock remains. We're a
fragile and ephemeral presence on this planet.
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