1540hrs 14 Aug 2005 UTC Falmouth

The original back of an envelope planning inSydneysuggested that we should be back inFalmouthon Aug 14. So here we are – I’m still astonished that we’re getting it done – and the FastnetFastnet Race: 608 mile biennial race from Cowes, UK, Isle of Wight, to the Fastnet Rock off Southern Ireland, finishing in Plymouth. Berrimilla took part in 2005 and 2009. result was a huge bonus – never in the calculations. We must try to get out of here by the 21st at the latest…

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 ConsultationA regular engagement with alcohol. One might say this whole epic is a Consultation with a bit of a sail round it. See also Conservation Mode; Linear and Parallel Methods of Consultation and departing.

May try to fit in one trip toLondonso Pete can visit RORCRoyal Ocean Racing Club, located in London – if we seem to be on top of the list.

0900hrs 18 Aug 2005 UTC Falmouth

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 isochronesJoining points on a chart that were the same number of days out from, say, London en route to Cape Horn using different tracks. 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 – ETAEstimated Time of Arrival 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.

0800hrs 20 Aug 2005 UTC Falmouth

From IsabellaAlex's sister, Alex’s 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 DoctorGuinness 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..

IsabellaAlex's sister’s pictures here

1300hrs 20 Aug 2005 UTC 49’47”N 005’24”W Ref 300

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 ETAEstimated Time of Arrival – 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 LizardThe most southerly point of the British mainland. and Tater DuCornwall's most recently built lighthouse (completed in 1965) fading into the misty horizon – Synney here we come. More reflective piece may follow when I’m off watch.

0900hrs 23 Aug 2005 UTC 44’50”N 009’52”W Ref 306

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 circleSee here (Wikipedia). A great circleSee here (Wikipedia) 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.

0415hrs 26 Aug 2005 UTC 39’58”N 012’29”W Ref 312

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. HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother 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 meridianAn imaginary great circle on the surface of the Earth, passing through North and South geographic poles. All points on the same meridian have the same longitude. Meridian can also be used to describe either half of such a circle from pole to pole 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. LeroyLeroy ChiaoLeroy Chiao: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here.: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here. 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 S2HSydney-Hobart Race: often described as the most gruelling ocean race in the world, this annual race starts on 26th December from Sydney Harbour and ends in Hobart. The course is 628 nautical miles., 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 tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. 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 tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. so minimising revs and diesel burn, keep the tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. in gear when we make water, just save the diesel for the doldrumsInter Tropical Convergence ZoneInter Tropical Convergence Zone, also known as The Doldrums, also known as The Doldrums – but that assumes that we’ll need it down there – is this a valid assumption?

From Ann G.

Subject: Solar storms

NOAA ISSUES SPACE WEATHER WARNING

Aug 24, 2005 – Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed an extreme-G5 on the NOAA space weather scales-geomagnetic storm, that began on August 24 at 2:12 a.m. EDT. Solar flares on August 22 produced minor to moderate radio blackouts (R1 and R2) and a moderate radiation storm (S2). Also, two large Earth-directed coronal mass ejections occurred on August 22, which resulted in today’s extreme geomagnetic storming. The most intense period of geomagnetic storming occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. The storm is currently subsiding. However, additional but less intense geomagnetic storming is expected through Thursday.

Ann G, welcome back and thanks for NOAA geomagnetic storm warnings – I had noticed that propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy is not the best and it’s nice to know there’s an external reason.

0950hrs 27 Aug 2005 UTC 38’06”N 013’27”W Ref 316

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.

From Rowley B.

The Blackest of Black Nights “Its been a long time since I fired-off a missive to the tatty old “”bus shelterExplanation here”” (in truth not an appropriate reference to an old bird that’s exceeded all expectations!)

Belated congratulations on the magnificent performance in FastnetFastnet Race: 608 mile biennial race from Cowes, UK, Isle of Wight, to the Fastnet Rock off Southern Ireland, finishing in Plymouth. Berrimilla took part in 2005 and 2009..

Until I reread your update about the cloud “”rolling-in from the west”” it occurred to me that black night might partially be attributed to the fires in Northern Portugal… but then if there was any element of smoke, you will have surely smelt it. My immediate reaction was what an awful predicament to be in when close to shipping lanes… but obviously you had everything under control, as always.

I was wondering if The Berrimilla Global Empire includes a network in Capetown. The only resident yachtsmen I had the privilege of knowing in that fair (windy) city succumbed to cancer…but if need be I could dispatch a runner with a message in a fork stick to alert of Boer Mafia of your impending arrival.

This weekend I’m hoping to assist a mate sail his recently acquired Beneteau 44 from Port Stephens to its new home port in Broken Bay.

You certainly burnt up the track the other day… hope Berri gets to romp some more.

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-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . 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 shelterExplanation here – 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’ ConsultationA regular engagement with alcohol. One might say this whole epic is a Consultation with a bit of a sail round it. See also Conservation Mode; Linear and Parallel Methods of Consultation in a couple of days – if we ever get down there. Nelson is aboard – the highly romanticised Sir William BeecheyBeechey Island is an island located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut, Canada. More on wikipedia 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.

0900hrs 28 Aug 2005 UTC 36’51”N 015’15”W Ref 318

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 propagationIn the logs, this refers to the radiation of signal energy and is customarily qualified by the words abysmal, ratshit or lousy 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 gizmoSome kind of gadget or other, normally infuriating too.

Mostly assyAsymetric spinnaker, but now on engine again – assyAsymetric spinnaker great to start with then needed serious concentration as the wind died and backed – down wind with a kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker in light breezes and a swell is not easy – the boat rolls all over the place and tries to overtake the kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker and you have to try to keep it under and behind the kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker or the kiteSailors’ slang for a spinnaker will wrap itself around the forestay. Things can then be said to be pearshaped in the bus shelterExplanation here. 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-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . for a proportionately smaller increment in consumption. Fingers crossed.

From Peter C.

Can’t go into any detail about what we’d like to hear – it’s more a case of “”where to stop?””.  A checklist would be all based around the experiences of you both on the voyage, and could cover:

Communications – how you did it, what worked, what didn’t, what would be better; self-steering gear; heavy weather sailing and what’s good practice on Berri; sail selection for the whole trip (what fabric? any thoughts on reefing systems? triple stitching? second track on mast so trysail can be hoisted instead of multiply-reefed main? & comments on systems for reefing/changing sail; power – electrical & motor (I haven’t seen any mention of the bike being used as a generator – was that idea abandoned?); navigation; provisioning & stowage; anecdotes from the trip – Dunedin, Falklands, Falmouth, etc; what worked well/medium/would do differently next time/would never do again; route planning & weather forecasts; various cruising weblogs & email centres; the serendipitous chats with NASA & LeroyLeroy ChiaoLeroy Chiao: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here.: International Space Station Commander, Expedition 10, at time Berrimilla first made contact. Bio here., then meeting him; what’s boring and what’s wonderful; …….and finally: where are you planning to go for the next long trip? (obviously with HilaryAlex’s partner and Katherine’s mother as crew).

We were thinking of 90 minutes for this. And would you be available for the 2006 Heavy Weather Sailing night we run? It’d be around May/June 2006.

All the very best of good fortune.

Peter C, thanks – keep that list for me please, and yes, we’ll be available for the HWSHeavy Weather Sailing, 6th edition by Peter Bruce, Adlard Coles UK, 2008 (or earlier editions). The bible for offshore sailors. 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 shelterExplanation here 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 LakoniaLakonia, The: - Alex’s memories of maritime tragedy in 1963. More here (Wikipedia), 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 LakoniaLakonia, The: - Alex’s memories of maritime tragedy in 1963. More here (Wikipedia) 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].

1015hrs 29 Aug 2005 UTC 35’13”N 016’06”W Ref 320

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 CapeThe southernmost point of the main island of Tasmania at the end, finishing the 2 handed circ. at the Iron PotA small island lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania around the entrance to the River DerwentThe Derwent is a river in Tasmania, Australia. Its large estuary forms the port of Hobart. . It is the site of Tasmania’s first lighthouse.. With a serious ConsultationA regular engagement with alcohol. One might say this whole epic is a Consultation with a bit of a sail round it. See also Conservation Mode; Linear and Parallel Methods of 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 assyAsymetric spinnaker up and drawing again – only 8 – 10 knots of breeze and we’re getting 4 – 5 over the ground. The assyAsymetric spinnaker 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 tractorThe engine - as in “running the tractor”. The Kubota engine by WitchardWitchard, John: Berri has one of his 22hp engines, much praised for its reliability. See also Tractor. Marine was described by Alex as being “made of tractor parts, not expensive marine parts”. 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-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . over the engine speed.

1930hrs 30 Aug 2005 UTC 32’55”N 017’23”W Ref 322

We are passing Ponto del Prado at the western end of Madeira. I have just dropped my mobile phone into the water, complete with TelstraThe Telstra Corporation is an Australian Telecommunications Company dominant in the area of land lines, mobile phones and Broadband, amongst other services 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 TelstraThe Telstra Corporation is an Australian Telecommunications Company dominant in the area of land lines, mobile phones and Broadband, amongst other services 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. CookBritish explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made 3 voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. More on wikipedia. 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.